Panther senior leads team as No. 1 golfer
A conversation with Mead High School senior Erick Henderson gives you the feeling that you’d like to play some golf with this kid. Which, if things work out for him, you just may.
Henderson, a four-year letterman and one of three returning All-Greater Spokane League performers for the Panthers, will be headed for New Mexico State University next fall, where he’ll be enrolled in the professional golf management program designed to qualify him to be a course head professional at the same time it earns him a business administration degree.
He’ll also see if there’s an opportunity to play at NMSU, but he’s got the perfect attitude for a walk-on: “If I make it, it’ll be great, but if I don’t, I’ll be playing a lot anyway.”
Henderson’s attitude is indicative of the laid-back attitude that making his college decision early has nurtured in him this season.
“The pressure’s off this spring,” he said. “I used to be real hard on myself, but I’m not any more. I want to go out and shoot good numbers, but it’s not like when I was a freshman or sophomore and I was really pushing toward playing in college.
“At the end of last year, once I decided to go to New Mexico State, I knew I’d be playing whether it was competitively or not.”
Henderson’s the No. 1 golfer on a Mead team which has won two straight GSL championships and is a contender for a third, although Lewis and Clark, Gonzaga Prep and Ferris also have realistic title aspirations.
“We’ve been saying that if we play like we did last year, we can do it,” he said after a round of 68 in the Panthers’ first league match last week. “Our top guys have been together for so long that having fun is easy with this team. It’s a great group of guys, and we’re having a great time.”
Mead’s No. 2 and 3 players are juniors Nick McCaslin and Matt Penny. McCaslin was Mead’s most improved player last year, said coach Paul Peters, and Penny is a three-year letterman. Henderson’s brother, Aaron, plays at No. 5.
“It’s pretty cool having my brother on the team,” Henderson said. “We’re pretty much opposites in personality, but we have golf in common, and now we have a reason to practice together.”
Peters describes Erick as Mead’s “alpha dog,” the Panthers’ obvious leader, while Aaron is more reserved: “He’s confident enough, but you may have to nudge him to get a word out of him”
Erick wasn’t always so assertive, though, he recalls.
“As a freshman, I was the complete opposite of what I am now,” he said. “I was pretty quiet then, but I learned a lot. The juniors and seniors then didn’t exactly welcome me with open arms. When I beat them, I wasn’t treated real well, and I decided then that if was going to stick around, I was going to change things.”
That may have been the beginning of the journey that has led to the leadership role Henderson now fills.
Peters said, “Erick’s our leader with his play, with his actions and with his words. Like a lot of kids with their head on their shoulders, he’s like another coach, a kid who is confident in talking with me about his ideas.
“He’s a guy who will talk with a teammate coming down an adjacent fairway, giving him a word of encouragement, letting him know where things stand in the match. Our other kids look to him to do those things as well as playing like a No. 1. Last year and this, he’s become the guy whom others look to, and he can back up everything he says with his play.”
Henderson enjoys that role, and has come to understand the difference between individual play and team golf.
“I take more chances when I’m playing only for myself,” he said, “but when I’m playing for the team, I’m more cautious because if I screw up it hurts the rest of the guys, too. I like team golf because it’s nice to have others to support and encourage you.”