Balling from The Beginning: Seniors Hudson Henzlik and Spencer Blacketer have been playing basketball together since 2015, continuing the tradition at East.

Then-fifth grader Hudson Henzlik walked into the Shawnee Mission West basketball gym for MOKAN Basketball Club tryouts. Trying out against the best players in the Midwest, he didn’t know what to expect. Was he going to get embarrassed? Would he meet any new people? Was he going to make the team? 

All of these questions seemed to disappear once he looked across the room to find a kid with gelled-up hair, knee pads and rec spec eyeglasses shooting on one of the open baskets. That kid would become now-senior Henzlik’s best friend — senior Spencer Blacketer.

Shooting on the same basket as Blacketer, Henzlik immediately noticed his quick and shifty play, shooting and leadership. After tryouts, he went home and told his parents about how good of a player Spencer is.

Henzlik moved into the East district last February after going to Blue Valley Northwest for his first three years of high school. Despite being in the East district, he wasn’t always dead set on going there.

“I thought about [East] but I was also looking at private schools like Rockhurst, Miege and Aquinas for basketball.” Henzlik said.

However, after shadowing East last spring with Blacketer, he noticed the school’s welcoming culture with kids greeting him in the hall during passing periods. After Blacketer introduced him to the basketball team, Henzlik already felt at home.

Meeting head coach Shawn Hair was another plus for Henzlik. After talking about University of Kansas basketball with Hair for an hour and Hair giving him access to the East gym whenever he wanted, Henzlik was sold.

“It started off as a joke back in sixth grade about him coming to East to play with me,” Blacketer said. “Then when was talking to coach Hair and asking me what classes to enroll in, I was like ‘Wow, this is really happening.”

Playing for MOKAN together strengthened the duo’s chemistry on the court at a young age, according to Blacketer. While Blacketer attacks the basket as a point guard, Henzlik is the sharp shooter.

Over the years, while other players left because of coaching, opportunities with other clubs or after getting cut, Blacketer and Henzlik enjoyed the competitive nature of MOKAN and decided to stay, boosting their gameplay together by playing the best teams across the country.

“Both of them really understand the concepts of how to become a great team,” MOKAN coach Anthony Perry said. “They know what it takes from a leader’s perspective to get the team to buy in on how to be competitive and understand positions.”

Perry started coaching the two when they first started playing MOKAN in middle school. However, as the two got older, they were forced to switch coaches, since Perry didn’t coach as many older teams. But this past summer, the two reunited with Perry after he happened to coach their team going into their senior season.

“It was amazing seeing their growth,” Perry said. “It was one of the few groups that I’ve had at the high school level where you didn’t have to re-teach many things.”

Henzlik and Blacketer would also bond in other ways off the court. Despite living 45 minutes away from each other, their friendship never stopped growing. From going to eat at Slim Chickens after practices to countless birthday parties and sleepovers together, they’ve become best friends and teammates.

“Everytime I would go down there to his house, we would just spend days and days together, it would be like a three-day event because we lived so far apart,” Blacketer said.

At first, Henzlik felt nervous inside the hallways of East. He was immediately relieved when Blacketer helped him feel more welcome by inviting him to activities that involved other East students.

“[Blacketer] would invite me to everything with the guys, like going to the pool or going to get food,” Henzlik said. “He would never leave me hanging.”

For these two, the basketball season couldn’t come any sooner. They went from dreaming about playing together in high school to now living it. Because of their seven-year head start, the chemistry between them will come naturally, according to Henzlik and Blacketer.

In their last high school basketball season, this duo expects nothing less than a shot at the State Championship. With Henzlik going to state the past three years for Blue Valley Northwest and Blacketer losing at sub-state last year, both are hungry to make it to the finals.

“I can’t wait to hear our names called, and step out on the same [high school] court together for the first time,” Henzlik said.