The Story
Henderson Lentz is a living testament to his faith and strong conviction. This past summer, Henderson collapsed while playing in a one-day team camp at Catawba College for his high school team North Rowan. He had stop breathing and his heart had stopped beating. Facing a critical life and death situation, he was administered CPR for fifteen minutes before the EMS would arrive. Once they arrived, they immediately gave his electric shock to get his heart beating once again.
Henderson was then rushed to the local hospital and then sent to Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte. He eventually had heart surgery to implant a medical device called a defibrillator. A heart defibrillator is often used to enable the heart to start beating if it has stopped. Since his June 18th surgery, the journey to recovery has been filled with many ups and downs. Henderson ended up having two more surgeries on November 9th and December 3rd. He had another implant and his ICD was removed.
Now, he is reconditioning, shooting and playing limited minutes for his local high school team. However, that is quickly about to change. The doctors never found a cause for the SCA (Sudden Cardiac Arrest) or other heart problems or concerns. He suffered from infections issues with the ICD (foreign body) in him, which led to its removal. Now, the young man with his enormous faith is making and completing his comeback story.
The Comeback
This week at the Dale’s Sporting Goods Sam Moir Christmas Tournament, Henderson return to the court was almost complete. While not being 100% in his recovery, he had eight points including two 3-pointers in a big win over county rival East Rowan by the score of 74-55. After the win over East Rowan, Henderson Lentz once again came off the bench and scored a season high 14 points. More importantly, Henderson shot 4-6 from the 3-point line and North Rowan came away with a 83-75 win. Now, North Rowan has advanced to the championship game
The 6’4 junior shooting guard has mid to late January as a target date for a full recovery. For many people, the ongoing setbacks would have been enough to end their participation in playing organized basketball. However, for Henderson Lentz, this has been just a detour in his dream of playing collegiate basketball. As far back as 2013, we always thought Henderson had a chance to play at the collegiate level. In our player review over two years ago, we wrote, “Henderson is a name to put in your memory bank. We really like his size, skill and overall floor leadership especially for a freshman. His basketball IQ, court vision and understanding of the game are advanced for his age/grade. Henderson is a team first playmaker that gets other involved, which is the primary responsibility for a PG. Henderson may not be the flashiest player on the court, but he gets the job done.”
For Henderson Lentz, his faith and conviction never wandered. He believed he was destined to be back on the hardwood doing what he loves and enjoys most. In life, sometimes dreams do become reality. That may just happen for Henderson Lentz.