She may not be the biggest guard you will ever find but 5’6” Kaia Henderson (New Hartford ‘22) is well on her way to becoming one of New York’s best.

Having recent broken the New Hartford career scoring record just a few games into her sophomore season, Henderson is playing wise beyond her years as she is proving to be much more than just someone who can put the ball in the basket, but someone who can lead her team and make those around her better as well.

Even though she is just beginning her sophomore season at the age of 15 Henderson knew what was going to be asked of her this year. New Hartford has lost 3 starters from a year ago and it was time she said to take on a different role than she was used to in the past.

“I think this year in order to win I realized that I needed to step up as more of a leader,” Henderson stated. “It's not even about me scoring more, it's me keeping everyone composed and in the game mentally.”

That mindset has Henderson really buying into what she can do now to make her team successful first and foremost.

Recently having acquired the New Hartford scoring record, and with the possibility down the line of being Section 3’s All-Time Leading Scorer, those are accomplishments that Henderson admits are fun and cool to think about, but it’s secondary for her as making sure her team is successful is what is wholly on her mind now.

“Occasionally I’ll think about that stuff but the goal this year is sectionals so those things are cool I guess but it's not something I am really like focused on,” Henderson said. “I’m really just thinking about what I can do to help us win.”

A dynamic and game changing guard who can score in a variety of ways while also being a top level playmaker, Henderson holds offers already from the likes of Syracuse, St. John’s, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest among others with more to surely come this AAU season when she moves over to play 17u ball with her new team in I-90 Elite.

That’s then though as Henderson is focused now on being as prepared as possible for what she hopes will be a deep Section 3 playoff run this season, knowing that the challenges her and her team see during the regular season like they did last week at the Amsterdam Holiday College Showcase will only make them more prepared to accomplish everything they have their eyes on.

“We talk about it all the time as a team and us playing games like this will only help us learn and get better,” Henderson explained. “We have goals we want to accomplish and we will keep getting better and be more ready for what we will see come playoff time.”