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Daytona Beach native Leesha Henry has signed her first professional basketball contract with an Icelandic team.After graduating from Edward Waters, Henry waited 15 months for a professional offer while continuing to train.Henry will now play for Vestri in Ísafjörður, a town just south of the Arctic Circle.
Leesha Henry didn’t need a winter coat growing up on the sunny shores of Daytona Beach.
The only reason she had to buy one was when she went to play college basketball for Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, but even then, it was reserved for road games during winter.
The same goes for all cold-weather apparel — long johns, thermals, puffer jackets, you name it. There wasn’t a need to invest in winter clothing in a place that averages high temperatures barely below 70 degrees.
But the next chapter of Henry’s basketball career will require her to do the exact opposite.
On Aug. 10, Henry signed her first professional basketball contract with Íþróttafélagið Vestri, known simply as Vestri, a multi-sports club located in the northwesternmost part of Iceland.
“When I got this opportunity, I was just beyond grateful,” Henry said. “I was shocked, but I also knew that this is what God had for me.”
Leesha Henry’s Daytona Beach roots
The signing was the culmination of Henry’s basketball journey that began when she was 9 years old at a YMCA in Holly Hill. From there, she played at Hinson Middle School, Mainland High School and AAU ball for DME Academy before getting her scholarship offer to play Division II ball for Edward Waters.
Her basketball career was almost stifled before it started, though. While she was at Hinson, there was a time when she debated pursuing dancing over basketball. A self-proclaimed mirror breakdancer, Henry and her sister used to watch YouTube tutorials on various styles of dance and were frequent players of Ubisoft’s Just Dance video game series.
Ultimately, Henry chose basketball in an “immediate response.” Although she isn’t exactly sure why it was an easy decision at the time.
“It was crazy because I was way better at dancing than I was at basketball at that time. If they had dance scholarships that I knew about, I would have probably been doing that because I was just that much better than I was at basketball,” Henry said. “I was trash at basketball in middle school, seriously.”
Henry turned the corner when she got help from trainers Michael Panaggio and Derrick “Rock” George. Panaggio developed her fundamentals early in her career, before George helped with her basketball IQ.
In her final season at Mainland in 2018-19, she averaged 14.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per game before enrolling at Edward Waters. Henry played 53 games for the Tigers and averaged 4.5 points and 2.8 rebounds.
Henry’s full-ride scholarship to play college basketball was pure happenstance. According to Henry, former Tiger head coach Charmaine Williams was driving through Daytona Beach to scout another player, but agreed to stop and watch Henry work out.
Williams offered Henry a scholarship on the spot.
“That just meant so much to me. Because when I say nobody cared about coming to see me, there’s so many players that get overlooked just like that,” Henry said. “So honestly, Edward Waters was my blessing.”
Leesha Henry stayed in playing shape after Edward Waters
Almost 15 months passed from the time Henry graduated from Edward Waters in 2024 to her signing with Vestri.
She received a communications degree while playing for the Tigers, but she wasn’t ready to give up on the dream she had since she chose basketball over dance back at Hinson Middle.
In the latter stages of her free agency, doubt started to creep in.
“I used to pride myself on (saying) ‘OK, I’m never going to give up,’” Henry said. “I never thought I would be the athlete to be able to say this, but I can say it now. I wanted to give up.
“I remember calling one of my friends after just remaining faithful for so long and saying, ‘Dude, I never thought I’d say this, but I feel like giving up.’ … I was in a state of discouragement because I tried so hard, and I saw other people being elevated, and I just didn’t know when my opportunity would come.”
Henry stayed in the gym year-round, working out two-to-three times a day. She stayed committed to shooting drills, lifting weights, running and her daily devotionals.
The connection to Vestri, and her pro basketball dreams, finally came when Briana Williams, an agent for Alfa Globe and the Pro Dreams Combine designed to recruit talent for overseas teams, was called by Vestri’s head coach Gwen Chappell-Muhammad.
Similar to her recruitment to Edward Waters, Henry had another coincidence work in her favor. Chappell-Muhammad hails from Kissimmee, an hour and change from Daytona Beach.
Leesha Henry’s 13-hour move to Iceland
Ísafjörður is the town where Vestri is located. Literally speaking, it translates to “fjord of ice.”
It’s a small town of 2,600 that was originally built around the fishing industry. And while it’s a remote part of Iceland, it’s the most-populated town in the Westfjords region.
It’ll be hard to find two cities more different than Ísafjörður and Daytona Beach. Ísafjörður’s warmest month is July, but the average temperature still doesn’t reach 50 degrees. The town is also located just south of the Arctic Circle, so it gets nearly 24 hours of darkness in the winter and 24 hours of light in the summer.
“I’ve been blessed with a good mentality, so I took a step back to really evaluate and see how I might feel in a season like that since I’ve never experienced that. And to be honest, I just believe that God is with me, so I can’t fail in that sense,” Henry said. “And like I said, I prepare. I have my sunlight lamp, and I have my Vitamin D pills.”
It took Henry nearly 13 hours to get to her new home when she moved in the beginning of September — an approximate seven-hour flight to Reykjavik, the nation’s capital, followed by a six-hour drive.
Henry is the only American on the team other than her coach, but she’s already felt the Icelandic hospitality.
“I’ve only been here two weeks, and yet about three teammates have invited me over for dinner, and I’ve been able to commune with them and their families, their younger siblings,” Henry said. “Or dog. Everybody’s got a dog here.”
Vestri provided Henry a fully-furnished apartment, but she has her work cut out for her. On top of her duties as a player, she also coaches two youth teams aged 8-10 years old and 11-15 years old to help develop the next generation of talent for Vestri.
According to Henry, being a rookie overseas can be a “labor of love” at times, and it’s a fairly common practice for overseas pros to also coach the younger generation.
Luckily for Henry, she’s been exchanging her love of the sport for hard work since she picked up the sport at 9 years old. With a pro contract in her hands, and more winter coats, she’s ready for it.
“All of my family was just very supportive because they know how long I fought for this and how much we all sacrificed. My family has sacrificed money and food on the table just to be able to send me to an AAU camp or an AAU tournament to possibly get a scholarship,” Henry said. “So this has been a sacrifice for my whole family.”