Osceola Anglers High School Fishing Club, Inc. is a Non-Profit 501c3 organization formed in 2014 to create an opportunity for high school students, both male and female, in Osceola County, Florida to participate in the sport of Bass Fishing.

 

The Club is run by our Angler Executive Board and is composed of eight officers and five committee spokespersons.  They will make policy changes based on feedback received from their peers.  Each position will have an adult advisor to help guide them in better decision-making and leadership skills.  Anglers will have the opportunity at the beginning of the club year to run for any position they believe they can succeed in.  Officers are only allowed to miss five club events throughout the season or they will forfeit their office position.  By doing this the anglers are taught leadership, responsibility, communication and dedication to the club along with working with each other and the community to reach their goals.

 

The club conducts several community events each season.  We try to instill “you sow what you reap”.  You help and stand by the community and the community will stand by the club.  Hard work pays off if you stay with it. Here are some of the community events we have hosted or volunteered at...

• Breast cancer awareness car wash: All proceeds raised from this event is donated to a BCA cause. The high school anglers have raised over $9,000 in the past 6 years. 

• Back the Blue: This event is to support our community's first responders. $6,000 has been raised over the past 3 years. This event has been converted into a tournament we now call Bass and Badges. 2022 was our inaugural tournament and was a huge success.  We anticipate this becoming one of our cornerstone events.

• We volunteer in multiple community events allowing us the opportunity to serve by helping to set up, clean up, or run a tournament for their own fundraisers. Our anglers were required to work 7 of the 11 events scheduled this year. Some example volunteer events are as follows. 

  • Clays 4 Kids: Our anglers help education foundation of Osceola County run a sporting clay classic to raise money "To bring resources and people together to support and enhance public Education in Osceola County."

  • St. Cloud Spring Fling

  • Cattleman's Annual Fishing Tournament

  • Students Angling for Success at Lake X: This is an event where we get to showcase our high school anglers by providing them the opportunity to teach elementary and middle school students about boating and fishing safety, conservation, and fishing techniques. 

  • Help Our Heros: We assist Toho Marine and Outdoors with their tournament to raise funds to give back to our troops and veterans. 

Of course, our main goal is to get our anglers on the water. To that extent, we have teams compete throughout the state and the United States. We are fortunate enough to be able to send several teams each year to compete in National Championships and World Finals. These events are similar to a capstone experience where anglers can showcase their skills and knowledge in the hopes of being recognized by college recruiters and pro staffers. Some anglers have even chosen to raise their own funds for the opportunity to experience competitive fishing on a national level. All our Regional, National, and the World Final tournaments are not in Florida.  They are held in different parts of the United States.  Without our sponsorships and fundraisers, sending teams to compete at that level would not be possible.

 

Lastly, and our favorite, the club has been fortunate through sponsorships and hard work with the community to be able to raise money that the club gives away $8,000 in scholarship money every season.  Since our inception in 2014, we have awarded $56,000 in scholarship money for the top anglers to use to advance their education or skill set for a better career opportunity. We have anglers that used their scholarship money for Fire School, Welding School, as well as Community and 4-year Colleges.  We had several anglers that received fishing scholarships from colleges for fishing.  

 

This is exactly why the club was started, to help all youth in our county.  Everyone has an opportunity to compete in fishing and it doesn’t matter your size, sex or nationalities, everyone is considered equal.  As the club grows it will try to grow its funding of scholarships and support for our teams traveling all over Florida and the United States to compete in fishing, meet anglers from all over the world and increase their education.

 

Our vision, as adult club advisors, is to provide exceptional experiences for our anglers in learning how to become a productive and active member within their communities. In doing so, it is our hope that they are able to promote themselves, their sport, and their community. To this end, we require each angler to find a sponsor for every year they participate in our program. We require this for several reasons.  First, it provides the angler with an opportunity to get real life experience with speaking to community leaders and promoting themselves. While the club does need financial assistance, the important lesson is for the angler to learn how to meet and speak with different kinds of people and companies. Second, the funds raised helps to cover the cost of the tournament prizes given out to our top teams at each tournament. And lastly, the funds help to provide an end of year banquet for our anglers and their families where we are able to distribute end of year prizes and scholarships.