Recruiting Comes To High School Bass Fishing

Recruiting has come to high school tournament Bass fishing.  For 41 years the National Scouting Report (NSR) has helped athletes get opportunities to play their sport in college.  Now NSR will be mentoring and promoting high school anglers that have the dream of fishing in college and potentially beyond.

In 2006, the TBF founded The Student Angler Federation and the national high school fishing movement to promote clean family fun through fishing.  Now both organizations are leading the way again.
NSR and TBF / Student Angler Federation have partnered to bring more recruiting information and more recruiting opportunities for high school anglers nationwide.  Rusty Rigney, CEO of National Scouting Report, “Both organizations have a strong history and mission statement.  There is a lot of synergy between our organizations, we both want to move our sport forward and see these young student anglers succeed.”  Kelly Gohman, VP of Sales and Marketing at TBF, knew immediately that the two organizations shared a common goal.  “I met the scouts from NSR for the first time in Orlando at ICAST 2021.  When I learned who they are and what they do, I knew we needed to partner.”

NSR and their scouts will be attending many of the SAF State Finals to scout and evaluate anglers for college programs across the country.  “We are looking for complete anglers, it’s not just about wins and finishes anymore.  Scouts are looking at social media presence, YouTube, academics, video and editing skills, personality and more when determining how complete the angler really is. ”, stated Rigney.  The partnership will give NSR the opportunity to see and evaluate some of the best high school anglers in the US.  To get signed up for a SAF State Championship or to get started in high school fishing go to www.highschoolfishing.org

In addition to attending many of the SAF State Finals, NSR will provide all of the SAF State Champions with a two year subscription for the “NSR Elite Marketing Package”, and they will be a part of the NSR High School Promotional Staff.  The “NSR Elite Marketing Package” works with anglers to prepare them and promote them to the next level.  The program helps the angler in all areas of becoming the Complete High School Angler.

NSR will be providing all high school anglers free recruiting profiles.  Now College coaches will have data on anglers from all over the country without having to spend any of their very limited recruiting funds.  This will create an even more competitive recruiting environment, which is good for the future of competitive high school Bass fishing.  NSR also saw a need for a national ranking system for high school anglers so Favorite and NSR have partnered to create a power rating system to rank high school anglers. Anglers are now being evaluated for the first 5 Star Angler rankings to be released January 21, 2022.  All high school anglers that want to be considered and evaluated for the NSR 5 Star Angler Program powered by Favorite need to apply at NSRFISHING.COM.  “It’s going to be exciting to see these anglers at the SAF State Championships compete for the championship and compete to see if they can become a 5 Star Recruit”, said Rigney.

High school anglers are very important to the entire fishing industry.  To steal a tagline from Favorite, they are “The Future of Fishing”.  Anything that brings attention and excitement to the high school tournament scene will help the sport to grow.  The Student Angler Federation and NSR are proud to be a part of that growth.

Source: The Bass Federation