Bekkering will display dunks on television
Eastern Washington University’s Henry Bekkering has yet to play in a regular-season basketball game, but he’s about to appear on a national television show.
Bekkering, one of the best darn dunkers around, will get a chance to show his stuff on the Best Damn Sports Show Period. Bekkering is scheduled to fly to Los Angeles next Thursday to appear on the nightly Fox Sports Net program for a segment that will be shown later that night sometime during the show, which begins at 8 p.m.
Can a dunk over BDSSP regular Tom Arnold be far behind?
“Yeah,” Bekkering said, “that would be kind of fun.”
The show apparently became aware of Bekkering via Internet video clips of Bekkering at a dunk contest during a Canadian prep all-star game in Vancouver a couple years ago, EWU coach Mike Burns said.
“Somebody from Canada sent it down to them and wrote a nice note about what a great kid he is,” Burns said. “They investigated it and saw it and called us. At first I was kind of shocked because this doesn’t happen to us very often. It’s cool for Henry. He’s a remarkable athlete. The first thing he said is he didn’t want to go down there if it was something about him and not the team and that was really refreshing.
“It’s huge exposure for us – the kind of exposure you want.”
Bekkering said he watches the show, but he doesn’t know the itinerary for his appearance. He expects it’ll consist of a brief interview and then he might be asked to perform a few dunks.
Bekkering, a multi-sport prep standout from tiny Taber, Alberta, was redshirted as an EWU freshman last season. He put on several dazzling dunking displays in warm-ups before EWU road games. In Missoula, hundreds of early arriving fans applauded an assortment of Bekkering’s acrobatic jams.
The Internet video shows Bekkering winning a dunk contest that included Gonzaga recruit Pierre-Marie Altidor-Cespedes, who finished second. In one clip, Bekkering leaps over a guard stationed in the lane and dunks the ball. In another, Bekkering rises to where his eyes are almost level with the rim before firing down a one-handed dunk. The show-stopper was Bekkering’s left-handed dunk in which he takes off roughly 13 feet away from the hoop. (See a link to the video on www.spokesmanreview.com).
“That’s probably why they got a hold of me, since I haven’t played a minute yet,” said Bekkering, who has a 40-inch vertical jump. “I don’t want to be known as just a dunker, but it’s fine for this. I work hard on the rest of my game.”
Bekkering has grown an inch to 6-feet-6 since signing with the Eagles. At a muscular 225 pounds, Bekkering is the prototypical small forward and should contend for the starting job at that position this season.
EWU lost three starting senior guards (Alvin Snow, Brendon Merritt and Josh Barnard) from last year’s Big Sky championship team.
“He’s really developed and he’ll keep improving because he works at it and he’s so diligent,” Burns said.