 What's going on guys know if we're kicking their bass TV here with another video and I'm here with Hank from bass Tell them what you do. Yeah pretty simple Noah I am the manager of our college series high school series and all of our youth aspects here at bass So he's pretty much doing everything for the high school everything for the college He handles all that stuff And I got a lot of questions from you guys a lot of you guys have been asking How do I start a club? How do I start fishing the tournaments? What are the steps? So I took notes on that. I got some good questions so the first one is Requirements to fish in tournaments, right? So I mean pretty simple for us with our high school series our requirements are you need to be an official Organization or you know club at your high school. That's your first step You need to get affiliated at your high school and if you have problems with that We have a denial process that that's on our website But that's your first step get official with your school then you need to affiliate with us. It's very simple It's a $20 fee per person that includes a bass Membership and a bass nation membership and with that bass nation membership The important thing about that is is you get an insurance policy that helps your school That's a big question. We get a lot of times. It's a million dollar third-party liability insurance policy that helps protect The named entities when they're competing, but that's super technical Again affiliate with your school then affiliate with us and then you're gonna go our tournaments are entry fee free And we have several across the country that happened. So there's a lot of options for you out there All right another quit make sure you're taking notes a lot of good information in this video. Um Other question was like a step-by-step to get into fishing tournaments like how you go to your school, right? And you go Yeah So I mean the the first thing you need to do is go talk to your principal athletic director If they're not as accessible go talk to a teacher asking what you need to do talk to some official person at your high school They're gonna tell you who you need to go talk to And if you're having problems you can always call us my contact information's on bassmaster.com again You got to get into the school then you recruit your anglers The first thing you want to do again is get official then you recruit your buddies who you want to join the club You need a minimum of two that's it You know it can be we have some clubs who have 75 students involved in and I hope to break that record I hope we get over 100 Grab your buddies and then really you know You're gonna have to go to your dad's friends dad someone like that for a boat to get out there on the water You know that's that's the one tough part is finding that access to a boat But you can still you can go compete on a you know farm pond stuff like that if you can't have access to a boat But to compete in our national tournaments, you're gonna need to get out on the water But we don't want that to stop you if you just like to fish, you know Go go to that as some schools have pond right behind their high school that they're fishing in just go in groups Yeah, exactly a time. So what if the school? Doesn't there's not wanting them to start a club. So that that's what we talked about a second ago But we have it. We're not gonna let that stop you from forming a club. We have what we call a denial letter process I like to call it schools who are Unofficially official if that makes sense But basically what you do is you say, okay If you're having problems talking to the principal or the athletic director and they say we don't want to do that We don't want any part of that. So you say, okay, we sign this sheet of paper It's all mine. They just fill it out and they basically acknowledge that you have tried to form a club They have said no, we're not gonna do that They're gonna sign on behalf of the school for that and then they turn that in we have that on file And then you can go for what we call a community club and a community club can be Just representative of your high school or it can be multiple high schools. It can be a county club We let some homeschool students go that route You know some some smaller private schools go that route and that's called the denial Club list but you're still on the same level can compete against other high schools You know ultimately we want to do away with that because as this grows We have close to 300 high schools on fire right now We want all of them to be official. Yeah, that was another big question like the homeschool and everything so they just get on Well, there's actually two options for homeschools. You can go the timpibo route, too if if within that county if they allow homeschool students to place a football or baseball within their zoned high school They're allowed to join that high school as long as a high school allows them to do that So pretty much as long as they're in district and everything. Yeah, exactly All right How many states are currently like have basketballs right now? We have 42 states and two countries Canada and Australia Actually, excuse me three countries into Bob way That's crazy How many colleges had bass programs who colleges? We're about at the 250 mark and when you think about it the high school numbers should be a lot higher than the colleges because a lot of averages how many high schools out there per college, so we're already over our college number in in numbers with colleges you're kind of I don't want to say we've kind of hit our peak, but we're not seeing as many new schools join It's just the same schools are continuing to grow their program colleges are growing great It's just in terms of new schools coming in we kind of hit that saturation point. I got you So tell us about like the open events and how many You've had in the past year and how many you're gonna have in the future Well to show you kind of how that has evolved and when we first started our our high school endeavors We had our imitational which was in 2013 and then last year we had our open which was still one And then this year we bumped it up to three fully run opens We have a a southern a central and a midwestern So we're kind of trying to touch on all those areas so there's close tournaments free They're open to anybody you can go fish all three you can fish one It doesn't matter if you want to come fish it as long as you are affiliated with bass master high school You've gone and gotten official with your school or Provided the denial letter and then joined bass master high school. You were open to fish any open bass master high school tournaments So what so what goes further past the opens what happens if you get in a certain percentage, right? Yeah, so with the opens that is a direct route to our national championship So if you want to if you come fishing and open it's a basically One national championship spot per 10 votes who compete So if we have 50 votes compete, that's five teams that advanced our national championship 100 That's 10 teams 150 15 teams And they advanced our national championship where last year we awarded over 90 thousand dollars in cash and are in Scholarships and prizes and that's we're going to do that again this year too So what are your like future plans anything new to expand the program? One of the really neat things that we're excited about is our team trail Aspect and so everyone stay with me on this, but this is designed This is almost like if you have little league baseball leagues across the country We don't necessarily we're trying to design a program that leads all of our national championship Okay, so we have The opens that we run we go on around and run those but then we also have our team trails So that basically means know if you started trail around the Atlanta area You have to affiliate with us. It's like you're a little league affiliated sanction League, okay, you run four tournaments Under our rules our umbrella for every 25 teams you have participate in your trail At the end of the year equals one spot to our national championship So these schools aren't having to go to our opens We want them to come to our open So you know if you fish our opens you get to hang out with the league series anglers You get all kind of goodies from coast of sunglasses, you know And so it's it's a very cool event to happen But if you can't make that you can even form a trail around your house Run under our rules our guidelines and qualify from that to our national championship That's pretty cool. So you're having more opportunities against them We're gonna have we already have 10 team trails that are all over the country and we anticipate that We don't know how big that's gonna be it's unlimited. Whoever wants to do it. That's awesome So and then you guys did where there's some automatic qualifiers like in the regular trails for each state Right each so that that's the third facet of how to get to our national championship We have three ways so you have state the open the team trail Which is new that started this year, but then last year We only allowed each state nation by affiliating with the Bassmaster High School You're a member of the Bass nation So there's a Georgia Bass nation an Alabama Bass nation a Mississippi Bass nation An Australia Bass nation all of those state nations get a guaranteed two spots to our national championship Their state champions and their runner-ups. So that that's what's existed last year. That's where we got our 62 boat field This year. We're already over a hundred because we've added in our opens Plus the original locked in two teams per state nation You're just opening more ways for people to qualify in If your high school doesn't have a program, how can they participate in the tournament? So again that goes back to the denial route They need to go through that process talk to an administrator get them to sign that form and if they're having problems They can contact me. What are the safety requirements that you need like a tournament? So we're starting to The first thing is uh, well If you if you're competing in any of our tournaments We have a long list of safety guidelines you have to do the first and foremost And this just goes to anybody out there always wear your life jacket anytime that big motor is on and running You need to have that life jacket on. I don't care if you're just out there for fun We just see too many accidents happening. It could have been avoided if you had that life jacket on So that's the first thing you guys need to do no matter what But uh, you know, there's several safety things that we require. We're we're beginning to install coast guard safety Courses will need to be passed by all students competing with us That's because that's becoming a state requirement across the board We're going to go ahead and start that early with you guys and have that required as long as you're of age to take that Test so that's one of the big things and then they cover pretty much everything that's within our safety guidelines safety first What does it need to enter a tournament everything all the requirements? Well, you need a boat. That's the first thing It has to be an access to a boat. You know, I want to be clear there You know, we have a specific requirements that are listed in our rules I don't want to go through all that just because it's going to get confusing to you guys But the boat needs to be ensured. It needs to meet a certain length that motor can't have a Can't exceed a certain amount of horsepower, but uh, that's the first thing you need to have a partner We we always want you to have a partner These are designed to be team events and then you need a boat coach a boat captain Some people refer to it as that but we call them a coach and an adult who's going to take you out and And be your your captain slash coach for the day. He drives the boat the main engine and then Basically is your your cheerleader throughout the day All right guys, I'm pretty sure that's all the questions I have. Um written down so Pretty much get a club start at your school Start getting into the tournaments, right? You shouldn't be good from there The key there bassmaster.com slash high school Click on the registration tab at the top It basically step by step list all the forms you need everything you need is on there Including our contact information if you have any questions problems and get in touch with your state youth director We have a person in charge in every state who is very well in tune with the high school Happenings within that state and they usually can answer a lot of your questions If I can't their contact information is on the website also, but uh, it's all there if you need to contact us You can and you know that should cover everything you need or just watch this video Yeah, if you have any more questions you can leave them below I can try to help out with them But I'll put that link below so you guys can go check that out and guys be prepared for it talk to your parents about it Um talk to a teacher at school because that's another thing when you're trying to set up a club I don't know if that's how your school is but my school You need to have a teacher that's going to sponsor the club So get all of that settled in everything and then try to advance into the club But make sure we're in summertime right now So get everything prepared and then when you go into the school you're going to want to get it started off quick Because sometimes they might not let you halfway into the year so Already be prepping for that um this summer. Well, I think that's it if you guys have any more questions Like I said, leave a comment below. Thank you hank. No, thank you man. It's pretty cool pretty cool place. Um Pretty cool sitting in the bus headquarters. I'll see you guys next time