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No limits Hayden Brooks throws down one of 10 dunks he had in Davenport’s recent win over Olive in the Davenport Hardwood Classic. Photo/Brian Blansett
As people watch Davenport basketball player Hayden Brooks go up and down the court they may not notice a slight limitation.
Hayden is a 6-1 senior and leads the Bulldogs in scoring this season with a 28.5 average. In a recent game, he had 10 dunks and scored 29 points.
Davenport sported an 11-0 record as they were heading into a contest against Asher early Tuesday evening in the Pottawatomie County Invitational being played at North Rock Creek High School.
Hayden says he’s been playing basketball since he was five years old, even though he broke his arm in three places when he was only three years old.
“I fell off monkey bars at a playground,” he said. “I had surgery and the doctors put the wrong size pins in my elbow. It caused an injury called compartment syndrome.”
“It killed the muscle tissue in my forearm and the nerve endings,” Hayden added.
He said he will have to deal with the condition for the remainder of his life.
Hayden is the son of Mark Brooks and Paige and Rick Wilson. Wilson is the boys head basketball coach at Davenport and Hayden said this is the first year for his step-dad to coach him.
His mom and dad started him out playing basketball, and he says he’s been enjoying it ever since.
He commented that his mom was a good basketball player at Weatherford High School and went to some college and played, too, but he wasn’t sure where.
Even though he suffered the injury at such a young age, Hayden stresses, “There’s not much I can’t do.”
“The only thing I can’t do is shoot a layup right handed. That’s about it,” he related, talking about any limitations.
“It doesn’t stop me from doing what I need to do on or off the court. I think it helped to be right handed and I had to switch to the left hand,” he said as he discussed the injury.
“I’ve had a few colleges looking at me, but no offers or anything yet,” Hayden continued.
Asked about his leaping ability to dunk the ball so many times in one game, he replied, “I always had tried to touch the rim. I finally got to touching it and kept doing it over and over,” he said of his dunking skills with the one hand.
Hayden said this is his second year to attend Davenport High School. Prior to that, he was in the Duke school system five years.
“My freshman year we went to state, but lost in the first round. My sophomore year we won the state tournament,” he noted, though he said he didn’t start.
Hayden indicated that team had five players who could play college ball and among them was a Division I player.
Not only does Hayden play basketball for the Bulldogs, he’s also the centerfielder for the baseball team that he says should be pretty good this year.
He said following graduation, “I hope to go play college basketball somewhere.”