Zach Helton (left) and Harlyn Nelson (right) play multiple sports throughout the year — even for different schools. But they both plan to fish in college.
BY DAVE LINK
Zach Helton is a starting small forward for First Baptist Academy’s basketball team.
The FBA senior will be a starting infielder this spring at Grace Christian Academy, which co-ops in baseball with FBA.
But another sport holds a college future and perhaps beyond for Helton.
Bass fishing.
Helton, who’s finishing his high school career with the Alcoa Fishing Team, has committed to fish for Carson-Newman and will sign Feb. 10.
“It’s a blessing, that’s what it is truly is,” Helton said, “that I get to do what I love at the next level and then hopefully do it later in my life, is the plan.”
Helton isn’t the only multi-sport athlete on the Alcoa Fishing Team.
Harlyn Nelson, a freshman at Samuel Everett School of Innovation in Maryville, plays linebacker at Eagleton College and Career Academy, and is an angler for Alcoa Fishing.
Nelson wants to follow Helton’s path into college – and that of his brother Bryson Hatcher, a freshman on the Bryan College Fishing Team.
“I’ll probably try to go to college for fishing,” Nelson said. “It’s awesome to hear what my brother says, what it’s like in college, as compared to high school.”
Helton and Nelson were on two of Alcoa Fishing Team’s five boats competing Jan. 29 in the first stop of the 2023 Bassmaster National Open series on Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes.
Helton and Jackson Bennett finished 23rd and qualified for the Bassmaster Nationals this summer, while Nelson and Jake Lovingood endured a gut-wrenching weigh-in and finished 26th – one ounce behind the 25th-place finishers.
Only the top 25 qualified for nationals.
“We got knocked out,” Nelson said. “We were in 25th place and we got knocked out by the very last boat by one ounce. It was really tough.”
Other teams competing for Alcoa Fishing on Jan. 29 were Walker LaRue and Joe Vaulton (34th) and Landon Myers and Luke Morris (118th); Sawyer and Eli O’Hara finished 32nd in the juniors division.
For Helton and Nelson, it was back to their winter sports once they returned from Florida bass fishing.
Nelson, who helped Everett School of Innovation reach the region duals, is now wrestling in the individual postseason, while Helton and FBA’s basketball team get ready for tournament time.
HELTON: ‘IT’S THE WANT-TO’
Zach Helton, a senior forward at First Baptist Academy.
Helton, who lives in Gibbs, said he’s learned how to manage his time, balancing fishing with other sports.
“I’ve been playing basketball and baseball my whole life,” he said. “I’ve been competitive fishing probably for more than half of my life, and it’s not just the motivation to get up and go do each one of them. It’s kind of discipline, and then the want-to, the urge to be the best you can at each thing you do.”
His process was successful.
He’s about 6-foot-1 and averages double-figure scoring as a forward for FBA’s basketball.
He’s started every year of his high school baseball career at second base, third base, and shortstop.
And then there’s fishing.
“I fish every chance I can get,” he said. “It’s usually both days on the weekends. If I get a day off in the week, I’m on the water. Any day that I’m not playing baseball or basketball, I’m on the water.”
Helton, who joined the Alcoa Fishing Team this season, fished for Karns as a freshman and for Halls as a sophomore a junior.
He’s off to a big 2023 start with the Florida trip, and it took some want-to on tournament day.
Helton and Bennett opted to make a long boat ride to Lake Apopka, which meant going through a lock and line of boats waiting at it.
They took 3 hours to get to their first fishing spot.
“We fished our best stretch first thing,” Helton said. “We caught one pretty quick.”
That didn’t last.
Bennett caught two more in their next spot, but by 1:30 p.m., they only had three keeper bass.
They needed two more.
“We were like, ‘Let’s go risk it, take a 15-minute ride back to the first stretch we stopped on, and just try to make a Hail Mary happen,’” Helton said.
It worked. They pulled up to a section with lily pads, and a few minutes later Bennett caught a fourth keeper; then 10 minutes later Helton caught a 6.5-pounder; and then Helton landed a 2.5-pounder, which culled a smaller bass.
By then, their check-in time for weigh-ins was looming.
“We were excited but nervous at the same time about getting back in time,” Helton said. “We had pushed our time to the limit on the lake. I think we made it back with maybe 6 minutes left to our check-in time. That part was nerve wracking because we had to go through so many idle zones from where we were, and the lock.”
Helton and Bennett’s five-bass limit weighed 12 pounds, 5 ounces. All were largemouth, and Helton’s 6.5-pounder was their biggest.
The winning team of Caden Branch and Connor Branch of Liberty County High School (Florida) had five bass weighing 24 pounds, 3 ounces.
Second place was Parker Stalvey and Jacob Deel of Clay County High School (Florida) with five bass weighing 23 pounds, 7 ounces.
Helton and Bennett began fishing together just before Christmas, and that won’t change.
“The first time me and him fished,” Helton said, “it was just like it was meant to be. We fish really well together.”
NELSON: “JUST KEEP YOUR HEAD UP”
Jake Lovingood (left) and Harlyn Nelson (right) in Florida.
Nelson said he and Lovingood each lost bass that would have put them into 25th place or above and into the nationals.
Their five bass weighed 12 pounds, 3 ounces.
But two good ones got away.
“They were both pretty big fish,” Nelson said.
It was another learning experience for Nelson, who’s had plenty of those on the wrestling mat.
“Just keep your head up and keep moving forward,” he said.
Nelson said he’s able to manage fishing with wrestling and football because of the learning program at Samuel Everett.
“It’s a hybrid school,” he said. “I go one day a week and do the rest on computer, and I can take it wherever I need to go.”
Nelson has fished competitively since the seventh grade, the first two with William Blount before moving to Alcoa Fishing this season.
He’s in his first year fishing with Lovingood, a junior at Alcoa.
“I just knew him as a buddy, and it’s going really good for us,” Nelson said.
Nelson doesn’t have to look far for fishing tips. Not with his stepdad, Timmy Hatcher, and older brother Bryson around (Timmy was boat captain for Nelson and Lovingood in Florida).
And what about Harlyn’s mullet?
It’s taken two years to grow. Plus, some inspiration.
“My brother Bryson got one,” Harlyn said, “so I got one.”