Fall football practice officially gets underway on Monday, Aug. 2, but preparations for the season opening Salt Bowl pitting Saline County rival Bryant Hornets and Benton Panthers have been going on for quite some time already.

The annual event, which has attracted more than 20,000 fans in recent years, will be played on Friday, Sept. 3, at War Memorial Stadium.

The Bryant Hornets are voted by 7A Central conference coaches to finish third in the conference as stated in this year's 18th annual Hooten's Arkansas Football magazine. Conference coaches voted Benton to finish sixth in the 6A South and Bauxite eighth in the 8-4A.

Bryant High School will be well represented at this week's annual Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star events on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

LITTLE ROCK — Before the storms descended on Joe T. Robinson High School, the Bryant Hornets were making a strong case for a repeat championship at the annual Robinson 7-on-7 tournament on Thursday. The Hornets won all four of their pool games with senior-to-be quarterback Blake Davidson tossing 10 touchdown passes in limited action. Hayden Lessenberry threw for three scores and Austin Powell two.

After a few years of paying attention to such things, an observer at Bryant Hornets football practices — spring or fall — will have noticed by now that head coach Paul Calley is in his best mood when he feels good about his offensive line.

Of course, Calley was a stellar center himself in high school and college and he’s been coaching the Bryant offensive line all along.

So when spring football sessions for 2010 concluded on Friday, it was revealing that Calley was in good spirits despite the fact that the Bryant defense had had the better of it during the concluding scrimmage.

After a 75-play scrimmage in Monday’s sweltering heat, the Bryant Hornets football team engaged in a lighter day of work in shoulder pads, helmets and shorts on Tuesday.

They also took a look at video of the Monday’s work, something that head coach Paul Calley said has become a key part of the team’s improvement.

The Bryant Hornets football team engaged in its first extended scrimmage of the two-week spring football practice period on Tuesday, giving the coaches a chance to see the team in game-like conditions and get it on video for teaching purposes.

Today, they were set to scale back on the work in pads, said head coach Paul Calley, lift weights and watch the video.

Work has begun today on the installation of artificial turf at Bryant Stadium.

At the Monday, May 17, meeting of the Bryant Board of Education, athletic director Tom Farmer announced that fund-raising efforts had reached the target to trigger the matching funds from the school district. The Board approved the project.

By Rob Patrick

You could close your eyes and tell how things were going on the first of the 10-days of spring practice in pads for the Bryant Hornets on Monday.

You could hear it.