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Several years ago while locking up my classroom at the end of the day I looked onto
the basketball courts and saw a lot of students hanging around. I had never really
noticed how many students wouldn’t go home after school until that day.
Several days past and I finally approached one of the students and asked them,
“Why aren’t you going home?” “There’s no one home and it’s boring,” the student
responded. I started to think about it then realized that most of their parents
commute and don’t get home till after 7pm, school at the time ended at 3pm.
Our school at the time offered no extracurricular activities other than the
traditional seasonal sports. I got to thinking that night and thought that maybe I
would try starting a fishing club. I really had no idea how I would go about running it
or if students would even be interested.
About the same time I was turned on to westernbass.com and saw a posting about
the C.O. Pro Teen tournament. I registered for the tournament as a boater and
couldn’t believe the numbers of teens who were signed up.
While sitting in my boat waiting for blast off I just so happened to be docked next
to Rod Martin. We started talking and I mentioned that I had ideas of possibly
starting a teen club at the school I teach. He thought that would be an excellent
idea and told me that if there was anything he could do to help to give him a call.
I ended up having a wonderful time during my first Pro Teen event and really started
to piece together a plan while driving home that evening.
First thing I had to do was see if any kids were even interested in a fishing club.
So, what I did was ask for a show of hands of who would be interested during each
class period. From the show of hands I knew that I would have some participation. I
now had to convince our Principal to allow me to start up such a club.
Throughout my lifetime the mention of fishing in a serious nature to non fishermen
always seemed to get an “are you serious,” response which kind of made approaching
him a little difficult.
I finally got the courage to approach him and couldn’t believe the reaction that I
received. He told me that he thought it was an excellent idea and that I had the
green light. A couple days later I posted flyers throughout the school about a fishing
club meeting. Over twenty kids showed up eager to learn. Surprisingly a lot of them
never fished at all!
I had some extra tackle at home but not nearly enough for that many kids.
I then asked through the northwest forum on westernbass.com for any tackle
donations for the club. I immediately was contacted by Rod Martin who said that he
would like to purchase 10 rods and reels for the club. I also was contacted by Dave
Thompson who sent several packages of very useable fishing equipment. Dave at Dave’
s Bass Shack even let me scrounge through his bin and take some tackle for the kids.
We had our equipment and as the weeks past I would teach the kids everything I
could from tides on the Delta, tying knots, spooling reels, fish species, etc.
My main objective at the time was to turn them on to fishing and prepare them for
the next Pro Teen event.
A couple weeks into the club I was approached by a seventh grader Alvaro Munoz. I
didn’t know much about Alvaro because he wasn’t in any of my classes. He was really
interested in fishing though and really excited about the club.
He pretty much had already mastered casting and techniques so I had him most of
the time help me with all the backlashes common to those learning how to cast with a
baitcaster in hand.
After a few weeks went by I asked for weekly progress reports from all of our
members. Alvaro’s was missing, so I basically told him that he couldn’t show up until
he brought me one. The very next day he brought his report and at the time he had
six “F’s!” I then told him that in order to stay with the club he would have to show
improvement every week and he did but just enough to stay in the club.
That year I asked Vince Hurtado and Ken Mah to visit the school to talk to the
kids. I grew up fishing with Vince and saw so many similarities between the two. I
told Vince about Alvaro and Vince immediately took an interest in Alvaro. Vince and I
each took a member out fishing that following weekend, Vince took Alvaro and I took
a student named Jose. We had a great time out on the water that day and I could
tell that something was immediately different after that day.
Alvaro seemed to mature over night and separated himself from some of his old
friends. The next grading period came and I received a copy of our schools honor roll
list. Alvaro’s name was on it, I couldn’t believe it! I had been told by his teachers
about his improvement but never believed he would improve so fast.
I then visited Vince right before he was getting ready to leave for his season with
BASS and told him the news. Vince couldn’t believe it either and then asked me what
Alvaro needed? “Why don’t you ask him,” I said as I handed him my cell phone.
After Vince’s conversation with Alvaro he reached into his boat and handed me two
high dollar combos and said, “Here, give this to Alvaro.”
Several months passed and Alvaro once again made the honor roll for the second
time. A few weeks later and I get this phone call from Louie Stout Senior Editor for
Bassmaster Magazine. He heard about the story and wanted to write about it. I
pretty much gave him the scoop and he thanked me and said that he wasn’t sure
where the story would appear either Bass Times or Bassmaster.
A couple weeks past and I received another phone call from Althea Cabarrao from
Bassmaster; she said that Bassmaster would like to fly us out to Kentucky Lake for
their next event. Sure enough I was then sent the flight itinerary and our hotel
reservations. When the school found out they were very excited, they even threw us
a going away rally where I addressed Alvaro’s accomplishments in front of all his
peers.
Once in Kentucky it was truly an amazing scene, our rooms overlooked Kentucky Lake
and we could almost watch the morning blast off’s from our balconies. At night the
fireflies were even buzzing around, I sure do miss those little bugs.
On day two of the weigh ins Louie Stout approached me, introduced himself and
asked to take Alvaro backstage with him and the cameraman. He then put a
backstage pass over Alvaro’s neck and took him backstage to meet all the Pro’s.
Talk about a kid in a candy store, he got to meet them all. While meeting and
talking to all the pro’s they all spent some one on one time with Alvaro and I really
was impressed that none of them just gave an autograph. They each took some time
with him and it was really cool to watch. Kevin Van Dam impressed me the most, his
family was there at the tournament and one of his sons kept telling Kevin “Dad when
are we leaving?” Kevin turned to the kid and told him to wait, apologized to Alvaro
and spent a good fifteen minutes talking to Alvaro.
Next as Vince was weighing in they brought Alvaro up on stage and presented him
with a framed copy of his article. The crowd cheered for him and backstage he went
to be interviewed. After the interview Vince, Alvaro, and the cameraman went out on
the boat for some on the water shots. While walking out to Vince’s boat Trip Weldon
tossed Alvaro a new Mustang self inflating life vest and said “Great job Alvaro.”
The very next day Vince introduced me and Alvaro to the owners of Bass Cat boats
and when I went to shake Jan Pierces hand she said “I don’t do handshakes and gave
me and Alvaro a big hug.” We spent roughly an hour with Ron and Jan Pierce and I
can’t say enough about them as they purchased Alvaro a lifetime subscription to
Bassmaster Magazine.
Needless to say Alvaro is still floating on cloud nine these days and I'll be keeping a
close eye on him as he has gone on to the 9th grade.
I’m not sure if I could ever top this year but I now have an even greater respect for
those like Andy Cuccia who has been positively impacting teen’s lives for as many
years as he has.
In no particular order I would like to mention those who have helped the club in one
way or another: Rod Martin, Ken Mah, Larry Myhre, Long Nguyen, Chad Martin,
Vince Hurtado, Dustin Wilks, Ben Gushea, Dave Thompson, Dave’s Bass Shack, Bass
Cat Boats, Shimano, Rods for Kids, and my wife for all her support.
Jarod Ballardo
August Knodt Fishing Club
the basketball courts and saw a lot of students hanging around. I had never really
noticed how many students wouldn’t go home after school until that day.
Several days past and I finally approached one of the students and asked them,
“Why aren’t you going home?” “There’s no one home and it’s boring,” the student
responded. I started to think about it then realized that most of their parents
commute and don’t get home till after 7pm, school at the time ended at 3pm.
Our school at the time offered no extracurricular activities other than the
traditional seasonal sports. I got to thinking that night and thought that maybe I
would try starting a fishing club. I really had no idea how I would go about running it
or if students would even be interested.
About the same time I was turned on to westernbass.com and saw a posting about
the C.O. Pro Teen tournament. I registered for the tournament as a boater and
couldn’t believe the numbers of teens who were signed up.
While sitting in my boat waiting for blast off I just so happened to be docked next
to Rod Martin. We started talking and I mentioned that I had ideas of possibly
starting a teen club at the school I teach. He thought that would be an excellent
idea and told me that if there was anything he could do to help to give him a call.
I ended up having a wonderful time during my first Pro Teen event and really started
to piece together a plan while driving home that evening.
First thing I had to do was see if any kids were even interested in a fishing club.
So, what I did was ask for a show of hands of who would be interested during each
class period. From the show of hands I knew that I would have some participation. I
now had to convince our Principal to allow me to start up such a club.
Throughout my lifetime the mention of fishing in a serious nature to non fishermen
always seemed to get an “are you serious,” response which kind of made approaching
him a little difficult.
I finally got the courage to approach him and couldn’t believe the reaction that I
received. He told me that he thought it was an excellent idea and that I had the
green light. A couple days later I posted flyers throughout the school about a fishing
club meeting. Over twenty kids showed up eager to learn. Surprisingly a lot of them
never fished at all!
I had some extra tackle at home but not nearly enough for that many kids.
I then asked through the northwest forum on westernbass.com for any tackle
donations for the club. I immediately was contacted by Rod Martin who said that he
would like to purchase 10 rods and reels for the club. I also was contacted by Dave
Thompson who sent several packages of very useable fishing equipment. Dave at Dave’
s Bass Shack even let me scrounge through his bin and take some tackle for the kids.
We had our equipment and as the weeks past I would teach the kids everything I
could from tides on the Delta, tying knots, spooling reels, fish species, etc.
My main objective at the time was to turn them on to fishing and prepare them for
the next Pro Teen event.
A couple weeks into the club I was approached by a seventh grader Alvaro Munoz. I
didn’t know much about Alvaro because he wasn’t in any of my classes. He was really
interested in fishing though and really excited about the club.
He pretty much had already mastered casting and techniques so I had him most of
the time help me with all the backlashes common to those learning how to cast with a
baitcaster in hand.
After a few weeks went by I asked for weekly progress reports from all of our
members. Alvaro’s was missing, so I basically told him that he couldn’t show up until
he brought me one. The very next day he brought his report and at the time he had
six “F’s!” I then told him that in order to stay with the club he would have to show
improvement every week and he did but just enough to stay in the club.
That year I asked Vince Hurtado and Ken Mah to visit the school to talk to the
kids. I grew up fishing with Vince and saw so many similarities between the two. I
told Vince about Alvaro and Vince immediately took an interest in Alvaro. Vince and I
each took a member out fishing that following weekend, Vince took Alvaro and I took
a student named Jose. We had a great time out on the water that day and I could
tell that something was immediately different after that day.
Alvaro seemed to mature over night and separated himself from some of his old
friends. The next grading period came and I received a copy of our schools honor roll
list. Alvaro’s name was on it, I couldn’t believe it! I had been told by his teachers
about his improvement but never believed he would improve so fast.
I then visited Vince right before he was getting ready to leave for his season with
BASS and told him the news. Vince couldn’t believe it either and then asked me what
Alvaro needed? “Why don’t you ask him,” I said as I handed him my cell phone.
After Vince’s conversation with Alvaro he reached into his boat and handed me two
high dollar combos and said, “Here, give this to Alvaro.”
Several months passed and Alvaro once again made the honor roll for the second
time. A few weeks later and I get this phone call from Louie Stout Senior Editor for
Bassmaster Magazine. He heard about the story and wanted to write about it. I
pretty much gave him the scoop and he thanked me and said that he wasn’t sure
where the story would appear either Bass Times or Bassmaster.
A couple weeks past and I received another phone call from Althea Cabarrao from
Bassmaster; she said that Bassmaster would like to fly us out to Kentucky Lake for
their next event. Sure enough I was then sent the flight itinerary and our hotel
reservations. When the school found out they were very excited, they even threw us
a going away rally where I addressed Alvaro’s accomplishments in front of all his
peers.
Once in Kentucky it was truly an amazing scene, our rooms overlooked Kentucky Lake
and we could almost watch the morning blast off’s from our balconies. At night the
fireflies were even buzzing around, I sure do miss those little bugs.
On day two of the weigh ins Louie Stout approached me, introduced himself and
asked to take Alvaro backstage with him and the cameraman. He then put a
backstage pass over Alvaro’s neck and took him backstage to meet all the Pro’s.
Talk about a kid in a candy store, he got to meet them all. While meeting and
talking to all the pro’s they all spent some one on one time with Alvaro and I really
was impressed that none of them just gave an autograph. They each took some time
with him and it was really cool to watch. Kevin Van Dam impressed me the most, his
family was there at the tournament and one of his sons kept telling Kevin “Dad when
are we leaving?” Kevin turned to the kid and told him to wait, apologized to Alvaro
and spent a good fifteen minutes talking to Alvaro.
Next as Vince was weighing in they brought Alvaro up on stage and presented him
with a framed copy of his article. The crowd cheered for him and backstage he went
to be interviewed. After the interview Vince, Alvaro, and the cameraman went out on
the boat for some on the water shots. While walking out to Vince’s boat Trip Weldon
tossed Alvaro a new Mustang self inflating life vest and said “Great job Alvaro.”
The very next day Vince introduced me and Alvaro to the owners of Bass Cat boats
and when I went to shake Jan Pierces hand she said “I don’t do handshakes and gave
me and Alvaro a big hug.” We spent roughly an hour with Ron and Jan Pierce and I
can’t say enough about them as they purchased Alvaro a lifetime subscription to
Bassmaster Magazine.
Needless to say Alvaro is still floating on cloud nine these days and I'll be keeping a
close eye on him as he has gone on to the 9th grade.
I’m not sure if I could ever top this year but I now have an even greater respect for
those like Andy Cuccia who has been positively impacting teen’s lives for as many
years as he has.
In no particular order I would like to mention those who have helped the club in one
way or another: Rod Martin, Ken Mah, Larry Myhre, Long Nguyen, Chad Martin,
Vince Hurtado, Dustin Wilks, Ben Gushea, Dave Thompson, Dave’s Bass Shack, Bass
Cat Boats, Shimano, Rods for Kids, and my wife for all her support.
Jarod Ballardo
August Knodt Fishing Club