MITCHELL – On Monday, the Mitchell Community Schools Board approved a motion to add bass fishing to the athletics program offerings at both Mitchell Junior High School and Mitchell High School.
The programs will be led by Don Goldsberry, who is a longtime member of the Indiana Bass Federation and himself has fished in tournaments since 1994.
Goldsberry said that a few years ago, prior to the program receiving unanimous approval from the board, he led an unofficial MCS fishing club after his son expressed interest in wanting to fish competitively.
Through that club, Goldsberry helped his son, along with some other students, travel to compete in IBF competitions.
Last year, Goldsberry received approval to make his previously unofficial club an official one with MCS, with the district’s rules stating a program must begin as a club for one year before officially becoming a sport, he said.
Through this newly added program, Goldsberry has already established a few goals he hopes to accomplish, including teaching those who choose to participate some key values.
“The love of the outdoors, competitiveness, being considerate, community service projects, conservation projects and giving back to the reservoirs that we will be fishing in,” he said.
The fishing program will require some support from the community, mainly with the need for boats. Goldsberry said that while he has some already lined up, he will need members of the community with adequate fishing boats to volunteer their vehicles, as well as their time to help students compete.
“Just getting someone like myself that has a boat and a little bit of time to volunteer to take two kids out. It’s only four or five tournaments a year and they’re pretty spread out. But, it is hard to find someone to volunteer 12 hours,five times a year plus to fill up your truck and boat and supply the kids with Gatorade and snacks and food for the day. It can be north of $200 a tournament for the coaches,” said Goldsberry.
Tournaments for high school bass fishing teams can yield some nice returns for top participants, including scholarships, according to Goldsberry. Events that began offering scholarships of around $30,000 now are now offering winners full-ride college scholarships.
“It’s grown so much in the last several years. Now the prizes are up to just north of $2.5 million in prizes and scholarships at the World Championship,” he said. “The winning team at the end, like this year the team got both full ride scholarships to college. Second place was $190,000 all the way down to I think the lowest price they give is at $10,000 or $20,000 scholarship nowadays.”
