July 17, 2006


Click image for full size photo.

OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma City resident, new Honeybees dance team member Cristhian’s experience at the 2005 Honeybees tryouts could not have turned out much worse. While performing during the final round of auditions, Cristhian tore the ACL in her knee, ending her hopes of qualifying for the squad in the Honeybees’ inaugural campaign in her hometown.

A year later, Cristhian completed a comeback by earning her place among 13 newcomers selected to join the 21-member Honeybees team for 2006-07.

“I just started dancing again about a month ago,” Cristhian related on Monday evening. “I have a great doctor who helped me out tremendously, and I promised him I would come back and try out for the Honeybees.

“(The Hornets are) the first time Oklahoma has had something this big, so it’s just amazing to be a part of it.”

The former Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz dance team member and 30 other prospective Honeybees performed at Bricktown Brewery during Monday’s final round of tryouts. The event was attended by several hundred fans, an even larger crowd than the one on hand for the extremely popular Hornets draft lottery party held May 22 at the same location.

“It was jam-packed,” described another new Honeybees member Courtney, a Grapevine, Texas native and University of Oklahoma student.

Despite the huge crowd, many of the tryout participants showed no signs of nerves while on stage. A large portion of the prospective Honeybees had extensive previous experience performing in front of large audiences.

“I was nervous when I got here at 6 o’clock (an hour before the event began),” said new Honeybee member Lindsey, of nearby Edmond, Okla. “But I’ve been dancing my whole life and performing since I was 8 years old. Once I thought about how I’d been working at this and practicing so hard to prepare for it, the nerves kind of went away.”