By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
Four Sand Rock student anglers will be among the best in the world at Wolf Creek Park in Grove, Oklahoma on June 25-27. They’ll be competing for more than $3.8 million in scholarships and prizes in the National High School Fishing Championship at Grand Lake.
Alec Ashley and Ryker Sinclair comprise one Wildcat duo, while Alex Stone and Hunter Sanderson make up the other. Sand Rock fishing coach Josh Miller and John Burt will serve as their boat captains.
Miller said the Sand Rock teams will be headed for Oklahoma early Saturday morning, with pre-fishing events beginning on Sunday, continuing into Monday, and half a day Tuesday.
The tournament itself officially begins Wednesday and Thursday. They’ll regroup on Friday, with the top 31 teams fishing for the title on Saturday.
“I’m glad they’ve got the opportunity to go and be part of something like this,” Miller said. “I’ve told the kids ‘Look, you’ve made it this far. I’m proud of you no matter how you do, so go out there and have some fun.’ There’s going to be college and NSR (National Scouting Report) recruiters from all over, but I’ve told them to go out there have fun, make some friends and talk to these guys. You never know where it’s going to lead.”
Competing on such a prestigious stage is nothing new for the Wildcats. Miller said they competed in a similar event in South Carolina last year that had between 430-440 boats.
Just recently, Miller said the Wildcats competed in a two-day classic tournament at Guntersville.
“I’m really proud of these guys. They work their rear ends off,” Miller said. “We fish when it’s cold. We fish when it’s raining. We just finished up at Guntersville and they had some pretty bad downpours they were fishing through. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, sleeting, snowing, anything like that, these guys are fishing out there in it. We fish year around.”
Just fishing at Grand Lake will be an experience in itself for the Wildcats. Miller said the Wildcats have never fished there before.
“We’re just going out there to try and find fish,” Miller said. “We hope and pray they bite for the three days. We hope we can get a heavy bag, then hopefully they bite on that fourth day if we get qualified. Hopefully we can do something while we’re out there.”
Miller said fans can follow updates on how the Wildcats are doing and hope to do live weigh-ins on the team’s Facebook page, Sand Rock Wildcats Fishing Team.
