Two Westfield High School (WHS) anglers are in Tennessee through Saturday vying for their shot at a national title. Will Dobbs and Kayden Effinger of Westfield High School’s Fishing Club are competing at the High School National Championship presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tenn.
According to WHS club sponsor Eric Bland, 2018 is the fourth year WHS has had fishing teams and is the first time they have reached the national level in competition.
In a Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) tournament, a team consists of two anglers in one boat. WHS has had 10 students comprising five teams competing this season.
“A couple years ago Westfield made the decision to try to get all kids involved in something,” Bland told The Reporter. “The school highly encourage any sort of clubs or interests that kids want to get involved in. Four years ago, there was a student, who was a freshman at the time, who asked if I would help him start a fishing club. I said, “Sure,” thinking this would be fishing in local ponds, but then I found out about competitive bass fishing.”
At this week’s national competition WHS is all about that bass. (Photo provided)
Bland explained that the club caters to a variety of kids. In addition to opportunities for competitive events in tournaments, they offer the option for volunteering and other activities.
There are two major governing bodies for competitive bass fishing: Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) and BASS Nation, also known as Bassmaster.
“Both organizations have multiple levels of anglers,” Bland said. “They have professional levels, college level, local tournaments for adults, all the way to high school fishing – and now they even have middle school fishing. In Indiana we have two different high school trails that will lead you to nationals for the different organizations. We competed in Indiana BASS Nation, which in Indiana is the larger of the two.”
Indiana BASS Nation has over two dozen schools with teams competing in 2018. The trail to nationals was four events, the first of which was in April. The state championship was held in June. In order to earn a spot at nationals, a team must either do well in the four trail events to earn a spot through “trail points.” The other way to reach nationals is win the state championship, which is exactly what Dobbs and Effinger did when they won the Indiana BASS Nation High School State Championship on June 24 at Lake Monroe against 103 other teams.
Indiana is also sending two junior teams, one from Brown County and another from Southeastern Bass Anglers club, which serves Hamilton Southeastern and Fishers, to the nationals. They were the top two teams at the Indiana Junior State Championship.
Indiana has eight high school teams competing at nationals. Those teams are from Westfield, New Palestine, Southeastern Bass Anglers, Mt. Vernon, Southside Anglers in Bloomington, South Putnam and Owen Valley.
According to Bland, at the high school national competition there is over $100,000 in scholarship money available to winners in addition to prizes. The top team can also win a new boat.
In addition to his role as sponsor for the WHS fishing club, Bland is also the youth director for Indiana BASS Nation. Anyone with kids who want to become involved in youth fishing through BASS Nation is encouraged to contact Bland via email at blande@wws.k12.in.us. He told The Reporter he would be happy to help parents and students with information about the other clubs in the area.