SILOAM SPRINGS — Big brother now looks up to little brother.
From a height standpoint, that's the reality for Siloam Springs senior Dylan Henson, who at 6-foot-4 is an inch shorter than his 6-5 freshman brother, Payton.
From a basketball standpoint though, it's more than that.
Big brother Dylan is often in awe of the things his 14-year-old brother can do on the court. And he'll be the first to say the best is yet to come for Payton.
"Most of the time I'm like, 'Did he really just do that?'" Dylan said.
Siloam is getting a glimpse of what the two can do together this season as both Henson brothers are starters for the Panthers (7-3).
Of course, having brothers in the same starting lineup is not an unusual thing, especially in schools of lower classifications.
What is unusual, though, is the age difference with Dylan being a senior and Payton a freshman, as not many ninth-graders are capable of starting for a 5A-West Conference team.
Having the chance to play with his brother for one season is something Dylan certainly isn't taking for granted.
"Sometimes I'll be in practice or even in a game and I'll be sitting there thinking, 'I'm playing with my little brother and how many guys get to do this? This is awesome,'" Dylan said. "It's a blessing. It's really cool."
So far, the Henson duo at the power forward and center positions have been a success.
Payton, who's playing the power forward position, is averaging 8.3 points per game and has scored in double figures in four of the Panthers' 10 games. Dylan, at center, is one of the top rebounders on the team and is averaging 6.0 points per game.
Earlier this season, the two brothers each posted double-double efforts in scoring and rebounding during a victory over Gentry in the Benton County Invitational.
"It's really awesome," Dylan said. "I never would have thought it would happen. There's not really words to describe how it is."
Varsity Moves
The idea of moving Payton Henson to the varsity basketball team as a freshman didn't begin until last spring.
Payton had the length at 6-5 (and possibly getting taller), but he lacked the size and bulk needed to play at the varsity level.
When Johnny Taylor took the coaching position after Jason McMahan left for Bentonville in June, he was already aware that there was a possibility of moving Payton up to the varsity level.
The Henson brothers would come up to Panther Arena most nights to shoot and work out during the summer -- even meeting Taylor at the gym as late as 10 o'clock on some nights in addition to their regular summer workouts.
Taylor witnessed Payton's work ethic and saw the freshman get stronger during the summer.
It was decided that the first nine weeks of the fall semester would be a trial with Payton on the varsity team. He would practice with the squad for nine weeks and be evaluated, then a decision on his season would be made. Once a player plays for the varsity team, he cannot go back and play for the junior high.
"We knew it would help (Payton) if nothing else," Taylor said. "We thought it was going to be a win-win either way, because he was going to get to practice for nine weeks with us (the varsity). If we didn't decide to move him up, he'd be just that much better having practiced with older kids."
The younger Henson admits the evaluation period was a stressful time.
"The first couple of weeks were really nerve-wracking," Payton says. "At first it wasn't a for sure thing that I was going to be on the varsity. The first nine weeks he was going to evaluate me and after that make his decision."
Turns out, Payton passed his evaluation with flying colors.
"He worked so hard in those first nine weeks," Taylor said. "He added weight and muscle. He doesn't have the body of a ninth-grader."
Dynamic Duo
Payton's high school debut saw him score 15 points in a benefit game against Shiloh Christian. Payton added 11 points at Gravette. He then scored 11 points with 13 rebounds against the Pioneers.
"He's playing on a senior high team and he's only 14 years old," Taylor said. "It's easy as coaches to forget how young he is. A lot of times we'll remind ourselves that he's got several years to improve. Every year we hope he adds weight and new dimensions to his game. He shoots it really well for a big guy, so he creates a lot of matchup problems."
And Payton knows teams will try to exploit his youth on the court.
"No one's going to feel sorry for me," Payton said. "They're going to take it at me even harder because I'm a freshman."
Dylan's best game of the season came in the 11-point, 10-rebound game against Gentry.
"Dylan is somebody that a lot of times the stats don't show up," Taylor said. "He does so many things defensively where he's in the ball line and gets deflections. He's hands down one of our best rebounders. Those stats don't always show up. You look in the book and you can always tell who scored the points but he's also somebody that will draw a charge.
"He does a lot of those things that are intangibles. Dylan is our most vocal player. He does a lot for us just by talking."
On the basketball court and off, when anybody sees one Henson brother, the other one is usually not far away, whether it's playing basketball or video games.
"On NCAA football, Payton's got the option down with Georgia Tech. That's a hard thing to stop," Dylan said -- or just hanging out, the Hensons are making the most of every moment.
"We hang out all the time," Dylan said. "Because he can't drive yet, so he's always with me. We'll go hang out with my friends. They're actually his friends now, too. We do almost everything together.