Ava Weintraub
Brittany and Tiffany Henderson have basketball in their blood. Their father, Jerome Henderson, played professional basketball for more than 13 years for teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons.
Now the women are continuing the basketball tradition with matching scholarships to New Mexico State University.
Come this September, the sisters will be heading out to New Mexico State as Pierce College transfer students together – for free.
“We’ve been getting recruited all season long,” said Brittany Henderson. “But this is great.”
Their years of playing basketball have paid off handsomely.
After being recruited by a number of other colleges, including Winthrop University in South Carolina and California State University, Dominguez Hills, they have accepted full scholarships to New Mexico State.
The scholarships-which will cover tuition, books, room and board-are significant for the sisters.
“College is expensive,” said Tiffany Henderson. “Especially now with tuition increases, this helps a lot.
“I had to work, go to school, then come to practice-we both did. We were juggling a lot of things. And we made it after all.”
Out-of-state tuition at New Mexico State would run the sisters more than $13,000 each their first year. After that, they would have to pay $4,500 a year. Now, all they have to worry about is auto insurance which they can easily get from somewhere like www.nminsuranceservices.com.
Despite the fact that their father went to the University of New Mexico, the rival of New Mexico State, their parents are “happy about the situation.”
“Mom is happy because she wants us to go to school together,” said Brittany Henderson. “Her dream was for us to stay together.”
James Couch, the women’s basketball head coach at Pierce, said the Henderson sisters were highly recruited.
“San Francisco was after them,” he said. “We also had Virginia Tech and Saint Mary’s looking at Brittany.
“She was our conference MVP,” he added. “I’m glad to see that she accepted the offer that New Mexico State gave her.”
Couch played a major role in the offer, maintaining constant contact with representatives from New Mexico State.
“Their coach was able to watch them play and then keep in touch with me and my staff all season,” he said. “We showed them they were capable of playing at the Division I level. We were in constant communication with the coaches from New Mexico.”
For their part, the Henderson sisters have a deep appreciation of their coach.
“Despite all the different obstacles we had to overcome, he was very positive through the whole season,” said Tiffany Henderson. “He was the only one telling us we could do it when every other school was telling us we were an easy win.”
Both women have been playing basketball since their youth.
“We’ve been playing together for almost 10 years,” said Tiffany Henderson, 20.
They are transferring together now, despite the fact that Brittany Henderson is a year younger than her sister, because she was sidelined with an ankle injury.
“I had to sit out a whole year at Glendale College because of my injury,” said Tiffany Henderson. “Then I came to Pierce and I’ve been able to play the whole year.”
In fact, she was able to play a number of positions on the team.
“I play like three positions here,” she said. “I played some small forward, forward and center. I like small forward and center the best.”
She has tried to bring a lot of energy to the court and “a lot of hustle.” Among her strengths she counts being very approachable and a team player.
“I’m a very big defensive force and a kind of team anchor,” she said.
Couch agreed, saying she has a “great defensive presence.” He added “She makes the opposing team change how they play offense.”
Her difficulty is “consistency, mostly offensive throughout,” noted Tiffany Henderson.
That didn’t seem to stop recruiters from being interested, however.
“They said they felt like we could be a very helpful part of the team and that we could fit well into their system,” she said.
Brittany Henderson, who plays the shooting guard position at Pierce, led the state in scoring this year, according to Couch.
“She is a constant threat offensively,” he said. “She can score from anywhere on the court and she can play all the positions from point guard to center. She is a very special, talented young lady.”
Brittany Henderson’s self-assessment stresses her ability to focus on the group.
“I think one of my strengths is that I’m very team-oriented,” she said. “I’m a passionate player. There are things I still need to work on as far as my fundamentals, but I’m continuing to get stronger and be a more skillful player. I always continue to work on myself.”
That work, she says, is an integral component of being part of a team.
“I’m proud of the fact that the team at Pierce has done so much better this year and of the season we’ve had,” she said.
“We went 25-6 and that’s so much better. It’s one of the best seasons here ever.”
The sports-minded sisters take their love of the game off the court too. In their spare time, they help their father coach a team league at Balboa Park which includes their 11-year-old sister.
“We take a group of kids from different backgrounds from the area and make a team out of them,” said Tiffany Henderson. “My dad is head coach and we’re the assistant coaches.”
She’s not sure however, if sports will be a life-long commitment for her.
Once at New Mexico State, she’d like to major in theater arts and minor in journalism and mass communications.
“If the opportunity came up to play professionally overseas or in the WNBA I’d consider doing that,” she said.
“After that I’d go into the theatrical side, do a lot of theater and maybe even write for a magazine.”
Brittany Henderson looks to fill her immediate future with business and finance studies.
She said she’d be interested in playing professionally if the circumstances were right.
“If not then I’d like to be involved in the business side of sports.”
No matter what their futures hold, Couch is glad to have had them as part of his team.
“I’ve been coaching for over 30 years and I’ve had many girls come through my ranks,” he said.
“But these two girls are in my top 10 of all time. I’ve had a lot of success as a coach.
“And as long as I keep getting girls like Tiffany and Brittany I’ll continue to coach.”
Sisters Brittany (left) and Tiffany Henderson were granted a basketball scholarship in early April and will be attending New Mexico State University in August. Brittany plans on studying business and finance while Tiffany would like to major in theater arts and minor in journalism. (Alex Funes)