|
The Central Divisional is over and for the second year in a row Kansas will be sending one of our youth to the BASS Junior World Championship. Congratulations to Austin Bray of the McPherson Junior Bass Club for winning the 11 to 14 age group! Our 15 to 18 age group angler was Tyler Hetzel of Kickback Junior Bass club. Tyler ran into a little bad luck and lost two fish at the boat that would have put him right there with the winners as far as weight.
The youth portion of the tournament unfolded rather badly for our youth and I’m proud that they were able to overcome the problems. Here’s a little helpful back ground information. Each state, including Kansas has contractual agreements with 14 adult anglers for the Divisional. There are 12 team members and 2 alternates. Each state also brings two youth anglers who are allowed to pre-fish the first two days of the tournament and then compete on the last day. The youth pre-fish and then compete with our 13th adult team member. Now that I’ve set the scenario, here’s what happened.
Kansas contracted with the 14 adult anglers. Then a couple of months ago the 14th angler realized he had conflicting family events. Since the odds of the 14th angler ever getting on the water to fish are so small, he notified our President and Tournament Director that he would not be attending. Then Monday, two days before the first youth practice day, the 13th angler called and said he would not be able to attend. Now Kansas had no alternate, and no boater or boat for the youth!
Monday evening was spent scrambling for ideas; could Don as the state president take the boys out, where would we get a boat, who were the 15th 16th 17th etc. finishers in the state qualifier, could any of them attend at the last minute? You get the idea.
Tuesday Don was able to discuss our options with BASS. The ruling was that at such a late date, states could not add more team members; Kansas would have to fish with no alternates. Now what to do for the youth? As luck would have it, Ken Peaker, our Conservation Director had his boat at Table Rock and BASS allowed us to name him as the boater for the youth, but since Ken was not an official team member the only thing he would be allowed to do is drive the boat. The rules state that once the official competition begins, competitors cannot get any help such as information, ideas, equipment, baits, etc. from any one unless they are a team member. To his credit, Ken did a great job with the two youth Tuesday evening in the last few hours before the official cutoff at midnight going over everything from how to turn on the aerators and electronics, to what he knew about the lake.
Next, it was our adult anglers who stepped up to help our youth. They made sure in the evening KBFN tournament meetings that they kept our youth informed of changing water conditions, fishing patterns, best baits etc. A couple even went so far as to take our youth to their boat and give them the baits that were being the most productive.
On the final day of competition both of our youth anglers brought fish to the scales and given the circumstances we should be quite proud of their contribution to the KBFN State team, and also how they overcame adversity.
I know that Austin and his family are excited about his chance to fish in the BJWC, and Tyler is already making plans to fish the KBFN adult qualifier this fall at Milford. Good luck to both!
Thanks, Brad V. |
