MOULTRIE – Four members of the Colquitt County High School first bass fishing team have qualified to compete in the Georgia High School Association’s first state championship.

The two-man team of Jacob Brightwell and Hunter Horne qualified on March 23 on Lake Oconee and Preston Williamson and Chaz Odom qualified last Saturday on Lake Hartwell.

They will join 66 other teams on Lake Lanier on May 8 seeking the distinction of being the winners of the state’s inaugural bass fishing title.

And Colquitt County coach Will Stuckey couldn’t be more pleased with how the initial season has unfolded.

“It’s been awesome,” said Stuckey, a longtime Colquitt County assistant baseball coach who has turned his attention to his other favorite sport. “And to have two teams qualify … that’s pretty darn good, considering who we compete against.”

Colquitt County first bass fishing team includes seniors Charlie Martin and Caid Carroll; junior David Durrence; sophomores Swayne Burnum, Preston Williamson and Chaz Odom; and freshmen Lester Fender, Jake Wilkes, Tucker Walker, Hardin Roberts, Jacob Brightwell and Hunter Horne.

“We’ve got one kid who didn’t really fish and you can see he’s really getting better,” Stuckey said. “Some of them have been fishing all their lives. So we’ve got a mixed bag of skills.”

Brightwell and Horne were the first Packers to qualify when they brought in their limit of five fish weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces on Lake Oconee, good for seventh place.

Last Saturday, despite bad weather, Williamson and Odom placed 12th. Their catch weighed 10 pounds, 3 ounces.

When the GHSA agreed to include bass fishing as a sanctioned activity this school year, Stuckey told then-athletic director Greg Tillery that he wanted to be the team’s coach.

There was a strong response from the student body and Stuckey had to whittle down the aspiring anglers to the top 12.

Many of the youngsters who are on the team have made the not-so-easy transition from pond fishing to the more time-consuming and demanding lake fishing.

During the season, the team has held mini-tournaments the week before the regional events.

Before last week’s regional at Lake Hartwell, Stuckey took his team up for practice on the event site.

“We put a pattern together and it worked for us,” he said.

On Saturday, “We got two fish on our first five casts,” he said.

There are other trails that high schoolers can fish and GHSA wanted its regional and state championship schedule to be an addition to, not in competition with, them.

When it agreed to put on its own championship events, the GHSA consulted with other organizations to ensure there would be no conflicting dates.

Students can fish Bass Nation, Major League Fishing and now GHSA events.

With more college scholarships available for bass fishing than most people might believe, Giddens believes another opportunity will be helpful.

“We are just something else you could add to your resume,” said the GHSA’s Kevin Giddens, the former Colquitt County High coach and athletic director and a former tour fisherman himself.

The GHSA has entered an agreement with the Student Angler Federation (SAF) to run its tournaments and the partnership has worked extremely well.

“The SAF guys do this a hundred times a year,” Giddens said. “It’s professionally done.”

Stuckey agrees.

“They treat the kids like professional anglers,” Stuckey said.

GHSA requires that each school have a certified coach and that students are academically eligible.

Students also must be members of the Student Angler Federation.

Boats have two students and a captain who is at least 21 years old and each school could enter as many as six boats in the regional competitions.

Giddens said 113 schools have entered at least one boat in a region this season.

He expected 60 or 70 boats in the first qualifying tournament on Lake Seminole in January.

That first-ever GHSA bass tournament, hosted by the Bainbridge Chamber of Commerce and run by SAF and the Bass Federation, drew 120 boats.

“I was surprised,” Giddens said.

Seventeen boats qualified for the state championship at the first regional qualifier.

On February 13 at West Point Lake, 139 boats took part and 18 teams qualified.

At Lake Oconee on March 20, 133 boats were in the water and  18 more teams, including Brightwell and Horne, qualified.

The forecast of poor weather kept the field down to just over 90 boats last Saturday. Williamson and Odom were among the 15 teams who qualified.

Some 68 boats will compete at Lake Lanier.

Because bass fishing is considered an activity, rather than a sport, participants also can play other winter and spring sports, Giddens explained.

And those participants include a fair number of girls. There are several all-girl teams and several teams that include one girl and one boy.

Stuckey said that in Colquitt County, community and parent support has been “unreal.”

He pointed out that the team printed 400 tickets for a raffle and then was forced to get more.

The Colquitt County team also has its own Facebook page, Packer Bass Fishing.

The GHSA’s first foray into bass fishing has been a successful one so far, Giddens said.

“It’s been a positive addition for us,” he said. “We want the kids to have a great experience. Our goal is for everyone who qualifies to have a chance to fish.

“And we are just getting started.”