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It's a keeper
Football and basketball come most readily to mind when we think of major high school sports, but after an impressive season, the fans of South Putnam High School might just want to add another sport to that list: Bass fishing.
Since February, 13 South Putnam High School students have been working hard to prove that fishing can be just as taxing and competitive as any other sport; and you don't have to know much about fishing to see that they're doing a good job of it.
"The thing I will tell you about this bass club," coach Nick Teeters said, "yes, this is a new program at South Putnam, but what we've done as a group and as a club this year is phenomenal. The last tournament, we had only three of our six teams weigh-in fish, but there were forty teams and only thirteen caught fish. We were the only school that had three teams weigh-in fish. The rest of the schools only had one team weigh-in. So as a school we won our second tournament."
The team is a first for South Putnam, although it is not officially part of South Putnam athletics. It got its start when Teeters, a well-known fishing guide who also runs his own fishing school (Ranger Nick's Fishing School), was contacted by B.A.S.S., the Bass Angler Sportsman Society.
The group wanted Teeters to contribute to its budding Indiana High School Division, but, already strapped with coaching other sports, Teeters decided to wait until his step-sons could compete.
"I went to the school board and Principal (Mike) Schimpf," Teeters said. "I talked to (Schimpf) last year at a football game, and he thought it was a fantastic idea. He has set up, on multiple occassions on short notice, if I say, 'Hey, I need a projector,' he'd say 'Hey, here you are in the library; you're set up.' He would stay after-hours to meet with me. He's been great."
The first step was to gauge the students' various skill levels.
"We ranged from kids who fish a lot to kids who had never really fished," Teeters admitted. "So then we talked about bass biology, lures, equipment, different things like that. How tournaments work; how this whole program works."
The team has at least one tournament a month from April to July, and how they work is that the school with the most teams, consisting of two anglers, weighing-in the most and heaviest fish wins. Scoring fish must be at least 14 inches long and each competition lasts eight hours, normally requiring the anglers to compete from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"It goes by pretty fast," sophmore Trey Farmer said. "You enjoy it, so you're paying attention, and having your partner helps because you can sit there and talk."
Parents, Teeters said, have been major contributors to the team's success, chipping in their support with time, money and effort to be boat captains and long-distance chauffeurs. And outfitting an angler, even a student angler, is no cheap and easy thing.
"Walmart carries a lot of fishing tackle," Teeters said. "But there's a ton of fishing tackle that you can't buy at Walmart. You have to go to Dick's or Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops. First time investment, $500 to $800. Could you fish a tournament for less than that? Absolutely, but that's just a base range."
No wonder Teeters admitted, "The sponsors actually saved us." The team's jerseys display a multitude of sponsors, but the most generous were Farmer Concrete, Scorpion, Kaoru O'Bryan Fishing, Bulldog Rods and Ranger Nick's Fishing School. Luckily, buying tackle is fun for the students, if not so much for the parents.
"I may or may not buy a lure every time I go to Walmart," Megan Rogers, a recent graduate, said. "I think I own every lure that they sell at Wal-Mart."
So, aside from a hefty chunk of cash and good sponsors, what does it take to prepare for a tournament?
"The way you set up to fish a tournament," Teeters said, "is you go to a lake and you try to figure out where the fish are. Try to figure out what lures, what presentation and what they're relating to -- are they on grass or are they on rocks? Basically, just go fishing."
Simple, right?
"What I will tell you about tournament fishing is that it is a very physical sport," Teeters said. "The average tournament angler casts anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 casts per day. And standing for eight hours, your knees and calves start to hurt because the boat's rocking and you're trying to stay flat. When it gets to be summer time and it's 98 degrees and no wind, that'll wear you out in the first two hours.
"The mental side is being prepared for eight hours of competitive fishing. If I go out and in two hours I don't get fish ... I can either roll over and cry, or I can try to figure out what the fish are doing. This is a continuous battle all day long between you and the fish, and between the other competitors on the water."
Aside from that, the students will tell you, it's just hope and luck.
"It definitely takes patience," Vice President Christina Schilling said.
Secretary Kyle Hall added, "You have to have a good attitude," but Farmer said, "Kyle hasn't caught fish, so he wouldn't know."
"I've caught fish," Hall rejoined, "just haven't caught any keepers."
Despite the long hours and uncomfortable conditions, it's plain to the see the budding anglers enjoy the sport. And it's also safe to say the team is here to stay.
"I got home from the Lake Monroe tournament and I started getting messages from other coaches," Teeters said. "These coaches said, 'Your team acted more professional, had more sportsmanship and looked way more organized than any other team out there.' I had at least six coaches tell me that. I had two others tell me, 'Your South Putnam team is what other bass clubs strive to be.'"