mikey dilullo, houma courier-thibodaux daily comet
·4 min read
A month after varsity sports in Louisiana ended, and several weeks after they and their classmates graduated from high school, some of the Houma-Thibodaux area's top athletes gathered at the Bob Thibodaux Boat Launch in Morgan City on Saturday to compete in one of the state's most popular sports.
But these athletes didn't compete in football, baseball or basketball. They competed in a bass fishing tournament, a sport that's not sponsored by the LHSAA.
Bass fishing, along with esports, is one of two sports classified as non-sanctioned by the LHSAA. According to LHSAA bylaw 6.5.3, if 80 Louisiana high schools sponsor a given sport, the association's Executive Committee may consider adding it as a varsity sport. If it gets approved by the Executive Committee, the sport must go through two years of probation before it's officially added. If the number of participating schools drops below 40, the LHSAA reserves the right to revoke its sponsorship of the sport.
Across the state, bass fishing doesn't come close to enough teams to officially go varsity. Only 29 schools competed in this year's non-sanctioned state championship tournament, and many schools lose their best competitors to private clubs, even if they have a team.
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On Saturday, four Houma-Thibodaux area schools — Assumption, E.D. White, Vandebilt Catholic and St. James — were among the teams competing in Saturday's tournament, alongside schools outside the area and club teams consisting of fishers from schools without a team.
The teams put two of their fishers on each of their boats, splitting the tournament between high school-aged competitors and middle school-aged ones, representing the senior and junior divisions, respectively. Once the boats were out on the water, each pair competed to catch the most smallmouth bass — to be the "stringer," in bass fishing terms — as well as catching the biggest bass.
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Unlike most other sports, fans in attendance can't watch the athletes during the competition. While waiting for the boats to return from the lake, bass fishing fans create an atmosphere unlike anything else in high school sports.
With the boats on the lake, a high school fishing tournament feels less like a sporting event and more like a party. Fans grill hot dogs, cook chili and drink beer. They tell fishing stories, about the time a largemouth bass busted their line or the time they reeled one in almost as big as their arm. They talk about bringing in another generator to keep the fans running and beat the heat. Were it not for the logos on their shirts, hats and tents, passersby could be forgiven for not realizing there was a high school fishing tournament going on.
When the boats were brought in and the bass counted and weighed, Kennedy Peltier and Chloe Brazan of St. James were the high school stringers, catching five in their boat. Beau Kraemer, also a Wildcat, swept the stringer and big bass in the junior division, catching two fish with his biggest at 2 pounds. The only thing preventing a St. James lockout was Evan Breaux, a Central Lafourche student who competes with the Lafourche Bassmasters club, and his 3-pound big bass to win the high school division. Each winner received a gift card and a new fishing rod.
All of the winners had been fishing for years, sometimes decades, and expressed a desire to one day see their sport become an official high school sport in Louisiana.
"This win means a lot," Peltier said. "I'm happy the school started this fishing team. "But yeah, we hope it can become an LHSAA sport."
"Of course we want to be LHSAA," Brazan said.
"I've been fishing since I was about 6 or 7," said Kraemer. "Yeah, I want there to be a real state championship."
"I put a lot of work in for bass fishing," Breaux said. "I grind all day long to become a better fisherman. It takes a lot of dedication, like baseball or football. But I hope it becomes varsity one day."
Sanctioning the sport might not be as clear-cut as it seems, though. There are pros and cons to the LHSAA adding the sport. Sanctioned tournaments take a lot of work out of the hands of the coaches who currently organize them, but the fans couldn't recreate the same atmosphere waiting for the boats to come in. The kids themselves could finally compete for a title in their sport, but it may come at the expense of other sports they play.
Still, even their coaches one day hope to make varsity.
"When you go to a tournament, sometimes you have 100 boats," said Blake Trosclair, the founder and head coach of the St. James fishing team and one of Saturday's tournament organizers. "The popularity is definitely there. I think it definitely could be LHSAA."
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Is bass fishing an LHSAA sport?
