Henderson `motors’ toward a future

Former Queensbury star still has basketball at center of his life

By Ken Tingley

For Kellen Henderson, his future was always right there in front of him, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

It’s what defined him in high school and then again in college every time he went to the gym to shoot baskets or play pickup. He was the guy with what we call a “motor.” He is a blur moving up and down the court, never stopping, always competing and never, ever needing to pause or rest. And then when everyone else is going back to work, he is looking for the next game.

You might think he is one of those star high school athletes unable to move out of the spotlight, unable to take that “motor” and use it to get a great education and forge a career and meaningful life.

But Kellen wasn’t stuck. He was trying to figure it out, to find a way to marry that love for basketball, that boundless energy and joy he had for the game into making a living on his terms.

So few of us find that kind of joy in the workplace.

Kellen Henderson (left) has moved up to officiating varsity basketball games over the past two years

Kellen’s been coming to noon ball at the YMCA for a long time now - just one of many basketball stops each day - and each year he seemed to be doing something different.

He was a star player for Queensbury High when he graduated in 2008. He was the MVP of the Foothills Council his senior year, had played against Jimmer Fredette in high school and with him in summer AAU games.

When he opted for SUNY Adirondack after graduation to keep the college loans to a minimum, he blew up most of the two-year school’s scoring records. He scored over 40 points in one game at Union College and fell in love with the college.

He enrolled at the Schenectady school and planned on playing Division III basketball there while studying engineering. But Kellen didn’t like the coach. It was a bad fit and he left the team after six weeks.

But this is a guy with a motor.

Kellen Henderson is hoping to carve out a career as a basketball referee at the Division I level.

He don’t quit.

Instead, he played varsity tennis, ran cross country and indoor track while enjoying all that college life had to offer. But that’s not right either, tennis and track and cross country were not instead of basketball, they were in addition to basketball. He played on intramural teams, recreation leagues, pickup games at the YMCA and summer games at Central Park in Schenectady. He was always looking for another game, more competition. Ask him and he will tell you he is always the best player on the court.

Kellen gradually learned life is rarely a straight drive to the basket. His goals changed, evolved, got updated, ripped apart and put back together again with a goal to live a life on his own terms.

He changed course from engineering convinced he could teach and become a coach like so many other star athletes. He expected teaching school would be like what he remembered in Queensbury. But it wasn’t.

“I just loved basketball,” Henderson said. “But I was young and naïve. I had gone to school at Shenendehowa and Queensbury. I thought all schools were like that.”

While basketball was still at the core, the new plan was to get his Master’s degree in education while taking classes at night and student teaching at Schenectady High during the day.

Like on the court, he was a man in a hurry.

Each day he would get up at 5:30, teach three classes, sit in on other classes and see first hand what teachers in a city school had to deal with every day.

“It was easily the worst year of my life,” Henderson said. A longtime relationship with his girlfriend crumbled. The tuition bills piled up and he wasn’t being paid for the student teaching.

“That broke me,” Henderson said. “I had never been so disrespected day in and day out as I was then.”

“I can’t do this for 30 years in one place,” he told himself and he recalibrated what was next. “I had led a cushy, cozy, coddled life in a $300,000 house (at home).”

He did substitute teaching for BOCES, visiting 30 different schools while teaching every grade from 7th through 12th to see if he could find his niche in the teaching profession.

“I was floundering,” Kellen said.

The years were piling up and he seemed adrift about what he was going to do with his life. This was a man without a 401k plan.

Kellen Henderson throws up the opening tap between South Glens Falls and Glens Falls last week.

That’s when he met Dan Kane, a Queensbury teacher and long-time local referee. He told him about the life of a basketball referee.

“I could do that,” Henderson remembered thinking. “I can be great at that.”

Kellen took a referee class and as good a basketball player as he was, he concluded he was just as good a referee.

“I was naturally very good at it,” Henderson said. “I had played so much basketball, my basketball IQ was very high.”

He started with modified, freshman and junior varsity games. After officiating a junior varsity game, he would hang around and watch the refs call the varsity game, then visit them in the locker room at halftime to pick their brain about calls they made. Just like when he played, he was always looking for the next game, the next challenge. Nobody was going to outwork him.

Kellen said 70 percent of the refs never make it through that first year.

He did.

Kellen Henderson has officiated over 400 games in each of the past four years.

He graduated to varsity games and this year he started doing community college and NCAA Division III college games.

He says he did more than 400 events for four consecutive years.

Nobody does that many games.

He was making a living.

He was paying the bills and still playing basketball anytime he wanted, lifeguarding in the summer and living a good life.

He is 32 years old and seems to have finally figured things out. He has set his sights on being a basketball referee as a career, but that will take time.

“Absolutely, that is my dream,” Kellen said. “If I put in five years, I know it is inevitable that I will get there. I know it is a persistence thing. Put in the time and effort over the years and you will get there. If you love the game, you will love officiating.”

Here’s the other part, all those detours with student teaching and BOCES gave him the experience, the mental insights to handle players and get their respect.

All those detours helped make him a better referee.

The goal now is to ref games where everyone on the court is better than him.

More events

I definitely have not had cabin fever this week. After speaking at Northshire Books in Saratoga Wednesday evening, I have more events coming up over the next week.

I will be speaking to the residents at The Glen at Hiland Meadows in Queensbury this afternoon, an RPI journalism class on Monday and then The Glens Falls Kiwanis Wednesday at the Queensbury Hotel.

Must see film

By forcing myself to watch each of the Academy Award-nominated movies - all of them not just Best Picture nominees - I always stumble on two or three gems.

The latest is an animated feature film called “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.”

Marcel is a 1-inch tall shell who lives with his grandmother Connie while sharing an Airbnb with a documentary filmmaker.

Marcel becomes a celebrity when the short films the filmmaker posts about Marcel go viral and eventually “60 Minutes” comes calling to interview Marcel about his new found fame, complete with a cameo by Leslie Stahl.

Ultimately, it is heartwarming tale about community and family.

It is currently airing on Prime and Apple TV for about $4.99. I recommend it highly.

Kunstler

While listening to WAMC Roundtable last week, I stumbled onto an interview Joe Donahue was doing with actor Jeff McCarthy about his starring role in “Kunstler” at the Universal Preservation Theater in Saratoga Springs.

I have never been to the Saratoga theater. It is a renovated old church with lots of charm.

The two-person show about Civil Rights attorney William Kunstler ran off-Broadway nine years ago and chronicles Kunstler’s defense of the Chicago 7 and his role as a mediator during the Attica riots. It was riveting entertainment from an old Broadway veteran.