Bell City senior leaves his mark on Cubs program

BELL CITY, Mo. -- Not many players can make a scoreboard resemble the fast-changing numbers of a pinball machine.

But over Eric Henry's four years at Bell City, the scoring pace was fast and steady. When it came to scoring, he was a pinball wizard.

Three years removed as a freshman starter at Bell City, a year after playing a key role in the Cubs' Class 1 state title, Henry took his game to a higher level.

The level reserved for the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year.

When he graduates in May, he will leave as Bell City's all-time leading scorer, all-time leading rebounder, all-time leader in steals as well as the holder of numerous other single-game and single-season records.

He leaves as a small-town hero who scored 4.7 points for every one of the town's 461 citizens. That's 2,171 points for his career.

"He can shoot the lights out," said teammate Dominitrix Johnson, who often had to guard Henry in practice. "He's somebody you're going to have to stick to all night, cause if you don't he's going to kill you."

Often, the opponent's defense really didn't matter.

"Whenever he's on, he's on," senior Kenyon Wright said. "You ain't gonna stop him. And that's most the time."

An all-state player as a sophomore, Henry got nothing but better the next two seasons, reaping all-state honors twice more.

He averaged 12.9 points per game as a freshman, upped the total to 19.1 ppg as a sophomore, raised it to 20 ppg his junior year and topped out at 24.6 his senior year.

"Marcus Timmons is the No. 1 leading scorer ever out of Southeast Missouri, and the name after that is Eric Henry," Bell City coach David Heeb said. "He passed Otto Porter, Ricky Frazier, Jon Beck ..."

As a freshman, Henry scored 15 points in the season-opening game against Scott County Central and he never slowed down. He reached double figures in 12 of his first 13 games. He reached double-digit scoring in all but 10 of his 120 varsity games.

He never scored less than seven points in his career and scored as many as 50 -- a school record -- against Risco his senior season.

One area where won't likely find Henry hitting double figures is in words. Bright-eyed and friendly, Henry is a true conservationist when it comes to talking.

"He's always smiling, but he's just a real quiet, shy kind of kid -- polite," Heeb said.

"If you look at his game, it's the same thing. His game is quiet. He scored 44 at Scott City this year. After the game I would of guessed he had 30 or 32. But that's the kind of kid he is."

While Henry's words are few, they can be deadly accurate.

"I guess it's in my blood," Henry said of his basketball ability.

His father, William, starred at Bell City, as did two uncles. His cousin, A.J. Henry, was a sophomore on the team this year.

He's lived with his grandmother, Katherine Henry, for most of his life. He credits her for being a major influence, along with Heeb.

"Without him I'd probably be down in Sikeston," Henry said.

Frustrated with mediocre teams, Henry was ready to join his father in Sikeston before Heeb arrived for his sophomore year. The new coach met with the team after being hired near the end of Henry's freshman year. The team had gone 5-18, the school's eighth straight non-winning season.

"At the end of every year, Eric was like, 'I'm moving to Sikeston, I'm moving to Sikeston,'" Heeb said. "This time he was really going to move. His grandma was going to let him go when I got here."

But Heeb got the freshman's attention with a wild pipe dream.

"I talked to the kids and told them we're going to try and turn this thing around and try to win the state tournament," Heeb said. "They thought I was crazy, but Eric got real excited and went ahead and stayed."

One of Heeb's first challenges was harnessing the potential of a raw but talented player. While Henry had played basketball since fourth grade, he lacked fundamentals. He was thriving solely on his Midas touch.

"When I got here, I remember the first thing I taught Eric was how to turn on the right foot to shoot the ball," Heeb said. "And it's something you probably teach a seventh grader, and he couldn't do it, but he could still put it in the hole some way."

A good mid-range shooter by nature, Henry began adding components to his game. He learned to drive to the basket under control, score in the post and lengthened his shooting range beyond the 3-point arc.

The results were pretty dramatic. He scored 30 or more points three times as a sophomore in drawing all-state honors.

The next season the Cubs complemented Henry with transfers Dominitrix Johnson and C.J. Hadley and a crazy dream came true -- the Cubs won the Class 1 state title.

Henry still upped his scoring average, but he devoted more attention to his defense.

"I thought he was the biggest weakness on our team at the defensive end before Christmas last year," Heeb said. "I was really on him."

He turned a liability into an asset. Although he encountered foul problems a couple of times on the trip to the state tournament, he allowed his man to score just three points in the two games at the final four.

This year, in a season-ending sectional loss, Heeb switched Henry and Johnson onto Clarkton's Andre Marsh, who torched the Cubs for 30 points.

"Two years ago we never would of thought to put Eric on a kid as good as Marsh," Heeb said. "But he did the best job guarding him. That's how far he came."

It was all part of a work ethic, which the Bell City record book will never quite divulge.

"There's going to be other good players come along, but we need to have kids come along that want to work as hard as he did," Heeb said. "I hope that's something our younger kids take from him. They may not be able to shoot as good as he did or jump as high as he did, but they can work as hard as he did. And I think that's the example he set at Bell City."

jbreer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 124