BY DAVE LINK
High school bass anglers in the area and across the state have a new option if they’re wanting to pursue college fishing.
Pellissippi State Community College has added a bass fishing team after recently announcing the start of an athletics program in fall of 2023 with nine sports.
Bass fishing wasn’t one of the sports named, but Pellissippi State started a fishing team this fall as a club sport.
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Michael Looney, who has worked at Pellissippi State for 20 years and is a senior computer manager, agreed to coach the team last spring when asked by school administrators.
Looney has fished competitively in area bass trails and has a couple of friends who are boat captains for Seymour High’s fishing team.
“They knew I fished a lot,” Looney said, “so they approached me and asked if I’d be interested in sponsoring and coaching the Pellissippi bass fishing team they wanted to get up and going. I said, ‘Sure, I’m glad to see you all want to get in this.’”
Looney, a Seymour native, stressed to the Pellissippi State administration the benefits of having a bass fishing team.
“I explained it’s more than a club,” Looney said. “There’s a collegiate level in this and scholarships are available, and students can further their degree to another four-year college and have some (fishing) credentials behind them by having a bass fishing team (at Pellissippi State). I really opened their eyes on seeing the possibilities, plus the recruiting that we can get from high schools because all the local area high schools have bass fishing teams.”
Pellissippi State has more than 10,000 students on its campuses and has the largest enrollment of the 13 community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents System. Many of them already have athletic programs, such as Walters State, Roane State, Cleveland State, and Chattanooga State.
Roane State has a Bass Fishing Club.
The nine sports the Pellissippi State “Panthers” will have in fall of 2023 are men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s half-marathon, men’s golf, women’s volleyball, and Esports.
Under the Tennessee Promise program, graduating high school seniors may attend the state’s community colleges or technical colleges free of tuition and mandatory fees, so academic scholarship money is not a factor in Pellissippi State’s funding of athletic programs.
PANTHERS ANGLERS
Looney has eight anglers currently on his Pellissippi State team, including a female, Crystal Anthony, who fishes competitively with her fiancée.
Funding from Pellissippi State to the bass fishing team would go toward travel and tournament expenses, tackle, jerseys, etc., and Looney is still getting a grip on it all.
“Since we’re state dollars and state funded, this is all new and a really gray area,” Looney said, adding he’s getting assistance and support from Pellissippi State President Dr. Anthony Wise, Vice President Ronald Kesterson, and Assistant VP Renee Moore.
“They’re well behind me,” Looney said.
Trey Woliver and Trent Burns competed for Pellissippi State on Oct. 29 in the second stop of the Carson-Newman Collegiate Series on Watts Bar Lake.
Both are graduates of Heritage High School, where they fished together in 2021 and competed in the Bassmaster Nationals.
Woliver’s father, Adam, coaches the Heritage fishing team after starting the program.
“I’m really excited to be a part of this (at Pellissippi State),” said Woliver, a 2022 Heritage graduate, “because I believe this could be a great pathway to four-year universities, and I know a lot of high schoolers who would be interested in this as well. I feel like it could take off in a year or two.”
Woliver’s dad and Trent’s dad, Grady, both have bass boats and serve as boat captains for their sons (Grady Burns was captain at Watts Bar).
Carson-Newman’s Ben Cully and Hayden Gaddis won the Oct. 29 event with four bass weighing 10 pounds, 10 ounces.
“We didn’t do so well,” Trey Woliver said. “There was a lot of great fishermen. It was just really tough.”
WHAT’S AHEAD
Looney will have two Pellissippi State teams competing Nov. 19 in the third and final stop on the Carson-Newman Collegiate Series on Douglas Lake.
Woliver and Burns are entered along with Nicholas Bullis and Chase Johnson.
Looney said his teams will compete later this fall in the Brandon Card College and High School Open on Norris Lake and in a BASS National event on Cherokee Lake in the spring.
And he’s just getting started with plans for the team.
“I’m working on getting jerseys and everything else off the ground,” Looney said. “I’m telling the guys to hang in there and be a part of this team, and let’s get it off the ground. It’s going to bloom. It’s just a seed now, but there’s no way it won’t succeed.”
Trey Woliver agrees.
“I feel if we can get the word out,” he said, “especially to Blount County schools and Knox County schools and others that have fishing teams, they’d be interested in joining.”
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