By Martin Couch

The Taste of Bryant Chamber of Commerce event on Thursday night wouldn't have gone so smoothly if it weren't for the help of the Bryant High School Dance team.

The Bryant High School Varsity Dance team will host a golf tournament on Tuesday, Aug. 3, at Hurricane Golf Club with proceeds going to help pay for the team’s trip to the National Dance competition in Orlando, Fla., in February.

The tournament is a four-person scramble over 18 holes with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. Registration will begin and lunch will be provided at noon.

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.

Many a young girl has written it at the end of a secret note passed surreptitiously in class or, more recently, in a text to a friend:

BFF.

There was a time when that was code. Almost everyone knows what it means now:

Best Friends Forever.

The Bryant varsity dance team includes, front row, Erica Reeves, Mariah McElroy, Amy Whitt, Samantha Sanders, Paige Farnam; middle, Olivia Lovell, Brooke Kenney, Morganne Gillespie, Shelby Ellison, Aaryn Murdock, Mary Catherine Huffman; back row, Lauren Hall, Kelsey Rivers, Meredith Herring, Shelby Arnoldy, Bailey Gartrell, Shelby Gartrell,Ariane Arroyo, Aubrey Crockett, Haley Blumfelder, Carly Damboise, Coach Laura Wooten

 The Bryant varsity dance team competed at the Universal Dance Association Camp in Jonesboro June 3-6. They received first place awards in Home Routine, ribbon count, most Drill Down ribbons, Super Spirit Stick as well as the daily Spirit Stick honor, and a special Leadership award given to one team in the entire camp. This award is voted on by the other participating teams.

The Hornet Varsity Football Booster Club will present the MISSter Bryant Hornet Pageant this Friday, May 7, at 6:30 p.m., in the Bryant Middle School eighth grade gym.

Several of the football players, coaches, local business owners and dads are going to “dress up” and compete in the “pageant.”

Admission is $5 at the door with grilled hamburgers and hot dogs provided by Everett Buick Pontiac GMC.Donations will help the Pageant contestants raise money for the Bryant Hornets varsity football team.

By Diane Winiecki

Take a shy guy, and ask him to do the unthinkable, stand before thousands of people, dancing, jumping, yelling, entertaining in every way he can think of, and he would probably say “no way.” But, put him in a blue suit, blue tights, with bulging eyes, long antennas and a stinger of all stingers, along with the desire to be all he can be for his school, and he will become explosive.

Kyle Douglass is that guy; he is the Hornet mascot, ‘Buzz” at least until the end of this year, his senior year at Bryant High School.

By Rob Patrick

While we’ve had a lot about the bid by Bryant’s Travis Wood to make a Major League roster for the first time with the Cincinnati Reds, there are several other former Bryant athletes still competing on a high level. Following is information about as many as I could track down but, first, a little more about T.Wood.

With the MLB season beginning next week, Wood is still in contention for the fifth-starter spot in the Reds rotation and MLB.com beat reporter Mark Sheldon says in his latest blog, it looks like he has the inside track.

By Rob Patrick

“You know, 30 years ago when I started coaching, the coaches did all the taping,” recalled Bryant athletic director Tom Farmer. “If there was an injury, we’d go out and say, all right, put some ice on it, and move on.”

The other variation of that scenario is the classic (exaggerated, of course) instance when a coach would be looking down on an injured player and saying something like, “Okay, rub a little dirt on it and let’s go.” Then helping the player up.

But times have changed. With the advances in medicine and health care in a broad array of fields, a little more expertise is called for. And more and more, public schools are following the lead of colleges and professional athletics by making sure there’s an athletic trainer available.

Bryant, as Farmer related, is one of those schools.

The Central Arkansas Elite Open All-star team, comprised of 12 Bryant High School Varsity Dance team members and a BHS alumnus, captured the 2010 National Open Pom championships at the Universal Dance Association championships in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 6.

Team members included, front, Katy Mozisek, Callie Akers; second row, Aaryn Murdock, Shelby Ellison, Mackenzie Cole, Cara Prichard, Brooke Kenney, Erica Reeves, Coach Laura Wooten; and, third row, Mallory McElroy, Morganne Gillespie, Mariah McElroy,Samantha Sanders, Olivia Lovell.

(Photo courtesy of DeDe Gillespie)