September Missouri High School Fishing Bulletin

Guest Blog by John Neporadny

Since school began I have been traveling across the state visiting with high school athletic directors (ADs) and explaining how the high school bass fishing program works and trying to coax them into signing up with the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) bass fishing activity.

When my leg started feeling better after having knee replacement surgery back in July, I thought I could start travelling again so I sent out e-mails to numerous ADs of high schools statewide to either call them about the high school bass program or visit one-on-one with them to explain the program. E-mails were sent to over 150 schools around the state.

I realized that contacting some of the St. Louis and Kansas City area schools would be stretches for this program but I thought I would take a chance. To my surprise I got favorable responses from three or four of those schools and visited with Ted Hickey, the Fort Zumwalt North AD who is going to survey the students to see how much interest there is in starting a bass club.

I also had favorable visits with the ADs at California (Rick Edwards who is considering paying a stipend to his future fishing coach),   South Callaway, Owensville, Centralia, Monroe City, Viburnum, Jefferson R-7 in Festus and Fayette (Geoff Moorehead who wants his school to be the first in the conference to have a bass club). I also had phone conversations with ADs from Versailles, Cameron, Paris and Mark Twain. All of them said they were going to survey the students to find out the interest level and then try to find a coach for the club.

My travels to high schools will be curtailed for the next couple of weeks since I will be covering the Bassmaster Central Open at Table Rock for B.A.S.S. publications and then I will be attending a couple of writers’ events at Kentucky Lake. But I plan on contacting more schools and setting up visits again with AD’s in mid-October.

If you know a school that may be interested in starting a B.A.S.S. program, please reach out to John Neporadny at 573-365-4296.

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To read the previous fishing bulletin, click here.