The boys’ tennis team ACE’d its first big test of the 2026 season.
The varsity Eagles finished runner-up in the powerful eight-team Jeffersonville Invitational over the weekend. This was Delta’s best finish since 2018.
Zionsville, which will be ranked among the state’s top five teams when the first poll is announced Monday, cruised to the championship with 40 points. Delta, likely to be ranked in the top 10, came in at 29 points, one better than Jasper. Guerin Catholic (25), Columbus North (24), New Albany (16), Bloomington North (11) and Jeffersonville (6) rounded out the field in that order.
This season’s theme of EMBR(ACE) focuses on the ACE, which stands for Attitude, Character, Effort. The team stood out in all three areas over the weekend.
Here are some examples:
Attitude — At the extra JV site at Clarksville HS, 13 of our players competed against players from Floyd Central, Lanesville and Jeffersonville. A 14th player, sophomore Hayden Case, was unable to play due to injury but accepted the challenge of leading the tournament at that site. “Hayden talked to each player and the other coaches for a great day of tennis,” assistant coach Shane Hartman said. “He was complimented by the other coaches as well.” Although we won a majority of the matches played at that site, Coach Hartman was most pleased with the attitudes of the Eagles. “Our greatest success for the day was how the players were coachable and how they changed up their on-court strategies to improve their game and in most cases pull out a win,” Coach Hartman said.
Character — The way our team members carry themselves on and off the court is noticed — and this year it helped us upgrade our post-tournament pizza and cornhole tournament to a sweet location. On court, our players let their rackets do the talking, make fair line calls, and control their emotions win or lose. Off the court, they support each other and behave respectfully toward others. One person who has noticed that over the years and again this weekend was Jeffersonville Tennis super-fan Gary Purlee, vice president of Volunteers of America, an organization that creates positive change in individuals and communities through a ministry of service. Mr. Purlee, who lost his wife just four months ago, overheard Coach Cleland talking about how construction at the Jeffersonville tennis courts was going to impact our cornhole tourney due to cramped space and dusty parking lots. On the spot, Mr. Purlee invited all 75 of our players, managers, coaches and family members to his beautiful home on three acres along the Ohio River for our pizza party, cornhole tourney, swimming, basketball, football and more. He also joined us on our annual walk across the bridge from Indiana to Kentucky.
Effort — This shows up in multiple ways. For example, sophomore Jackson Darby refused to give up when he started cramping at the start of his third set against Zionsville at No. 1 singles in the last match of the day. He eventually lost 6-3 in the third set but he gave everything he had to try to win. Another example came at No.1 doubles, where senior Tyce Dishman and sophomore Brandon Grubbs lost a tight 7-6, 7-6 decision to a Zionsville duo that played in the State Doubles Finals last season and made First Team All-State Doubles. Tyce and Brandon had multiple set points in the first set but couldn’t capitalize on them. In those situations, HS players sometimes suffer an emotional letdown and get blown out in the rest of the match. But Tyce and Brandon buckled down with maximum effort throughout the match and showed that they can be among the state’s best teams with continued work.
Here is a summary of the on-court results over the weekend:
Varsity — We won 9 matches and lost 6 in accumulating our 29 points, which was two more than our total from a year ago when we finished in fourth place in this event. Junior Luke Atkinson earned the highest finish with a runner-up placement at No. 3 singles. Finishing third in their brackets were sophomore Charlie Vannatter at No. 2 singles, Dishman/Grubbs at No. 1 doubles, and the combination of freshman Easton Duckworth, sophomore Kiptyn Schwartz and junior Roman Ashcraft at No. 2 doubles. All of those positions went 2-1 on the day. The No. 1 singles flight was loaded with four All-State Singles players from a year ago. Darby went 1-2 and finished fifth in the bracket.
Top JV — We finished fourth in the 8-team field and had two positions finish as runner-up. Sophomore Cooper Coutinho has made a meteoric rise to No.1 singles in just his second year of playing tennis. He won two of his three matches, losing only to Zionsville. Senior Denys Krushenytskyi and sophomore Jacob Tokar went 2-1 and finished second at No. 2 doubles. They almost won the title, but lost a tiebreak to Zionsville in the finals. Juniors Owen Zacek and Roman Ashcraft went 2-1 at No. 1 doubles and placed third.
Extra JV — Sophomore Graham Hartman won all five of his weekend matches. Sophomore Stanley Hutchens and freshman Karson Preston won four times. Junior Jonah Swift went 3 for 3 in his matches. Senior Jason Ogle and sophomore Austin Carrigan each also collected three wins.
Other notes from the weekend:
> Tyce Dishman now has 50 career varsity victories. This is one more than brother/coach Tate, which brings a smile to Tyce’s face. (But you still have to listen to Tate!)
> We had 38 teams in the blind draw doubles cornhole tournament. The winner for the second straight year was Cooper Coutinho, whose partner this year was Travis Duckworth. They beat Hunter Reed and Graham Hartman in the finals. Hunter energized the event with his determination! It was a true highlight to see how excited the teammates were for Hunter and Graham as they battled through to the finals. Other semifinalist teams were Jackson Darby / Stanley Hutchens and Kari Snodgrass / Ali Shafer. Another team that barely missed out on the semifinals due to a tiebreak rule was Shane Hartman / Barb (sorry, didn’t get a last name!)
> Thank you to all the families who brought cornhole boards. We had about 12 boards, plus some amazing new boards with Coach Tim’s face made by the Duckworths!
> Thank you to managers Avery Gray, Maddi Cox, Sophie Crabtree and Paige Hayes for helping Tate and Tim do the team laundry on Friday night and for serving pizza at the party. They also helped the players stay hydrated throughout the day on Saturday.
> Thank you to Ryan and Kelli Vannatter for organizing the pizza.
> Thank you to Shannon Hartman for organizing the JV food and for Abby Grubbs and Kelli Vannatter for organizing the varsity food.
> Thank you to Tiffany Schwartz and Kelli Vannatter for taking photos all weekend.
> Thank you to all families who made the trip! It’s a big group effort to have a great weekend experience.
> Thank you to Coaches Dishman, Hartman and Darby for all your efforts all weekend.
What’s next
There are no matches this week until Saturday, when we travel to Culver Academies to face two of the state’s best teams: South Bend St. Joseph and Culver Academies. Amy Dishman is the food coordinator this weekend. We will again have a big group party at the end of the day at Lake Maxinkuckee. This is another incredible trip but is not an overnighter. We encourage families to attend as everyone will play and the site is incredible. We will again play cornhole so get your boards and bags ready to go and practice up this week!
Team photos are Tuesday at practice. Wear the gray shorts and blue polos. I will share out the photo order link on Parent Square.
And finally, this will be a great week of practice. My motto is always, “Happy, not satisfied.” We are happy with some of our progress so far, but we will continue to “EMBR(ACE) the challenge” and “EMBR(ACE) the work” to get better day after day. As I often remind you, everything you want is on the other side of hard!
Complete Results
Varsity Team Scores
40 Zionsville
29 Delta
28 Jasper
25 Guerin Catholic
24 Columbus North
16 New Albany
11 Bloomington North
6 Jeffersonville
No. 1 singles — Jackson Darby (1-2) 5th
No. 2 singles — Charlie Vannatter (2-1) 3rd
No. 3 singles — Luke Atkinson (2-1) 2nd
No. 1 doubles — Tyce Dishman / Brandon Grubbs (2-1) 3rd
No. 2 doubles — Easton Duckworth / Roman Ashcraft (1-0) and Easton Duckworth / Kiptyn Schwartz (1-1) 3rd
JV Team Scores
42 Zionsville
33 Jasper
27 New Albany
25 Delta
20 Jeffersonville
19 Columbus North
10 Guerin Catholic
4 Bloomington North
No. 1 singles — Cooper Coutinho (2-1) 2nd
No. 2 singles — Carson Mick (1-2) 7th
No. 3 singles — Drew Durkovich (1-2) 6th
No. 1 doubles — Roman Ashcraft / Oswen Zacek (2-1) 3rd
No. 2 doubles — Jacob Tokar / Denys Krushenytskyi (2-1) 2nd
Friday Night bonus JV doubles matches
Grant Durkovich / Hayden Case L 5-8
Jensen Moody / Kiptyn Berry W 8-5
Austin Carrigan / Carson Mick L 7-8
Graham Hartman / Karson Preston W 8-0
Jason Ogle / Stanley Hutchens W 8-2
Additional JV Player Records on Saturday
Jensen Moody 1-1
Grant Durkovich 0-3
Kiptyn Berry 0-3
Austin Carrigan 3-1
Karson Preston 3-1
Jason Ogle 2-1
Graham Hartman 4-0
Stanley Hutchens 3-2
Evan Lindburgh 2-1
Jonah Swift 3-0
Saul Brown 1-2
Denver Stover 2-1
Teagon Condie 1-1
Cohen Williams 0-2
Hunter Reed 1-2
Kohlton Ricks 0-2