The last thing Henry Vogel thinks about when he steps on the basketball court is scoring. Perhaps that’s why he is so valuable to his team.
For the senior captain at Harvard-Westlake High, intangibles such as boxing out, setting screens and encouraging teammates after a missed free throw are just as important as any numbers appearing on the stat sheet. In fact, those traits earned him a spot in the starting lineup for the Wolverines’ biggest game of the season Monday night against archrival Loyola in Studio City. The 6-foot-2 guard finished with 10 points, including a three-pointer that gave Harvard-Westlake the lead for good near the end of the third quarter.
“Without a doubt this was my biggest win ever,” said Vogel, a lifelong Palisadian who lives in the upper El Medio neighborhood and attended John Thomas Dye Elementary in Bel Air before enrolling at Harvard-Westlake for seventh grade. “We have a lot of guys who can score, so if I can get a shot off, great, but my job is to be loud on defense and keep the momentum going.”
Despite coming off the bench at the start of the season, Vogel’s effort and enthusiasm never waned and when a teammate missed practice before the Wolverines’ Mission League game against St. Francis, Vogel started in his place and impressed head coach David Rebibo with his energy and natural leadership.
“Henry is the consummate teammate — he leads both vocally and by example,” Rebibo said. “When his time came he rose up and made the most of it and I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s everything you want in a captain.”
One of Vogel’s friends on the team is former Palisadian Carter Begel, who sat out Monday’s game with a stiff neck but praised Vogel’s performance.
“Henry was awesome!” said Begel, who grew up in the Palisades but moved to Sherman Oaks in July. “His defensive rebounding was big.”
Vogel played several seasons in the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association and also played youth basketball at the Palisades Recreation Center. On the Fourth of July he even ran the Palisades-Will Rogers 10K.
A winner in the classroom as well, Vogel will be going to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire next fall. Joining him there will be his twin sister Nina, who attends Marlborough School in Los Angeles and is an accomplished equestrian. Their younger brother Asher is a ninth-grader at Harvard-Westlake and plays on the JV soccer team.
— Steve Galluzzo
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