BENTONVILLE -- Kary Collier takes his singing just as serious as he does his football.
The Bentonville senior traces his love for singing back to his early youth during church services, and he's been involved with school choirs even before he and his family moved to Bentonville when he was in the seventh grade. He's a baritone singer in the Bentonville High School choir, and he's been known to sing the national anthem at pep rallies and other events.
At A Glance
Kary Collier
School Bentonville
Class Senior
Position Cornerback
Height 5-8
Weight 149
Notable Assumed a starting cornerback role during last year’s playoff semifinal game against North Little Rock and has started all 10 games this season. … Leads the team with 15 pass breakups and has two interceptions and 43 total tackles. … Has recorded interceptions in Bentonville’s last two games. … A member of the high school choir and Bentonville’s boys track team, where he ran a personal-best 10.9 seconds in the 100 and was a member of the Tigers’ state championship 4x100-meter relay team.
"When I was about 3, my mom and dad would let me come up into the choir stand with them," Collier said. "I would sit there and listen to the notes, then eventually I started singing the notes.
"I used to pick up a lot of solos. My biggest one was when I was around 8 or 10, and I sung in front of 3,000 people at a convention being held in Little Rock. Ever since then, I love to sing."
Bentonville football Jody Grant has witnessed Collier's dedication to singing, especially since choir season and football season intertwine this time of the year. Collier has often had to leave team meetings to go to choir rehearsals, and he stayed behind for a choir function last December while the rest of Bentonville's football stayed in Little Rock the night before the Class 7A state championship.
When it comes to football, however, opposing teams hear a much different tune. Collier joins Tyrone Mahone as the Tigers' starting cornerbacks, and some teams tend to pick on Collier because he's only 5-foot-8.
It's not always the smart move because Collier leads the team with 15 pass breakups. He also closed out Bentonville's regular season on a positive note, intercepting passes in the Tigers' last two games against Rogers Heritage and Fayetteville.
"As a football player, Kary takes his size and he uses that as a motivator to prove people that he can play at a high level," Grant said. "Because he's not considered as tall as others, people want to throw his way and pick on him a little bit, and he feeds on it.
"I love that, and I encourage him to do that. He's a fighter, he's a warrior. He's passionate about what he does, and he's a great teammate."
Collier said he expected to be limited to special teams play when Bentonville traveled to War Memorial Stadium for its Class 7A state playoff semifinal game last year against North Little Rock. That perception took a drastic change when Mahone suffered a broken ankle on the third play of the game.
Now it was up to Collier to do what Mahone was expected to do that night -- defend the pass against North Little Rock's star receiver K.J. Hill, who later signed with Ohio State. Hill wound up with 10 receptions for 110 yards, but he never scored as Bentonville went on to post a 42-10 rout.
"My first feeling was 'Gosh, I hope he gets back up,' and he doesn't get back up," Collier said. "Then I was trying to hear what the coaches were going to do, and I thought they would switch Hayden McDaniel over there because he's more experienced.
"Then they turned to me and said 'You're following K.J. Hill everywhere he goes.' It was crazy. Transitioning to having to play the entire game, it rocked my world a little bit. It was fun after I settled in a little bit and the nerves got out because I could pick up on their plays."
Collier went on to start in the state championship game, where he had to defend Fayetteville's receivers. His performance in those two games has carried over to season year, where he has started every game.
While he's done a formidable job defending receivers, the only thing Collier hadn't done through his first 10 starts was intercept a pass. That changed when he picked off a deflected pass in an Oct. 30 game against Rogers Heritage, then he closed out the regular-season finale against Fayetteville with an interception on the final defensive play.
"The one against Heritage, it was literally "Oh my gosh, I caught this,'" Collier said. "When I got up, I felt like I was king of the world, to be honest. I had been asking for an interception for the longest time.
"On the one against Fayetteville, I knew Tyson Morris was running and they were going to take a shot at him. I had done this a thousand times in practice, where they would overthrow the ball and I would keep running just to get the ball. People would tell me to stop because I was going to hurt myself, but the play showed up."
Sports on 11/20/2015