Monday, May 4, 2009 8:41 PM CDT
Fishing lures a new type of
athlete into IHSA competition
By TONY REID, Staff Writer
DECATUR — As fish always swim in schools, perhaps it’s only natural schools should go fishing.
And so they are, thanks to the Illinois High School Association’s decision to make a nationwide splash by accepting bass angling into its stable of 35 sanctioned sports and activities.
For those who like wetting a line, this is a very big deal. Suddenly, fishing is right up there with basketball, football and baseball. Kids who might never make the school team for anything else now have the chance to bring home sectional glory and, prize of prizes, a state championship fishing trophy.
“We are the first high school association in the country to do this,” said Dave Gannaway, assistant executive director of the Bloomington-based IHSA. “We’re out on the front edge. When we have our state tournament (May 8-9) at Carlyle Lake, media from all over the country will be covering it.”
The IHSA has been mulling the prospect of embracing fishing for some 10 years. There were practical and safety problems to work out as organizers fretted the concerns of having teenagers en masse going down to the lakes in boats. But rules that demand adult boat handling and supervision for each team eased the way nicely and the response of the fishing community took care of many logistical headaches.
“Bass fishing clubs have been outstanding across the state of Illinois in working with our schools, I can’t say enough about them,” said Gannaway, 56. He said the clubs have bent over backward to offer training, assistance and equipment from boats to rods and reels.
“And the other group I can’t say enough about is the Illinois Department of Natural Resources,” Gannaway said. “They have worked so closely with us in coordinating all of the sites we needed so that 18 sectionals were able to be pulled off at the same time.”
Those sectionals were held April 24 and the response from the students has been just as enthusiastic. “We had over 400 boats out on the water at 18 lakes and there were more than 1,000 kids fishing in our sectionals,” Gannaway said. “Pulling all that off at one time was just an incredible feat.”
The IHSA, which has even created a fishing information Web site, www.thefuturefisheshere.org, says the sport works to the good of kids on many levels. There’s the competitive aspect, of course, plus the attraction for some of not having to cut class for the chance to spend quality time in the great outdoors getting up close and personal with nature. Schools are also turning it into an educational experience as students study lake ecology with the real world as their classroom.
Other benefits are more subtle, but no less valuable, enthusiasts said. Die-hard fisherman Darren Gates of Decatur operated the boat and provided the equipment for the winning Meridian High School team in the Lake Shelbyville Bass Fishing Sectional which involved his 15-year-old son, Kyle, and his friend Caleb Brown, 16. “Spending time outside with your son,” he said. “It’s good for him and it’s good for me.”
Good for the Assumption Bass Club, too, which Gates belongs to. One of the club’s goals is to introduce kids to fishing, and the IHSA event is the ideal lure.
“The schools need us to help them, and we need the kids as future members,” said Gates, 41, who was bobbing around on Sangchris Lake fishing a tournament the other evening when interviewed for this story. “It’s going to be perfect.”
But it would be nice if the kids had their own tackle in the future, and that little detail should be taken care of in the fall with plans by Meridian to stage a big tournament on Lake Shelbyville which Gates is going to help organize.
“We’re going to use it as a fundraiser for Meridian,” he explained. “Hopefully, we can make a little bit of money so the school can actually buy their own gear instead of using all of mine.”
Meridian High School athletic director Kevin Reedy will use the event as a selection process for the next school fishing teams and says other schools will be invited so they can do the same thing.
“It’s going to be open to everybody,” said Reedy, who’s been heartened by the amount of interest students are showing already.
“There are kids who want to get involved in bass fishing who aren’t involved in anything else,” he added. “Fishing is something they do on the weekends anyway because they love it and now they can represent their school doing it.”
But with this being the IHSA’s first bass fishing year and having no established student pool of talent to competitively evaluate when making team selections, Reedy had to cast around and make his own choices. And he did well: Student Joe Carr teamed with his younger brother Danny to finish second in the Lake Shelbyville Sectional with 6.37 pounds, while Brown and Gates won the event with a weight of 8.74 pounds, being the only team to catch the five-fish limit. All four students waded through to the state finals.
Brown says his good buddy Gates is the real expert, having fished so often with his dad, but he was happy to jump on board when asked to fish with him. “And I guess I had some beginner’s luck,” he said.
Fellow sophomore Gates is equally modest, despite a track record of success in many fields. He played on the basketball team with Brown that brought the state championship home to Meridian this year but says the state fishing final will be a plunge into the unknown as he’s never fished Carlyle Lake. His dad’s already organizing a reconnaissance sortie, however, and hopes in Meridian are running high.
“Maybe we’re going to have to build a bigger trophy case,” said Gates.
Contact Tony Reid at treid@herald-review.com or 421-7977.
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Rural Eric wrote on May 5, 2009 2:00 PM: