Timmy Horton High School Bass Anglers Championship to start in 2013
October 31, Tuscumbia, AL – Bassmaster Elite Series angler Timmy Horton has put his name behind a statewide high school bass tournament. The free-to-enter event will be held on Pickwick Lake on May 18, 2013 and will be televised. Prizes will include scholarship money.
Horton, who calls Pickwick his home water, states it pretty well:
“what an opportunity it is to compete in an event and know these anglers have a chance to help continue their education; it does not get any better than that.”
Alabama currently has 46 organized high school fishing clubs and the state legislature recently passed a bill creating the Alabama Student Angler Bass Fishing Association.
The Association web site includes a detailed history of the group and all the effort behind establishing it, including its struggles to get high school fishing officially sanctioned by the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) and National Athletic Association (a brick wall).
As huge as bass fishing is in Alabama, my guess is that the AHSAA will wake up in a couple of years and follow the lead of Illinois and Kentucky to make varsity fishing a sanctioned sport. In the meantime, college and high school fishing in the state seems to be doing just fine on it’s own steam.
Bassmaster.com has the full report here.
Timmy Horton’s web site is here.
Let’s hope events of this nature lead to even the highest events becoming no entry fee. As for the AHSAA and NAA resisting making competitive bass fishing a recognized sport, if I go outside and play catch, that’s not a sport, but if I organize teams, play by a set of standard rules and eliminate the weaker teams through a series of events, it’s a sport. Same applies to bass fishing. At this level, it’s a sport.
Very well put Chad.