There have been plenty of scripts so far with variables, but can bash deal with an array of variables?

Yes. bash now has an array syntax for single-dimension arrays.

Arrays are easy to initialize if you know the values as you write the script. The format is simple:

MYRA=(first second third home)

Each element of the array is a separate word in the list enclosed in parentheses. Then you can refer to each this way:

echo runners on ${MYRA[0]} and ${MYRA[2]}

This output is the result:

runners on first and third

If you write only $MYRA, you will get only the first element, just as if you had written ${MYRA[0]}.