Cousins beat brothers

A pair of cousins had to face a pair of brothers at the No. 1 and 2 singles. Both Nortons would need to pull out wins if the Bruins were going to go home happy, but just one Dirksen needed to be victorious to give the Patriots the match.

In the end, the cousins won out.

The Jay County High School boys tennis team came up just short of a sweep of the Blackford Bruins, instead beating them 4-1 on Monday.

Jay County (9-4) had an advantage prior to the match starting as Blackford had to forfeit both the No. 1 and 2 doubles positions, due to a lack of depth on the roster. Despite the free 2-0 lead, the Patriots didn’t play to their potential, leaving the door open for Blackford to take a point and 23 total games.

“It’s a W,” said JCHS coach Donald Gillespie. “We’re not happy with it, but it’s a W.”

With the lead, the match was boiling down to which Dirksen cousin can beat which Norton brother first.

Paul Dirksen won that battle as he took down Trenton Norton 6-1, 6-2.

The Bruin didn’t go down without a fight though as he forced deuce six times in the final game. As the advantage swung back and forth, Trenton Norton sat with match point before Paul Dirksen regained control. The JCHS freshman had to run up on a ball before softly hitting it in front of the Bruin to bounce twice. Paul Dirksen had match point off a forehand that went  into the net, but  had a slip up on the next return to bring it back to deuce. Paul Dirksen then closed off the match as Norton hit a backhand long and an underhanded shot sailed off to the right.

“He played pretty well,” Gillespie said. “If you asked him, his serves were not good. Tonight, he could not hit a first serve worth anything and sometimes that’s just the way (it goes). We’ve had a pretty big stretch  last week. We played five matches in six days and this week’s not much different.”

While Paul Dirksen’s point won the match, Henry Dirksen was right behind. The cousin, also a freshman, beat Owen Norton 6-4, 6-4 in the No. 2 singles match.

They traded games in the first set before Henry Dirksen pulled out the win. While the Patriot felt he could have played better, he found it effective to keep Owen Norton moving side-to-side and aiming for his backhand when possible.

“My backhands were feeling pretty good and I was just trying to keep him moving back and forth and keep him deep,” Henry Dirksen said. “I could tell definitely his backhands weren’t the greatest, so whenever I had the chance I tried to hit it towards his backhand.”

Henry Dirksen ran out to a 5-2 lead in the second set, but saw it slip away a little as Owen Norton pulled within a game.

The freshman successfully slammed the door with the 10th game. He went up 30-0 as a pair of his forehands put Owen Norton in a tough spot, hitting backhands long and wide left.

Henry Dirksen’s own backhand sailed long and then a ball snuck under his racket five feet from the net to even the game at 30-30. He then got Owen Norton back to his backhand, which flew toward the fence on the right before finishing the match with his own forehand that landed in on the line on the right side of the court.

“I was just being aggressive and not letting him get another game,” Henry Dirksen said.

Jay County’s sole loss came from Clark Wellman at the No. 3 singles. Wellman developed a 5-1 lead in the first set that slowly slipped away, but he managed to hold on to win 7-5. Hunter Huffman then took control, winning the second set 6-4 before taking the super tiebreaker 10-8.

“If you ask the boys that played tonight, I’m sure they’re not overly thrilled,” Gillespie said. “It’s a W, so we’ll take it and we’ll move on and try to get better.”

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Jay County boys tennis vs. Blackford (9/11/2025)