2001 Casting Kids State Championship

                                                      sponsored by Marine USA

And the winners are:                 

Every March the Mass Bass Federation holds its Casting Kids State Championship.  Once again, it was held at Marine USA on Route 20 in Shrewsbury.  For the past 3 years the Casting Kids finals have made a home at Marine USA.  Paul Tsourides, owner of Marine USA, has invited the Federation to hold its Casting Kids Championship at Marine USA’s annual Open House for the last four years.  As usual, Paul and his staff took good care of all the kids and put on a great show.  As in the past, Marine USA donated all the proceeds from the refreshments sold to the Federation Youth Tournament.  We are truly lucky to have a Federation sponsor like Marine USA that takes an interest in helping the Federation put on a first class Casting Kids Championship and support our youth activities.  We thank Marine USA for coming forward to help the Federation again this year.

There were 27 kids between the ages of 8 and 14 that came to Marine USA for a chance to win the Mass Bass Federation Casting Kids Championships.  There are two divisions that compete; the junior division for ages 7 to 10, and the senior division for ages 11 to 14.  Both divisions send a winner to the B.A.S.S. National Championships, which this year is being held at the Delta in Mobile, Alabama.  Both winners go to the National championship to compete in the B.A.S.S. Eastern Division Casting Kids Championship.  If they are lucky enough to win there, they go on to the Casting Kids Championship at the Bassmasters Classic and have the opportunity to win a scholarship.  Every year B.A.S.S. gives away $20,000 in scholarships through the Casting Kids competition.

Lets get down to what happened at this years Championship.  The day started off with one hour of practice from 11 to 12 noon.  At 12 o’clock the targets were changed and two new rods and reels were taken out.  Youth Director Wayne Bacon went over all the rules and scoring with both the contestants and the members of Yankee Bassmasters that were there to help run the Championship.  When the competition started you could see the concentration on each kids face as they took careful aim at the Casting Kids targets.  Each kid came from different competitions held throughout the state each year by Federation clubs.  However, this level of competition is different.  We had the top 27 kids competing head to head.  There was no favorite to win this competition.  There were also four past Casting Kids Champions competing, so this would be a tough competition for a kid to win.

It took an hour and a half to complete the competition.  Each kid that competed deserves a lot of credit for being able to stand up there with 100 people watching every cast you make.  It was great to see the camaraderie of all the kids as they stood in line at practice, as well as competition.  As the contest went on over the hour and a half, you would watch as different kids pushed the bar up another notch.  In the end, 11-year-old Shawn Davis of Freetown won the senior division with a score of 140, and 8-year-old Robby MacRae, the youngest kid in competition, won the junior division with a score of 110.  Both kids were ecstatic, you could see by the smiles on their faces that they were excited about moving on to the Eastern Division Championship in Mobile, Alabama.  They will be good representatives for the Massachusetts B.A.S.S Federation at this years Championship.

To wrap it up, we would like to thank all the clubs that ran Casting Kids competitions during the past year.  We would also like to thank all the parents for bringing the kids out to compete at our events.  Again, a special thanks to Marine USA for hosting this years Championship.