SPRING LAKE PARK, Minn — In the Spring Lake Park High School gym, Dylan Haugen is not preparing for basketball tryouts.

The 17-year-old, 5-foot-11 high school senior quit the team after his sophomore year to focus on becoming a professional dunker.

"It's just a lot of fun to know I am totally in control. It's 100% on me if I lose, and it's 100% on me if I win," Haugen said.

Haugen, who first dunked at age 13 when he was 5-foot-8, has an individual sport mindset on a game within a game. Dunk contests were once seen only as a halftime attraction. But now Dylan participates in them for prize money locally and nationally, already winning five against some of the best team basketball players his age.

"You can kind of tell that the crowd and them don't really expect me to be the one who c

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