Alabama fishing may be the best kept secret on campus

Just three years ago, fifteen bass anglers attained the highest achievement in the nation – the Collegiate Bass Fishing School of the Year. Fast forward to the 2018-2019 season and the Alabama club fishing program has grown to 51 players spanning from 14 different states with a whopping 25 out of state members.

Winning seems to be the best formula for the team’s recent growth. The formula worked well enough to attract current vice president and Lakeville, Michigan native Shawn Potwardowski, who actually came to the University for its fishing program.

“It was between Alabama and Michigan State,” said Potwardowski, a junior studying mechanical engineering. “They were both academically comparable, but Alabama had the number one school for fishing that year, so I said, ‘heck yeah, I’m coming here.’”

Even with the accomplishments, fishing, like many club sports, is foreign to many students on campus.

“I will leave class for a tournament and someone will say ‘we have a fishing team?’ and to me it seems obvious,” said Garrett Bates, a freshman studying business management.

Bates is in the minority on the team due to the fact that he had a fishing program in high school that he helped launch. His experience certainly helps but is not required for a sport that is completely student run.

Club fishing at a public university is completely self-funded with no person being specifically restricted to a coach or other higher level of management. Instead, someone like team president and graduate student Jacob Daily has just as much of a role in tournaments as any of the other players. He is just voted on for his position annually.

The team makes money through tiers of sponsorship as Daily described. Alabama currently has “Baitmate” as their primary sponsor with companies like “SteelShad” and “Ark Rods” following. The brands that give the most money receive the best advertisement placement on team uniforms. In return, the players get discounts on gear and can even become individually sponsored.

The team’s credibility with sponsorships is no joke and neither is the commitment and financial sacrifices of their own that are required to be an active bass angler for the Crimson Tide.

“I went one morning at 4 a.m. to travel to lake Seminole for a tournament and that’s about a five-hour drive, so there is $200 that you have to put in your truck to pull a boat,” said junior civil engineering major Connor Caffrey. “Then you have to put gas in your boat which you use for three, four, or five days straight so, it adds up quickly.”

Participation for tournaments varies greatly as team involvement is completely on each individual angler. That goes the same for financial participation. The current 51-man roster’s boats vary anywhere from $2,000 to $70,000 according to Caffrey.

The Tide is in the majority of club teams across the country when it comes to spending because it is a public University. Private universities and fishing powerhouses such as Bethel University are able to not only give player scholarships, but fund trucks and boats for tournaments as well.

Along with Bethel University, Alabama is a part of the annually consistent programs to go along with Auburn, Montevallo, McKendree University, etc. A common misconception or ignorance of fishing is how a team can form a consistently winning program for a sport that has success rely on equipment more so than a soccer or basketball.

“Equipment does make a difference because it’s like telling someone to go dig a one-hundred-foot hole,” said Caffrey. “It will be a lot harder if you have a shovel than if you have a backhoe, but it definitely is not the main trick to winning.”

Above all equipment is “practice” according to Bates. If equipment was the only thing that contributed to a team or individuals’ success, it would be hard to see individually competing players such as Bates score so well on a consistent basis. He has won $3,000 in one day from an unaffiliated tournament.

Those in the fishing community know that and that is all that matters for the growing club sport. Alabama shouldn’t have too much concern for their future either because it seems that they are starting them young.

“We had a fifth grader from Kentucky hand write us a letter asking about our program and what he would need to join when he gets older,” said Daily. “We sent him a letter back and our team also decided to send him a surprise package with a team jersey and a bunch of our sponsored products.”

If that is any indication, there are reasons to be excited for Alabama fishing.