High-school sports are a great way for youths to be active while learning discipline, hard work, teamwork and the joy of competition, which is why Missouri is currently pushing to join Kentucky and Illinois as the only states to include bass fishing as a publicly sanctioned varsity sport.
This is great news for many people involved in the sport. It will result in a more competitive playing field because of the influx of participants it will attract. Getting more people started at a younger age will broaden the competitiveness of the sport.
As sanctioning high-school sports increases the interest and popularity of bass fishing, it will also spark an increase for the fishing industry.
I’ve compared golf to fishing in the past and will again here. On a much smaller scale, high-school fishing relative to the sport’s overall popularity can be compared to Tiger Woods and his influence on the game of golf. When Tiger Woods is at the top of the leader board on any given weekend, TV ratings peak. Yes, the true golf fans will watch regardless of whether Tiger is there, but it is the casual golfer who sparks the rating increase.
When these casual golfers get more interested in the game, they will play more golf and buy more golf equipment. Tiger Woods plays a large role in getting those otherwise uninterested fans watching and — more importantly — playing.
The same is true with bass fishing. Like in golf, the fans of the sport and those who love to fish will buy the gear and watch, attend, or compete in tournaments no matter how much publicity the sport gets. With the expansion of the sport to the high-school level, more people will pay attention and gain interest.
When there is a larger fan base, people want to participate and fish more. The growth at the high-school level translates into a growing popularity at the collegiate and professional levels as well as the amateur and recreational levels. This results in more sold product and an increase in the fishing industry as a whole.
I anticipate a heavy increase in the number of states sanctioning bass fishing as a sport. Bass fishing is often considered the fastest-growing college sport today. High schools will quickly pick up on this and start committing time and resources to fishing programs. It is good for the sport, the fans, the participants and the industry — just as long as the NCAA doesn’t get its hands onto the collegiate fishing sport. But that is a discussion for another day.
Ryan Dentscheff is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University, the president of the OU Anglers Association and a columnist for The Post. Send him your fishing tips at rd291709@ohiou.edu.
