Henry Hargett knows a lot about sports.
“I’m the expert at football,” said the 8-year-old, who will soon be a third grader at Pillow Academy.
“My friends, if we are playing football and they choose a team, are usually going to ask me who’s all on their team,” he said. “And I’ve got to name the whole entire team, of course.”
Not only does Henry have a lot of football knowledge, but he also enjoys playing the game.
“I’m good at interceptions; that’s my best thing when I play,” he said. “I probably play cornerback, strong safety. I’ll be a wide receiver or QB or running back.”
Henry is the son of Ben and Stribling Hargett of Greenwood and has a little sister, Jane Reynolds Hargett, who just turned 7.
What have you been up to during your summer break from school? I have been playing sports, playing baseball, playing with my friends mostly, FaceTime them. ... We’re obsessed with baseball really. We used to be obsessed with football. When baseball came, we got into it, and now that’s really what we really do. Sometimes we play hide and seek, and sometimes we play with toy cars and all that.
Do you play on any sports teams? I play baseball on BankPlus, and we won first place. I went to this football camp recently. I made a couple new friends. It was in Jackson, and I got to meet some NFL football players and some people from Ole Miss.
Are you looking forward to third grade? Really, the only thing I’m pretty much going to like about third grade is going to be math because I’m going to get to do multiplication. That’s probably one of my favorite subjects in math. I want to learn division, but probably not that much because I don’t know division at all.
Why is math your favorite subject? Because it’s easy, and you can do multiplication on it, and sometimes you have quizzes. Sometimes our teacher gives us treats if we ace those quizzes, and I’ve aced mostly all of them.
Do you like being a big brother? Mm-hmm. ... I have to do everything for her.
What’s the best thing about being a big brother? Playing with her. ... I don’t know.
Do you have pets? My dogs are 6 and 4 years old — Sadie and Lisa. I named both of them. I have a cat. He’s very cute. His name is Carlos. He’s 12.
What’s your favorite food? This is hard. I would pick an ice cream sundae.
What’s your favorite candy? I like jawbreakers.
What’s your favorite TV show? My favorite TV show — my dad probably doesn’t even know this I bet; he watches this a lot — is "Modern Family." It’s very funny.
What’s your favorite movie? I’m a big scary fan, like sharks and all that, and my favorite shark movie I’ve ever watched is pretty much Sharknado. My favorite movie is probably "Luca," the new movie.
Do you have a favorite book? Yes, I do. It’s a football book. It’s one of the football books that I used to have, and it would tell me about football players.
Do you have a favorite football team? It’s the Bucs — the Buccaneers. I like them. I like the Saints, too.
What’s your favorite sport? Baseball.
Do you have a favorite baseball team? The Cubs and Braves and a little bit of the Los Angeles Angels, because they have Mike Trout; he’s probably my second-favorite player.
Who’s your favorite? It’s Kris Bryant, the MVP of 2016.
Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Either a baseball player or football player or a basketball player. I want to be a sports guy. If I can’t be either one of those, then I’ll be that guy who talks and says “touchdown.” I know lots of things about players.
If you could invent anything, what would it be? A pencil that you say — it’s like Alexa — you say “Pencil, cut on,” and then whatever you say it will draw for you. Do you ever get your hands hurting? It happens to me when I’m writing essays sometimes. I came up with a name, the Talking Pencil.
If you could change one thing about Greenwood, what would it be? For people to stop judging people for their skin tones, or if someone has a rare medical condition or something, for people to stop judging them.
- This article first appeared in Leflore Illustrated, a quarterly magazine published by The Greenwood Commonwealth.
