By John Neporadny Jr.
Special to BassFan


Illinois made history in May 2009 when the first ever state-sanctioned high school bass fishing championship was held at Carlyle Lake.

Since then the Bass Fishing State Series of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) has become the blueprint that other state high school associations have followed to start bass fishing as a school activity. In the inaugural year of the IHSA program, more than 800 students represented 217 schools. Despite the hard economic times since 2009, Illinois schools continued to sign up for the program and today the Bass Fishing State Series includes about 240 high schools.

“If our past is any indicator, we tend to grow by about six to 10 schools each year,” said Kurt Gibson, IHSA associate executive director who coordinates the Bass Fishing State Series. “It's been successful because we have people who like to fish. Every state has people who like to fish, but we just sort of took the first stab at making a go of a tournament like this.

“(The bass fishing activity) reinforces the positive nature of high school interscholastic programs, so I think from our schools’ perspective that became a pretty easy sell.”

Selling the program to Illinois high schools was the task of former IHSA assistant executive director Dave Gannaway and Terry Brown, Wired2Fish.com president. Gannaway believes the major selling point to the schools was IHSA’s involvement in the activity.

“I think that's what added validity to the program,” he said. “That's what the schools buy into is the fact that it's sanctioned by a state high school association.”

Network was Key

Gannaway also thinks his former tenure as Illinois Athletic Directors Association president helped recruit schools for the new bass fishing program.

“I had a very close working network with all the athletic directors across the state of Illinois,” he recalled. “It was one of those things that fit just perfectly with me because I was able to talk to and help promote (the program) with our athletic administrators and I used the majority of them to run and sanction all of our different sectionals.”

Setting up a bass fishing advisory committee consisting of athletic directors, principals and other school officials who loved the outdoors also helped Gannaway establish the IHSA bass fishing program.

“They're the ones who wrote the bylaws and directed the program,” he said.

Gannaway noted IHSA had a membership of about 760 schools in 2009, so he was disappointed by the number of schools that initially signed up for the bass fishing activity.

“I wanted more (than 217),” he said. “I was shooting for that 250 to 270 number right off the bat, but we didn’t quite get there the first year. But it has grown and is doing very well now.”

One of the original committee members who helped form the ISHA bass fishing program was Joe Large, the fishing coach for Aurora Marmion Academy. His teams have competed in the state finals 3 of the past 6 years and won a sectional in 2011.

“The program has been a terrific influence for the students who aren’t your typical athletes, those who don’t participate in football or basketball,” says Large, who has 30 students on his fishing team. “They have another avenue to get involved and stay with the school and find some success. It's a great activity for them to get outdoors and let them think about ecology and protecting the environment."

Grades Came Up

Large has noticed the fishing program has been a positive scholastic influence on some students at Aurora Marmion, a college preparatory academy.

“We've had some guys who've struggled academically here and because of their involvement with the fishing team, it seems like they find that to be a real positive outlet for them at school,” Large said. “It helps them feel good about themselves and I think that translates into them enjoying school more and being excited about being here and wanting to do well in the classroom.”



The West Frankfort Redbirds won the Illinois High School Association’s first state bass fishing championship in 2009 at Carlyle Lake.

Aurora Marmion’s fishing coach is most proud of his club’s environmental service projects with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the local Forest Preserve District. Club members have been involved in cleanup projects at local parks and helped the DNR with rearing ponds work and stocking the local lake they fish.

“It's really about teaching the kids about the appreciation of the sport and hopefully helping it grow for the future,” Large said.

The Highland High School bass club has also been in the IHSA program since its inception and coach Jon Rinderer has led his team to five sectional wins.

“The program has given a lot of kids a sport that they love to do at the high school level,” said Rinderer, who has 10 anglers on his high school team. “The kids who participate in other sports like baseball and football can also do it.”

Rinderer says he's proud to teach the kids a sport they can enjoy the rest of the lives. His program has also churned out some successful tournament anglers in the adult ranks.

“I've had several that have won money and won bigger tournaments and classic events and I also have three or four that are fishing at the college level,” said Rinderer, who is also the fishing coach at McKendree University, which offers scholarships for its bass fishing program.

Getting Harder to Win

With the growth of the IHSA program and fishing scholarships now available, the Bass Fishing State Series has become more competitive recently, according to Gibson.

“Over the past couple of years we've had to put in rules to more clearly specify what coaches can and cannot do in the boat,” he says. “We've developed a formal protest procedure, which to me reflects how the event has ramped up in its intensity over the past few years.”

The longtime rivalries between high schools in sports such as football and basketball could start developing in the fishing program as it continues to grow.

“I know each year more schools are hosting invitationals in the spring and some are in the fall,” Gibson said. “So it's very likely that it's developing rivalries.”

Community support has also been instrumental in helping the ISHA bass fishing program grow.

“We have a lot of bass clubs – like other states do – that help support our schools with their teams, whether it's to come to school to show kids how to fish or to provide boats and volunteers,” Gibson said.

Some schools are being helped by corporate sponsorship and the IHSA’s major sponsor is Country Financial.

“It’s not the way we do our business to go out and solicit folks,” Gibson said. “If they come to us and say they want to get involved, we certainly would see if we could find a way.”

As the program continues to expand, the IHSA might have to alter its qualifying rounds for the state championship. The current system features 22 sectional tournaments that qualify three boats from each sectional for the state final at Carlyle Lake.

Gibson wonders if any more than the current field of 66 boats might be too large for 26,000-acre Carlyle.

“At some point we're going to reach a tipping point to where we won’t be able to put any more boats out there at Carlyle,” Gibson said. “Our next step will probably be to have two preliminary rounds (a regional followed by a sectional) before we get to our state final.”

Notable

> For more about the IHSA Bass Fishing State Series, click here.