Sophomore Will Forrester and former student Henry Mayfield pose with the fish they caught at the Georgia High School Fishing Tournament at Lake Lanier on March 4. CCHS academic support and family engagement specialist Christian Barner, the bass fishing team sponsor hopes to not only improve the team’s performance in tournaments this year, but to enhance it in all aspects. “I think generally we are really hoping to grow the team in three things, which would be size, diversity and just in winning more,” Barner said. Photo courtesy of Christian Barner
The bass fishing season at Clarke Central High School will begin on Sept. 23 with the team competing in a tournament on Lake Lanier.
The Clarke Central High School Bass Fishing Team will begin its season on Sept. 23, competing in the Early Bird Tournament at Lake Lanier. The team was founded three years ago by 2018 CCHS graduates Cole Bonner and Jack Byrne, with the help of CCHS academic support and family engagement specialist and team sponsor Christian Barner.
Despite some team members having graduated in May, Barner is confident in the current participants and their capabilities going into the season.
“I think it’ll be a good year,” Barner said. “We have a few students who are really energetic and really excited about doing it this year. I think it’s also going to be interesting because we are having a lot more newer members come aboard.”
In preparation, Barner has been working to organize events for the team and ensure that they will have everything they need to compete.
“The hardest part of this whole thing is finding adults who have boats and are willing to captain for us. You can’t fish if you don’t have a boat,” Barner said. “We have a few parents who have boats and are able to help out, but other than that, we rely on volunteers. We have to find people in the Athens area who are willing to go out with their boats and take the students out.”
Freshman Jackson Forrester, who competed on the team in eighth grade, hopes that the team will improve their performance in tournaments this year.
“The main goal is to be able to weigh in at least three fish per tournament. Five would be great since that’s the limit, but at least three would be fantastic,” Forrester said. “We’re also really hoping to raise a lot of money and get more sponsors, and that’ll probably help the team out a lot.”
