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Tyler Gavlick finished 144th out of 162 teams during last month’s Bassmaster High School Series National Championship.
It didn’t matter.
Fishing in his first national championship, the Hanover Area senior was definitely a winner.
The 17-year-old Gavlick has a passion for bass fishing and a desire to become a pro bass angler. It’s a goal that has become more common in our area as local bass tournaments have increased the popularity of the sport. I’ve gotten to know several area young people who are paying their dues to climb the bass fishing ranks and, hopefully, turn pro.
Their sacrifices always amaze me. They spend their youth balancing school and work, spending all of their free time honing their skill on the water, and saving their hard-earned money to buy a better boat and pay for gas and entry fees as they compete in tournaments all across the East Coast.
They learn, they sacrifice and they never give up.
Gavlick is no different.
Hanover Area doesn’t have a bass fishing team, so in order to compete on the high school circuit Gavlick joined the Susquehanna Valley High School Fishing Team in Lewisburg. He competes in tournaments on lakes and the Susquehanna River, and last year, he and partner Andrew Henry finished second out of 70 other high school anglers in the state championship, which was held on Conneaut Lake in Crawford County.
That earned them an invite to this year’s national championship in the Bassmaster High School Series, and in early August they traveled to Kentucky Lake in Tennessee to compete on their biggest stage.
Gavlick marveled at the publicity and attention that surrounded him and all the anglers at the national championship.
The event was broadcast on ESPN and television cameras followed the anglers everywhere. Gavlick rubbed elbows with major sponsors such as Evinrude and Yamaha and got to experience what it’s like to be a pro when an ESPN camera appeared next to his boat at the launch and he announced his name and hometown.
“It was awesome. Walking around there are people who know who you are and what you did,” Gavlick said. “It definitely helped get my name out there.”
And not only to the bass fishing world, but to the many colleges that set up shop at the championship.
While Gavlick wants to turn pro one day, he wants to do it via the college route. High school kids can earn college scholarships through bass fishing, and just competing in the national championship allowed Gavlick to get his name out there and learn what it will take to parlay bass fishing into a college education.
And he’s not done yet.
On Aug. 27 Gavlick was back at it, casting away in the state championship on Presque Isle in Erie. He and partner Ben King finished second with a five fish limit and a combined weight of 10.78 pounds.
It means Gavlick will go back to the national championship for a second time next summer.
In the meantime, Gavlick will continue to hone his skill and make the sacrifices it takes to become a pro angler. That means balancing his senior year of high school, his work as a volunteer with the Hanover Township Fire Department and finding time to fish local tournaments, high school competitions and the Bassmaster Opens at Oneida Lake in New York.
And one more thing.
“I’ll also find time to go fishing on the river with my friends. Just getting time on the water is important to me,” he said.
Sounds like a winner to me.