Plastic Surgeon in Aledo, TX

Aledo baseball head coach Chad Berry said the Bearcats needed to have unwavering intensity to reach their full potential.

The team needed to “hit the gas” and keep the foot on the pedal while still taking things one game at a time. From bouncing back in elimination games to stringing together dominant wins in the state semifinal, Aledo has played with urgency, intensity, and grit through five series victories.

The team has proven themselves worthy of being called relentless.

Now, the Bearcats need to capitalize on one final opportunity to cement themselves in the Texas high school baseball history books. Aledo (33-8) will face Comal Smithson Valley (28-12) in the UIL’s Class 5A Division I state championship on Friday, June 6, at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

The Bearcats’ playoff run has been challenging from the beginning. Aledo lost to Birdville in the bi-district round but came out on top in an elimination game. After series sweeps against Arlington Heights and Amarillo, the season-defining moment came in the Region One final against Colleyville Heritage.

After a game one loss, Berry’s squad needed to come out on top in consecutive elimination games. They delivered, ending the series with a 13-2 statement victory and carrying the momentum to the next round

Aledo, No. 6 in the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Class 5A rankings, dominated McKinney North in a state semifinal series. The Bearcats secured 4-0 and 6-0 victories to shut out McKinney North for the entirety of the series.

Since they got hot, they’ve stayed hot. And now, only one team stands in the way of a state championship.

In the inaugural year of split division in UIL baseball, there will be changes to the strategy of the state championship game.

Aledo’s pitching staff will be well-rested and ready to go, which gives Berry some options.

Grayson McKelvey has led the way in pivotal playoff games against Arlington Heights and Amarillo. Luke Sandefur faced elimination against Colleyville Heritage, and Ethan Hodo has delivered quality innings.

The Bearcats boast a roster full of proven talent. Their ace during the 2025 playoff run has arguably been Devin Miller, who allowed zero earned runs to McKinney North and Colleyville Heritage in 14 innings of work.

Offensively, they’ll continue to rely on team speed, putting pressure on the defense and timely hitting. Aledo’s strength is its scrappiness and ability to push across runs.

The No. 6 Bearcats will enter the championship as a favorite against Smithson Valley, a team that had to win its final two district games to earn a spot in the playoffs.

Both the Bearcats and Rangers are familiar with each other. In 2023, Aledo football won a state championship with a resounding 51-8 victory over Smithson Valley.

The Rangers are experienced, with seven elimination game victories, and with their improbable run to the championship, have nothing to lose and everything to gain. They swept No. 4 Barbers Hill to secure the program’s first championship game appearance and are playing their best baseball of the season at the right time.

Aledo, seeking its first state title in Class 5A and second overall, hasn’t reached the championship stage since its Class 4A run 11 years ago. Now, the Bearcats stand one win away from making program history.

But Smithson Valley, riding a wave of playoff magic and fearless baseball, has proven just as capable of seizing the moment. Only one team will leave Round Rock with the state championship — with its legacy cemented.

ALEDO, Texas — With every log he put on the fire and every brisket he smoked, Dayne Weaver watched his family’s future go up in flames.

“That was the hard thing, as a man, you’ve got three kids, another child on the way, staying true to this vision that was dragging your family down was a really hard pill for me to swallow,” he said.

Dayne smoked his first brisket about a decade ago. Eventually, he got pretty good and started selling it from his front yard.

He says he hated his job as a delivery driver and thought barbecue could be a way out, but it wasn’t.

Dayne gained a cult following, but it wasn’t nearly enough to pay the bills.

“We went through a rough period where we didn’t necessarily have a place to go or a place to live,” he said.

Dayne says he might have given up had his wife not taken a huge risk.

Without Dayne’s knowledge, his wife Ashley Weaver took out a loan and borrowed $6,500 to buy him a better smoker.

“It cost $6,500,” Dayne said. “We didn’t have $6,500. I would’ve never spent that on a smoker. I wouldn’t have even spent that on a car.”

“I just felt if I took the leap and let him know that I supported him, then that’s all he needed to run with it and that’s literally what happened,” Ashley said.

Dayne quit delivering packages because Dayne’s Craft Barbecue in Aledo is thriving. He’s got a full staff, a faithful following, and things are about to get even better.

When Texas Monthly Magazine releases its list of the 50 best barbecue joints, also known as the Bible of Texas barbecue, later this month, it’s widely expected Dayne’s will be in the top 10.

Getting there wasn’t easy, but they’re no longer homeless, just home to some of the best barbecue in Texas.

“Never once have either one of us turned to each other and said, ‘are we calling it quits? Are we done? Is this it?’ That’s never been an option,” said Ashley.

“It’s pretty crazy to see that we’ve ended up where we were trying to go,” Dayne said. “It started with a dream and now we’ve actually made it come true.”

A dream, like brisket, takes time, but you can get there if you just keep the fire burning.

ALEDO, Texas — May kicked off Mental Awareness Month, and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott showed up to a local high school on Friday to speak about suicide prevention, mental health and more.

Prescott lost his brother, Jace, to suicide in April of 2020 and has been an avid advocate for suicide prevention awareness ever since. Most recently, Prescott posted to his Instagram stories after ex-LSU wide receiver Kyren Lacy, who was projected to be drafted this year, died by apparent suicide in Houston earlier this month.

On Friday, Prescott showed up to Aledo High School in Aledo, Texas, to show support for a father who lost his 12-year-old son to suicide and spoke to students at the high school about suicide prevention and mental health. Prescott posed for pictures with students, holding signs that read "Ask 4 Help" and "You're stronger than you think you are."

"Ask 4 Help" is a common slogan Prescott uses when advocating during Mental Health Awareness Month. He also used it when posting after the death of Lacy.

Brad Hunstable, of Aledo, lost his 12-year-old son, Hayden, to suicide in April 2020, as well. Brad started "Hayden's Corner" in honor of his son, which is dedicated to solving youth suicide. Both Brad Hunstable and Dak Prescott spoke to the group of students gathered at Aledo High School on Friday morning.

Friday's event marked the first-ever Day of Hope, which joins together by Hunstable's foundation and Prescott's foundation, Faith Fight Finish, according to Aledo ISD's Facebook post. They hope it will kickstart into a nationwide annual event.

The late chef and food writer Anthony Bourdain is famously credited with the quote, “Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start — undoubtedly an accurate representation of his point of view on how food, and especially barbecue, can unite people and cultures.

GUIDE: Houston's very best barbecue joints

Bourdain’s admiration for smoked meats, especially in Houston, is well-documented. In 2001, before he was a household name, Bourdain rolled into Houston to film a segment for his early travel-food series "A Cook’s Tour" at Burns Bar-B-Q in Acres Homes.

He came back in 2016 to film an episode of his new show, "Parts Unknown," returning to the location of his original visit, now called Burns Original BBQ.

Another story attributed to Bourdain is his love for a particular sandwich made from a traditional deli meat and cheese. He first mentioned this sandwich in his 2016 cookbook, "Appetites." Here, he provides a recipe inspired by a sandwich he encountered while travelling in Brazil, featuring a pile of fried mortadella (the Italian progenitor of American bologna) and melted Provolone cheese, with mayonnaise and mustard on a buttered and toasted roll.

Undoubtedly a mouth-watering and crowd-pleasing dish. But was it actually his favorite?

Like many stories associated with Bourdain, the tale of the fried mortadella and cheese sandwich has taken on a life of its own. In the intervening years, food bloggers and influencers, forever in pursuit of clicks and views, have attributed this sandwich as Bourdain’s “favorite,”though there is no definitive statement on his part that this was the case.

Still, if there’s a worthy Bourdain dish that food bloggers could have seized upon, this is certainly it. And it all starts with the meat.

Mortadella is a savory, salty, pork-based sausage originating in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, specifically the city of Bologna. The American version (to the horror of many Italians) is called bologna, and is the foundation of many lunch-box sandwiches.

At the risk of offending my Italian friends, I’m going to use mortadella and bologna interchangeably here.

This savory meat is particularly well-suited to the smoking process, so you’ll occasionally find it on Texas barbecue joint menus. Indeed, smoked bologna is the most famous dish of Oklahoma-style barbecue, such as it is.

My first experiences with smoked bologna were thick slices crisped on a griddle and served as just another meat along with brisket and turkey. Later, these slices started showing up in various types of sandwiches.

Only recently have I noted specific versions inspired by the Bourdain recipe. In Houston, Roegels Barbecue Co. offers perhaps the most authentic version as an occasional special, with house-made mortadella stacked high on a toasted bun with melted provolone cheese and mayonnaise (call for availability).

More recently, I visited Dayne’s Craft Barbecue in Aledo, near Fort Worth. While perusing the blackboard menu, I noticed a special menu item written on a sheet of butcher paper taped to the wall.

“Fried bologna melt” sure sounded a lot like the Bourdain sandwich. But it was infused with Texas twists. House-made beef bologna is griddled with melted American cheese, served with grilled onions and gold barbecue sauce, and served on crusty, buttery Texas toast.

It’s the perfect combination of a mortadella and cheese sandwich and classic Texas barbecue. Bourdain, I think, would approve.