28th Ranked Pinball Player in the World Lives in Plainfield, and He's Only 14

To portray a wizard on Halloween, Josh Henderson wouldn’t really need a robe or hat.

The eighth-grader at Drauden Point Middle School in is already a wizard of his own right.

A pinball wizard.

And not just any pinball wizard.

But the youngest ranked pinball player in the world.

He is currently ranked 28th in the world and 13th in the United States.

“It’s a milestone for a person my age,” Josh responded humbly when asked about the International Flipper Pinball Association’s stats, adding he doesn’t really keep track of the rankings that change frequently with every pinball tournament held around the world. The IFPA has more than 10,000 ranked players.

Quite polite and well-spoken for 14, Josh goes up against adults in pinball tournaments year round.

“When I was little I liked trophies. It marked a part of my life that was important,” Josh said. “Now I try to go for money.”

Josh’s pinball wizardry so far has earned him more than $10,000 in prize money.

Pinball, and his parents Mark and Peggy Henderson, have already taught him valuable life lessons, such as saving for college and keeping your cool even when competitive adults don’t always set the best example.

“Some people get angry and swear when they lose the ball or lose the game,” Josh said. “My dad says if you do that, you lose energy and will do a bad job on the next game. Losing is not a big deal. Professionalism is key.”

Competitions have A and B divisions as well as “classics,” the “really old games with different ball physics,” Josh said. Only players with high scores qualify to compete in the tournaments.

At the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) World Championships near Pittsburgh, Pa., in 2010, Josh won second place in juniors and first place in the B Division, making him the youngest class B world pinball champion in PAPA history.

But he seemed just as excited last month to attend the Pinball Expo in Wheeling for a big release party for the new Transformers pinball game by Stern Pinball Inc. of Melrose Park.

Earlier in the year, Josh finished first in both the Stern Launch Party Tournament and the Pittsburgh Pinball Open. A year ago, he won GameWorks Chicago Tournament of Champions. At age 12, he placed eighth in his first International Flipper Pinball Association tournament.

“I’ve beaten a lot of people older than me. I’ve beaten the odds,” he said. “Some people refer to me as the future of pinball.”

An only child who earns As and Bs and lists language arts, social studies and science as his favorite subjects, Josh caught the penchant for pinball while watching his father play at Tivoli Bowl in Downers Grove. Transfixed by the various mechanical components, he eventually started beating his father’s scores, competing in kids’ tournaments and assembling quite the collection of trophies.

At home, Josh has a Spiderman pinball machine. Two more are in storage and another, a Dolly Parton pinball game, was given to a friend in Kentucky to convert into a different game. In the garage, he fends off zombies and clowns playing the CarnEvil arcade game.

Josh said he plays videogames with friends but prefers pinball because of the 3-dimensional aspects, story lines and sounds effects.

“With pinball you use your physical strength to control an actual object as opposed to something fictional on a screen,” he said. “People don’t really understand pinball. They think you just hit the buttons.”

Hand-eye coordination, flipper skills and nudging are important skills.

“Nudging is where you shake the machine by slapping the side by the flipper buttons or bumping it or shaking it,” he said.

Knowing when to cradle – holding the flipper button down and aiming for a shot – is “better than shooting on the fly and batting away madly,” he said. “You want to control the machine.”

“It’s not football. It’s not baseball. But I consider it a semi-sport. I really do,” Peggy Henderson said. “Hopefully some of the younger kids will start to understand about pinball as it gets bigger and bigger. Pinball seems to be resurfacing again and it’s really exciting.”

Josh, who wants to study engineering in college and design and build pinball and arcade machines, said he hopes he can interest other kids in the 140-year-old game of pinball.

“Pinball is an adventure. It captures the feel of what it’s based on, like Spiderman,” Josh said. “There’s a lot involved and people really overlook it if there’s one in the corner of a dusty old arcade.”

Want to watch Josh play pinball? Click here.