THE RIGHT CATCH By Rachel VanCuren and Abigail Pratt Harding's FishingClub celebrated another semester ofacti\·ities and friendships in fall 2016. The club was spon ored by Harding's executive vice president, Dr. Da\'id Collins. who wantf'd the club to be a group of people who shared similar interests and passions for fishing and competing. The club's president, junior Lane Carger,joined when there were only a fe,,· members, but saw it grow imo a full organization with a very promising competitive team, especially when freshmen Ethan Flowers and Cole Swede joined the team in 2016. Cargcr hoped to keep the club growing. "\ \'hen I came into the club that was started by Dr. Collins, it ,ms already set up,'' Carger said. ·'They just needed people to get interested in it, so that's what I've been working on. This year, with [Flowers] and [Swede], itjust fell in line. This is the biggest it's ever been. In the whole club now [there arc] about 15 people. \\le have a great competitive team." Both Flowers and Swede grew up fishing and competing in high school, which brought a ne\\· levcl of competition to the club. In fall 20 16, Flowers and Swede were partners and fished in two different tournaments together through the Fishing League \,\'orldwide National Guard College Fishing Tournament. They placed sixth in Regionals, gaining the chance to compete al Nationals. '·Harding's never been to Nationals, so we were really excited Lo be the first ones to go," Flowers said. "It was our first try at it since we're both freshmen. [It was] pretty awesome." Collins, encouraged by the caliber of fishermen iiwoh·ed in the club, bclie\'ed the initial dream of the club's founders had come back to life. "Back when we started the club, the students and [I] had a dream," Collins said."\ Ve had a dream ofthisbeing a pecial interest type ofstudent organization, where we [would ha\·e] outings and different speakers [comeJ to talk to us about their techniques. \\'c had a lot of ideas, but as student organizations go, it's up to the students to assume leadership to do that, so some of those ideas waned. Collins said he was eager to sec that vision expand and grow as the next group ofleadcrs take charge in the club. "\ Ve ha\·e continued to compete, though. I think right now, the students that are involved, especially the leaders, ha\·e dc\'eloped that \·ision again,'' Collins said. "They're beginning to ha\·e meetings about some of those kinds of ideas. I see it growing nm,v, and we'll continue to hopefully have strong leaders in the future.·' The Fishing Club practices regular(}' lo pre/Jare for tournaments held in Arkansas and Louisiana. The Jni111a1)' /J11r/J0Je of the Fishing Club was to promote camaraderie and sport s111ans hi/J. I Photo courte~J' of Ethan Flower:, Freshmen Ethan Flowers and Cole Swede pose with their catches of the day at the Fishing League Worldwide on the Ouachita River in Monroe, Louisiana, on Oct. 9. The Fishing Club was able to compete on a local, regional and national level. I Photo courtesy of Lane Carger )':i'1 ),- OllG \ \I /. \TIO\-,
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