Kaia Henderson is one of the best basketball players in the state. The New Hartford guard has just about 1,900 career points, and she’s only a sophomore.

You don’t hit those types of numbers at such a young age by slacking off, so she’s helping others reach their goals too during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Last week she posted a video on Twitter promoting a 10K hours challenge. She asked her followers to submit videos of them practicing their crafts, whatever those crafts may be, and on May 1, Kaia and her brothers will give prizes to the winners.

They're also donating $1 for every submission to the Mohawk Valley COVID-19 relief fund.


“I came to my brothers with the idea and they helped me put it together,” said Henderson. “I just wanted to give people motivation and encouragement to find something they love to do and get better at it. It’s a tough time for everyone and I wanted to get their minds off it.”

Henderson’s challenge video already has over 12,000 views and 350 likes on Twitter.

“It’s awesome to see how many people like the video,” Henderson said. “I’m getting a lot of emails saying how awesome it is and it makes me so happy to see that. All the videos coming in are awesome from kids playing piano to a six year old dribbling a basketball like he’s been doing it for 20 years.”

The SU target also keeps her followers working on the court with drills and those followers try their best to keep up with Kaia.

“That’s my goal to see these little girls looking up to me I guess makes me so happy and makes me want to keep doing what I’m doing,” Henderson said.

With so many eyes on her from young followers to college coaches, finding a source of motivation isn’t difficult.

“All of this support is motivating to me and makes me want to keep striving to be a better player and keep working hard to show everyone who I am and what I can do.”