National Championship

This is it. Only a few more hours until I hook up the boat and make the 16 hour drive to Lake Lewisville for my last National Championship. This is the culmination of all this past year's hard work -- and a chance for redemption after last year's near miss. 

At the 2010 National Championship, my partner Matt Henry and I were blessed with an 8th place finish. Top ten in the country is pretty dang good, but it's not good enough for me.  People don't remember who finishes in the top ten. People remember the winners.  We were so close last year we could taste it.  We were on the fish to win the event. The guys who won, Ben Cleary and Bo Page from the University of Georgia, were fishing less than a hundred yards from us. We were in the lead the morning of the final day. We were on the right fish and we had the right bites. We just couldn't close the deal. There are no excuses. It simply wasn't meant to be.

This year's National Championship is the biggest event of my life.  This is my last collegiate national championship, and likely my second-to-last collegiate tournament ever. After this, there will be no more fully-funded tournaments, no more gas reimbursement from the college, no more nothing.  I am on my own.  I will be thrown into the lion's cage with the big boys and will probably get the tar beat of out me for a while.  But that's how I learn best.  I learn from my failures and become increasingly determined with every bad tournament.  I am a hard headed and determined son of a gun.  Just ask anyone who knows me.

I'm swinging for the fences this year.  It is going to take some big weights to win, and I am ready for the challenge. I am more than willing to gamble if necessary. I know what it's going to take. I've got a great partner in Zach Olson, and our other boat, Grant Kelly and Tyler Fiscus is full of talent. We may not be the biggest university, have the most funding, or be cruising around in $60,000 boats, but we are going to put our hearts and souls into every minute of the tournament.  That is my only guarantee.  I can barely sleep at night because I am so excited to get back to Texas and find some fish.

If the Good Lord were to bless us with a National Championship win, it would change my life in an infinite number of ways.  Too many to name.  If we're supposed to win, the Good Lord will see that it happens.

So at 2:30am Monday morning I will be hooking up the Skeeter and heading westward to do what I love in search of redemption. Only 200+ of the best collegiate anglers in the country stand in my way.  No biggie, right?