High School Legends

Houston High School Basketball Legends

Henry Uhegwu is the definiton of a high school legend. He is one of the most prolific scorers to tome through H-Town that you have never heard of. Henry or "Hero" as he likes to be called, worked his way to the top.

He attended Westbury High School for three years (98-00)where he never suited up for the varsity squad because of academic troubles. At the same time Henry was a developmental player. He had heart but he wasnt the most talented kid around. He was long and skinny and couldnt dunk. But it wasnt something burning inside Uhegwu that drove him to suceed. He would work out with strength shoes, ankle weights, and a weight vest! Now im not suggesting that it was a smart thing to do, but it just shows Hero's determination, will, and drive. Hero would stay in the gym for 5-6 hours a day honing his skills and working on his game. One story I like to tell about Hery goes like this: We were scheduled to work out at 6:30 am in the morning. I walked into the gym at 6:15 thinking I was early. I saw Henry sitting on the bench clutching his wrist. I asked him what was wrong? He said his wrist was sore because he had been there since 5:30 shooting non stop!

After working like a slave in the gym that summer Henry's game improved drastically. He was knocking down jumpers all over the court, elevating over the top of defenders dunking it, and playing with a whole new level of confidence. After three years of unsecessful stints with the basketball program at Westbury, Uhegwu transferred to Gulf Shores Academy. Under the wide open system of Juice Williams Hero was let loose. He came out of the gates scoring. He was putting together strings of games where he was scoring 35, 44, 40, 27, and 26 points. During that season DaJuan Wagner scored an incredible 100 points in a game in Camden, New Jersey and gained national fame. On that same day a local player by the name of Cedric Hensley(Heritage Christian) scored 100 points in a game. After scoring 45 points against Hensley and his Heritage CHristian squad in a previous game Henry had a relevation.

He came to me and said in usual animated voice, "GASTO!! Imma get a hundred. If this guy can score 100 in a game I know I can do it, I gave him 45 without trying!" Everybody took Hero for a joke when he said it but I knew he was dead serious. Two days later is a day I will never forget. Me and a bunch of guys were in the weight room working out at the YMCA when Henry walked in with his game uniform on, still sweating from the game. I asked the normal question, "How many did you have?" all the while forgetting about his promise to score 100. He said in a solemn voice"I did alright."........ "I had 92 points"......My immediate reaction was no way. Not possible. I called 6 players from the squad and they all confirmed it. Henry had scored 92 points on 17 three pointers. WOW! The crazy part about the 92 was that it was pre-meditated. He said he wanted to get a 100 and he came out gunning. He got hot and his teammates continued to feed him in route to 92. I remember waiting to see this accomplishent on the news, and the hoopla that would surround it. All that happened was a one sentence mention of the feat in the back of the sports page in the high school section. You would expect that recruiting letters would start flowing in and a national reputation would follow. But 9 years ago the internet, rankings, and hoopla wasnt as prevalent as it is now. If he would have did that in today's game he would be a top 50 player in the country with a national rep, and a spike in recruiting. Heck Ray Penn blew up in Vegas after averaging 35 a game in a tournament. Hero averaged 35 ppg for the year.

Hero would attend Baytown Lee Junior College where he averaged 15 a game. He then transferred to Dixie State Junior College(Utah) where he was named first team all- conference. Uhegwu would leave Dixie with a 17 ppg average and transfer to Southern Utah, which is in the Mid-Continent Conference. Hero would average 14 ppg and 3 rebounds on his way to being named second team All-conference. He had a season high 35 points aginst Oakland connecting on 7 threes. After completing his junior season Henry felt it was best for him to begin his pro career. After going undrafted Hero ended playing in Hungary his first season overseas. The past two years he has played ball over seas in Germany and is a meber of the Nigerian National Team.

Check out these clips of Hero (#0 in the white with the headband) putting in work in Jena, Germany.