Owasso Fishing Team: a new way to bond
By Reagan Rozzi
Picture of Stone Canyon Pond taken by Reagan Rozzi
In a world of ever-advancing technology and rapidly decreasing face-to-face interaction, forming emotional connections with one another has become an outdated practice. It’s easier to send someone a text message from our home than to physically exert ourselves by driving to pre-made social plans—and with this comes the extinction of our ability to venture outdoors and get our hands dirty, experiencing something other than a blue-light daze. To combat these modern troubles, however, Owasso’s very own fishing team is helping this generation of teenagers re-instill social interactions back into their daily lives.
The local team, which usually consists of about 40+ members, requires that students must attend Owasso Middle School or High School, recruiting fishermen starting in the 6th grade. The team then separates into two divisions: the junior division (for middle school students) and the high school division. With lively coaches who possess a lifetime’s worth of experience, their weekly practices are filled with both wisdom and fun.
Team member Liam Babbit, a freshman at OHS, explained the average agenda of their team’s meeting sessions at Stone Canyon Pond.
“Every week we go to one practice; it’s usually on Thursdays or Sundays…we all bring our tackle, and we have coaches, and they tell us what we can use, and we get suggestions from them…last practice there was a game and [the coaches] brought prizes.”
The various ponds across town serve as grounds for the team’s competitions. Partnering on each other’s boats and assisting each other in the decision of proper bait and tackle, the students and coaches are all able to bond with each other and members of other schools’ teams over the patient sport.
In common sports, these contests are often held in one location, occasionally requiring teams to participate in decent travel. But for the unique art of fishing, average tournaments are held at several different ponds throughout the week, in which students must compete in a specific and consecutive order.
Students follow a “tournament trail,” or fish at the designated bodies of water in a certain order based on their ranking, and they may only qualify for finals if judges rank them into different percentages.
“If you’re in the top 10% of [the first] three tournaments then you can go to finals.” Babbit shared, “It’s also determined by points, and you get points by participating…and catching fish.”
Photo of team member taken by Liam Babbit.
But the time-consuming craft is more than just tossing fishing lines into bodies of water. The sport serves as a medium for building relationships among people who share similar interests and passing on advice they’ve learned. Out on the tranquil water, the fishers only have their one partner and their gear, leaving room for closer connections to form between themselves and their sport.
“My favorite part of the team is having a place to meet up with people who know more than me,” Babbit expressed.
With the team’s wide age range between its members and coaches, the group creates a form of mentorship for the young, learning athletes. The sport also reinforces the importance of physical versus virtual communication and hands-on work, returning people to their natural social roots.