February is American Heart Month; Read Bryant’s Story

At eight years old, Bryant Beard faced a scary prognosis: not expected to live.

The now 32 year old (with a birthday on Valentine’s Day, a coincidence?) had been diagnosed at the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Something called Coarctation of the aorta was constricting a portion of Bryant’s heart and forcing it to pump harder to move around more blood. But despite the odds, Bryant was able to overcome them… and he wanted to learn tennis.

Bryant hit the courts as soon as he was cleared by his cardiologist to play!

Coaches helped Bryant with some of his technique, but he never spent a lot of time in lessons. Bryant recalls teaching himself a lot of newer approaches and tricks to the game.

He picked up a racquet for the first time at eighth-grade spring camp. The beginner athlete found other sports like basketball and baseball harder to pick up after missing so many years of physical development.

“Tennis provided an opportunity for me to start new and have something I could call my own. I had a group of people pushing me towards it and then I ran with it and trained year-round,” Bryant says.

Bryant’s heart condition never went away. It’s something he continues to live with.

As head coach, Bryant saw a lot of success. In his final season with the women, they went 14-1. Bryant also went on to receive the Coach of the Year Award at the 2019 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

When Bryant resigned from college sports, it was to seek growth in tennis elsewhere.

He’s now the Director of Tennis at a multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art tennis facility, Indiana Premier Tennis (IPT) at Community Sports & Wellness (CSW) in Pendleton, Indiana – one of the youngest directors in the state.

“I have been tasked with the responsibility of growing our club and tennis, and we have seen a lot of positive change,” says Bryant. “I am on court around 35 hours a week and love teaching, especially planting seeds in the minds of young kids so they can develop resiliency for a life of adversity on and off the courts.”

He likes to ask his players, "What are you responsible for?"

As if helping children learn the game and valuable life skills wasn’t impressive enough, Bryant knows how to speak five languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. He’s even taught English as a second language to people in Sweden, Germany and Honduras.  

Being multi-lingual, Bryant coaches some of his clinics in Spanish and French when the opportunity presents itself. He even offers tennis classes in Spanish featuring salsa music!