Jasmin and Tyranni Henderson have strong hoop roots. Today they are successful
players on Dulles High School
’s highly ranked girls’ basketball team, but they practically grew up on the court.
Their mom, Denise, is a former Howard Payne University player who now coaches
girls
’ basketball at Plummer Middle School in Aldine ISD and their dad, Terrul, is the
head coach of Port Arthur Memorial High School
’s boys’ basketball. He played for Howard Payne, too and that’s how the two of them met.
Jasmin and Tyranni have been surrounded by the sport nearly every day of their
lives, and most evenings they are dished up heavy servings of basketball dinner
table talk. Saturday mornings, after one of their dad
’s Friday night games, the girls and their parents critique the game over
breakfast, according to Jasmin.
“We’ve been around basketball 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and we have a lot of
knowledge about the game simply because we
’ve been around it so much,” said Tyranni. The girls believe basketball is what binds their close knit
family.
Genes as well as gyms play a role in making these two sisters successful
players. Jasmin at 5
’9” plays guard and is the team’s captain. She’s a senior heading to Lamar University on a basketball scholarship next year.
And, she is the oldest and the more reserved of the two.
“A quiet leader” is what her mom calls her.
The sisters are very close both on and off the court. They are each others
biggest cheerleader. But when Jasmin is asked if she
’s competitive with her younger sister, she replied, “No, she’s competitive with me. She wants to make a name for herself.”
Tyranni agrees, but knows how different next year will be without her sidekick.
“It’ll be a lot different, but I’m motivated to try and fill her shoes; and finish what she started. The goal is
to have a championship,
” said Tyranni.
Jasmin started shooting hoops when she was in the first grade, and two years
later played on an all-boys travel team. She stayed on the team for three years
until, in the sixth grade, the league told her she
’d have to join a girl’s team.
“There was never any problem with me being a girl, the only girl on the team. We weren’t boys or girls; we were just basketball team members,” said Jasmin. “Playing on a boy’s team probably made me tougher.”
Tyranni, now 16 and a 5’ 11” guard was in the second grade when she first dribbled a ball on a YMCA team.
She
’s played every year since, but it wasn’t until the ninth grade that she decided to devote all her energy to the sport.
Up until then, she was just as happy to be doing flips on the sidelines as a
cheerleader. In fact, during a game in middle school Tyranni made a shot and
immediately did a back handspring on the court. Not something you typically see
on the basketball court, but the crowd seemed to like it. According to her mom,
she got caught up in the moment and was so used to her competitive cheerleading
training that it just came naturally.
Tyranni is the more social of the two girls. She’s the kind of kid who never meets a stranger. The tall and thin high school
junior has done a little bit of modeling and wouldn
’t mind doing more. She wants to someday be a choreographer. Denise described her younger daughter
with the outgoing personality as wanting to be glamorous.
“Tyranni doesn’t sweat much. Sometimes after a practice, she’ll say to me, ‘Mom, I didn’t sweat today.’ She wears Paris Hilton perfume on the court,” said Denise, who attends all the girl’s games. Tyranni is always grooming and tending to Jasmin’s hair. At one of their playoff games an assistant coach noticed that the girls
had the wrong game jerseys on each other. They had to do a quick change before
tipoff.
Each girl’s fan club is led by mom, dad and sister. However, head girls’ basketball Coach Doug Lechtenberger is also a member of that fan club for he
considers the girls among the best, just as much off the field as on.
“There’s great chemistry between the girls. Tyranni is always looking up to her sister
and Jasmin always takes care of her little sister. Everything is about their
family and basketball is something they are all involved in individually and
collectively. Tyranni remarked in the locker room after our final game this
year:
‘This is my last game to be able to play with my sister.’ She started crying. Jasmin just nodded and agreed,” he said.
Coach Lechtenberger described Jasmin as being humble and hard working with never
a complaint. She is what he called a coach
’s dream player. Yet, Tyranni is always animated and entertaining; more like a
cheerleader personality in a basketball player
’s uniform. He thinks she will be the most experienced varsity returning
letterman next season with big shoes to fill as a leader.
“I think they will always have a close sister-to sister-relationship. Will
probably live next door to each other. Maybe even marry brothers.
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