ANNUAL REPORT - Tennessee Tech University

FISHING FOR TTU
“Does TTU have a fishing team?”, a fellow student asked
Josh Haskins, a sophomore basic business student, last year
during a flag football game. Josh did not know the answer,
so he set out to find out. He found we did not and several
students were interested in being a part of a club if one
existed.
Josh decided to start one because the first place winners of
the national competition could win millions for the team and
for their school. When he went to the website for collegiate
fishing last fall, he saw that University of Tennessee
was the national winner at that time. The whole
page was orange, and he promised himself that
by the time he graduated that page would be
purple and gold.
He secured a faculty advisor and filled out
the required paperwork to become a TTU
organization and the TTU Fishing Club
became official in the Spring of 2009 with
23 members and 8-12 members that were
seriously committed to competing in national
tournaments. These 8-12 became the
official TTU Fishing Team. The
team members used their own
fishing boats and vehicles to
compete in events.
Their first competitions
were in Florida and
Alabama. Two members
of the team drove all
night and day to get
to the competition in
Florida. They placed
18th out of 40 even
though they never
fished out of state
and had little sleep.
They got to meet
Roland Martin’s
family. Martin, a
legend in fishing,
invited them to
his bait shop and
gave them fishing
equipment just
because they were
the “boys from
Tennessee.” At
the same time as
the Florida event,
the other members
of the team attended a tournament in Alabama.
Although the team has competed in several states, their two
favorite tournaments (thus far) were at Lake Wheeler in
Alabama and Kentucky Lake in Tennessee. The first day of
the tourney in Alabama had weather of 34 degrees and sleet
and the second day had 29 degrees and snow. No one on
the team had ever fished in snow or at that particular lake.
They ended up being matched against Virginia Tech, the
national champion team, and only lost the tourney by four
pounds the first day. The second day they were matched
against Ole Miss and won by double digit weight.
That tourney was also memorable for Josh because
his favorite lure fell in the icy water and he went
in after it.
The Kentucky Lake tourney was a favorite
because they caught 17 pounds of fish in one day
with only a 4 person team and 2 boats. The other
teams had many boats and were fishing on their
home lake and still did not do as well as TTU. The
TTU team placed 10th out of 70.
When looking for sponsors for the
team, Josh sought out any and all
companies that sold any kind of
fishing equipment and sent them
a resume consisting of team
accomplishments. They have
received money, discounts, and
equipment from numerous
companies throughout the
country.
“We really need money this
year too. Every bit of the
gas, hotel, tournament fees
and equipment comes out
of our pockets once our
university funds are gone
(roughly $3,000). If we
have 5-7 people fishing
a tournament anywhere
out of state, that money
goes fast. My goal is to
also have our own truck
and at least one boat
wrapped in TTU colors
so we can truly represent
at tournaments. We are
the guys in purple and
we’re proud to be here!” said
Haskins.
10 Annual Report 2008-2009