Good Afternoon – Well, the first THSBA tournament on Lake Palestine is in the books and all I can say is “WOW”. A new record for teams entered for the THSBA was set with a staggering 138 entries with 131 teams showing up to compete. A record that will not last long I am sure! Let me start by saying what a blessing it is to be part of such an organization where volunteers have come out of the woodwork to step up and help. If not for all of the volunteers at the morning registration and weigh-in, and of course, the boat captains, organizations like the THSBA would never be able to thrive, as we have. Our volunteers are the heart and soul of the program and I applaud each of you and your parents for playing such a vital role in the students’ lives. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! Congratulations goes out to Hunter and Brandon Benner of Cedar Hill Collegiate School from the West Division. They brought in the winning sack of 17lbs 11oz to secure first place on Lake Palestine. The team of Nick Fincher and Mason Nivens of Grand Saline HS finished in 2nd place with 17lbs and by virtue of being the top finishing team in the East Division, they have qualified for the Regional Championship in May 2015, providing they fish at least 3 events. Also, the Grand Saline Indians took home the Team Championship as their top 3 weights of 31lbs 9oz topped the rest of the field. Nice job, Indians! Now, as mentioned earlier, this was the biggest tournament that the THSBA has ever had. And with the sudden growth comes some growing pains. There have been several phone discussions since Saturday about how we can better move the morning registration along so that the teams can get in and get out to the water in a more timely fashion. Believe me, we are coming up with some very good ideas to help with that process and everyone should see some improvement in the coming tournaments. Also in discussions are better ways to make sure all of the teams coming in to the weigh-in site can be checked-in in a more timely fashion. You will also see improvement in that area in the coming tournaments. I want to say thank you to everyone for their understanding and patience in those two areas and I will ask for one thing. Please pass along to the boat captains that all of the folks working these tournaments are volunteers, giving their time to make sure that the students can partake in such great events such as these. Some get up at 3 am to help and some come help at the weigh-in. Either way, all the volunteers should be treated with the upmost respect. If there are any problems or issues, please have the boat captain bring the issue to their respective team advisor so that the team advisor and the boat captain can come find one of the members of the THSBA Board so that we may discuss the issue/problem and come up with a suitable solution. In no way should one of our volunteers be the brunt of an issue. If any one boat captain continues to belittle a volunteer, as much as we sincerely appreciate a boat captain giving their time to get students on the water, that particular boat captain will no longer be allowed to participate in a THSBA sanctioned event. Also, I sent out an email asking everyone to pass along to the boat captains about being respectful towards giving space to the duck hunters that they could possibly encounter. I received an email from a duck hunter, with pictures, of 4 boats from our tournament that were roughly 25 yards from the spread of decoys he and his daughter had put out. I do not know which teams were the ones that were “crowding” the hunter, so, if all of you could pass along the concern that some teams were getting too close, I would appreciate it. If our teams are considerate of the hunters, the hunters will be considerate of the anglers. The last thing we need is for one of our teams to get a “warning shot” fired towards them from a hunter. Unfortunately, that stuff does happen on occasion, so let’s all be aware of our surroundings and make sure that our students anglers are kept at a safe distance from a duck blind with a spread of decoys out in front. Please pass along one other thing in regards to the weigh-in procedure. The THSBA will have 25 bags available for the students to get once they have checked in. Those bags are the ONLY bags to be used to bring fish to the scales. There are a few reasons for this: 1) It helps with managing the amount of students waiting with fish while standing at the bump tanks, and 2) It helps tremendously with the fish mortality rate as the fish are better off sitting in a live well with the recirculating pumps going full blast as opposed to sitting in a weigh-in bag in a very long line waiting to make it to the stage for weigh-in. Think about it like this. Get you and 4 of your friends and all of you pile into a trunk of a car with the lid shut for about 20 minutes. Doesn’t sound real inviting, does it. The oxygen levels will not be the same and stress it can cause will do more harm than good for the fish. As we look forward to the upcoming events on Joe Pool (September 27, 2014 West Division #1) and Lake ‘O the Pines (October 4, 2014 East Division #2) I want to once again thank everyone for volunteering your time to be the advisors for your respective schools. You are making a huge impact on the lives of your students. Plus, I got to meet several of you at the Palestine event and I just want to say that it was my privilege to get to meet you and I look forward to serving along-side each of you as we continue to strive to give each student angler the opportunities they may not have otherwise, the opportunity to continue their education and help lead them in to a positive and productive life. Sincerely, Tim Haugh President – Texas High School Bass Association Advisor – Bullard Panthers Fishing Club
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 22:27:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015