WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina |Irmo kid recounts meeting with President Bush

Irmo kid recounts meeting with President Bush

IRMO, SC (WIS) - While waiting for his second TV interview, Sam Bryant takes a run around the tee ball field at Irmo's Friarsgate Park, but just about a week ago Sam was lapping the bases in the nation's capital, right in front of the president of the United States.

Sam had but one word to describe his meeting with President Bush.

"Awesome," Sam said.

Sam was one of 51 tee ball players from around the US to play at the White House last Wednesday.  On hand were lots of baseball celebs, like hall of famer Frank Robinson.

Sam's Mom, Stacy Bryant, said you could hear the collective gasps from the Dads when famous players showed up and also the collective gasps of the Moms when Kenny Chesney arrived to sing the national anthem.

Chesney might have been cool, but the highlight of the trip was getting the chance to talk one on one with the Commander-in-Chief himself.

"When the president was out there, he really made sure he was talking to the kids and shaking their hands," Stacy said. "As with the parents, he was nice to us, but he was really out there enjoying himself."

Perhaps the coolest part was finding out the president was a regular guy just like everyone else out there.

"Sam's hat gets messed up -- he runs up to the president with his hand out to meet him and the president starts fixing his hat because he knows his picture is about to be taken and I'm like, ‘The president is taking care of my child!'" Stacy said.

Sam even took a cue from the prez, and made newspapers across the country in a photo taken by the Associated Press.

"Sunday morning we get all of these calls like, ‘Sam's in our paper,'" Stacy recalled.

When we asked Sam about his meeting with the prez, he didn't have a lot to say, but when he does find the words, there's little doubt he'll be talking about his trip to the White House for a long time.

Reported by Drew Stewart

Posted by Jeremy Turnage