Slam Magazine is the most read basketball magazine in North America. This past week, their writer, Chris O’Leary did a piece on Henry, that included his Internet videos. All of this can be found at Slam Online, or you can just check it out below.

Catching up with dunking legend Henry Bekkering

Don’t adjust your computer screen. There are videos…

By Chris O’Leary

You probably don’t know Henry Bekkering, but there’s a good chance you’ve seen him before.

When he was 18 and a senior at W.R. Myers high school in Taber, Alberta, Canada (south of Calgary), Bekkering took part in a dunk contest as part of a tournament in Vancouver. He blessed the crowd with a handful of Vince Carter-esque dunks that people still talk about today, thanks to the video footage that came from the tourney. A copy of the video recently got its one-millionth view on Youtube. It also caught the eyes of the people at Best Damn Sports Show Period. Henry explains what happened there in his own words below.

Bekkering made his way to Eastern Washington University in the fall of ’03. Limited minutes and some red-shirt seasons led to his departure from the school after the 2005-06 season, when he transferred to the University of Calgary to play ball closer to home and alongside his younger brother Ross.

After red-shirting last year (transfer rules), Bekkering is averaging 17.8 points and six rebounds per game in his first season playing with the Dinos. At the start of their season this year, Bekkering and a few of his teammates put together a new video, where Henry shows off some new dunks. He saves his best for last.

Since he’s an online legend already, I thought it’d be fun to learn more about him via another infamous online resource, the online survey. This one has a basketball slant and avoids the awkward question, “Have you ever loved someone so much it made you cry?”

…

Name: Henry Bekkering

Height/weight: I’m roughly 6’6, and I weigh around 240lbs. I’m called “fat ass” from time to time by my teammates.

School I’m currently attending: University of Calgary

Schools I’ve attended: Eastern Washington University

The first time I dunked was: The first time I dunked was grade 8. I was at an outdoor court and 3 girls in my school (the hot ones, there’s only 3 hot girls in Taber) walked by. I went up…. and put down the token one foot one hand slam.

My best dunk is: 360 through the legs or jumping over people windmills

My vertical leap is: 107 centimetres….or for the Americans…42 inches

Number of TV personalities I’ve tried to dunk over: 1, Brian Bosworth

Explain what happened: I went up, nailed his face with my knee, and emphatically made the dunk. Then… I ran off set in fear for my life.

At school, I’m majoring in: European History

I’m currently listening to: my brother sing a remix version of Corey Hart, I wear my sunglasses at night

My favorite place to go on vacation: Cancun

My favorite movie is: It probably has the greatest lines of any movie ever made. Even though Mel has a tarnished image… I’m still going to go with Braveheart.

My favorite food is: Sushi

NSYNC or Backstreet? NSYNC. JT’s jerry curl was looking nice back in the day and Lance wore those cute little pants all the time. Kidding…. But I would choose NSYNC.

When I’m done school I will: Play professionally somewhere or train to beat Kobayashi at the 2009 World Hot Dog Eating Championships.

Number of professional football leagues I’ve been drafted into: 1, CFL.

Explain how this happened: They contacted me, asked me if I wanted to try football. I came in for a workout and they liked what they saw. I played in high school and a little in university (he was a kicker for EWU’s football team while he red-shirted for basketball—O’Leary), so everything wasn’t new to me.

My favorite restaurant is: Sushi Tokyo on Centre and 3rd in Calgary.

The last person I called was: T-Fids (Tyler Fiddler). He’s a rookie 6’9 guard for our team this year.

The last TV show I watched was: Raptors vs. Cavs. Lebron had 39, 11, and 8.

The last movie I watched was: The Fountain starring Hugh Jackman.

Football or basketball? Basketball.

If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? Flying. I don’t have a car, so flying would make my transportation problems go away.

Would you eat a bowl of live crickets for $40,000? Guaranteed. I’d do it for $5000

My favorite basketball moment so far: Winning the JCST/Saunders Insurance 3on3 tournament in Taber with my Dad when he was 50.

Jan. 9

Pronghorns Looking For First Win

A favourite quote from Coach Dan Vanhooren of the Calgary Dinos says ” Don’t assume anything … assumption is the mother of all foul-ups!” ( not those words exactly, but the quote from Coach Bobby Knight wouldn’t be suitable for this family bulletin). One might be tempted to assume the Dinos should sweep away the 0-12 Lethbridge Pronghorns in the two Canada West League games this Friday and Saturday at ‘The Jack”, but Coach V will surely be impressing upon his lads the necessity to come ready to play their best each and every time the ball is thrown up.

On paper it should be a blowout, but ‘that’s why they play the games’. Calgary needs to maintain momentum and develop the killer instinct to compete at a high level in every Canada West contest regardless of the opponent, and protecting home court is paramount if they are to claim top spot in the Central Division. So who are these Pronghorns, and why are they struggling?

Lethbridge lost four starters, their 4 high scorers, and two good posts off the bench.
Even with those guys last season, the ‘Horns were 10-20 overall.
Their ‘best five’ appear to be …
Ryan Anderson, from Churchill , Calgary … an undersized, but aggressive post man
Richard Steed, from Scarlett, Calgary, veteran guard who can lead the team, improved scorer
Danhue Lawrence, new Christmas recruit from Toronto, has a big rep, can score
Quinn Van Gaalen, 1st year guard from Foremost, good shooter and hard worker
Shawn Nelson, tsf shooting guard from LCC, great outside threat
they are losing games by an average of 24 pts. per game, and losing the battle on the boards by 12 per game. They shoot at a 40% clip while opponents are 50%. The ‘Horns are even lousy free throw shooters … 57% on the year compared to 71% for their opponents.
The bottom line is that Coach Mike Connelly has his work cut out for him in trying to salvage some positives for his younger players, and keep trying to make progress towards better times for his team.

Meanwhile, the Dinos have a couple of players on the mend from weekend injuries against the Bears; Ross Bekkering has a bad ankle, but is likely to recover and see some action, while Tyler Fidler is dealing with a painful thigh bruise, which will need treatment this week. The Calgary power inside really appears to be too much for Lethbridge, and we might expect to see a little longer bench this week from the Dinos with back-ups itching for some action.

Jeff Price will battle a familiar foe in Steed, a point guard rival when Beaverbrook played Scarlett in Calgary High School games. Price is steadily establishing himself among the top floor generals in the league, but will get no quarter from Steed, who has been a thorn in the Dinos’ side in past contests. Cody Darrah snapped a shooting slump last weekend, and he should figure prominently in the two Lethbridge games, while the steady play of Josh Lovestone will surely buy him some floor time as well.

Any time the opponent is Lethbridge, it is a big game for Henry Bekkering and brother Ross (if we keep calling him ‘brother Ross’, he may feel he’s destined for the priesthood!). Henry leads the Calgary scoring parade with
18 pts. per game, while Ross the Younger is averaging a double double with 10 boards and 11.5 pts. per game. Robbie Sihota is scoring at a 14 pt. per game pace, and Price leads all free throw shooters with a stellar 93%, a full 10% higher than 2nd place Alex Steele from Alberta.

Notes …

> the Dinos rose to #4 in the CIS coaches poll this week …

Last Ranking League Record Total Votes
1. Carleton (43) #1 10-0 516 votes
2. UBC #4 10-2 430 votes
3. Acadia #2 7-1 331 votes
4. Calgary #7 10-2 317 votes
5. Concordia #3 4-2 267 votes
6. Guelph #10 7-2 259 votes
7. Ottawa #12 9-1 247 votes
8. Brandon #5 11-1 191 votes
9. Alberta #9 8-4 136 votes
10. Cape Breton NR 8-1 129 votes
11. St. Francis Xavier NR 6-2 114 votes
12. Brock #15 5-4 99 votes
13. Toronto #13 8-2 97 votes
14. Saint Mary’s #6 5-3 82 votes
15. Western NR 4-5 55 votes

How Acadia is at #3 is baffling … the Axemen lost to friggin’ Manitoba, who are a sterling 3-16 overall ! Rankings are so subjective, and bias leaks in, of course. The difficulty is the wildcard spot at Nationals, which is largely based on these season long rankings.

> UBC Edges Clan Tuesday at SFU … T-Birds rode the coattails of two bench performers, Dwayne LaBranche (26 pts. and Kyle Watson 20) to beat SFU.

> When queried about top grade 12s in Alberta this season, a veteran Alberta HS coach asked “Do you mean besides Dom?” That would be Dominyc Coward, the 6′6″ forward , who plays for Allan Gallup’s Bert Church Chargers in Airdrie, and who is clearly the #1 high school recruit this year.