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EDGARD — In only two years of existence, the West St. John High School Bass Fishing team has made quite a splash at competitions across Louisiana.

The Anglers competed in the Louisiana BASS Nation High School State Championship July 25 at the Cypress Bend State Park on the Toledo Bend Reservoir and came out with top 10 placements.

West St. John juniors KhristianRousseve and Shamar Pierre fished with their boat captain Vernon Silver and finished in fourth place with a total weight of 12.2 pounds.

Sophomore Devrin Harper Jr. fished solo with his boat captain Marvin Pierre and came in sixth place with a total weight of 11.47 pounds.

West St. John came in second place with the overall team award, bringing in 23 pounds with only two teams. A total of 85 teams competed in the state championship.

The West St. John Bass Fishing Anglers are ready to compete in the Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series on Aug. 30 at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell. This competition will be a nationals qualifier, according to team sponsor RochelleDarville.

The West St. John High School Bass Fishing team was introduced in the 2018-2019 school year. The team competed without a problem in Fall 2019 before COVID-19 cancelled a majority of the Spring 2020 competitions.

The Louisiana High School Bass Association took scores from previous competitions to handle qualifying for the state competition.

“Our team qualified because they came in the Top 10 of a couple of different competitions that they had in the fall and an early one in the spring,” Darville said.

Darville has high hopes for the Aug. 30 nationals qualifier. Year three looks promising as the team continues to find success on the water.

“I hope to not only see it grow in the future with more students participating at West St. John, but I also hope to see it come to our sister school at East St. John High School. I would like to see this become a parish wide sport,” Darville said.

“They, the students, get to explore other sports besides your traditional football, baseball and basketball to know there are other sports they can be competitive in. It also gives them the opportunity to learn about their outdoor environment and have a love for nature.”

Since fishing is still a new sport at the high school level, the boys are great need of  sponsorship.

“The boys are looking to do some community service activities where we’re going to be hosting some opportunities to get youth involved in more outdoors sportsmanship. That’s one of our plans for the upcoming school year. How it’s going to look is contingent upon how COVID is going to affect it,” Darville said.

Please call Ms. Rochelle Darville at West St. John High School at 985-497-3271 for more details about sponsorship.