Angling Duo Represent DeKalb At National Event

DeKalb County High School seniors Wesley Kent and Mason Taylor will head to Dayton this week to compete in the Strike King Bassmaster High School National Championship.

The angling duo punched their ticket to the tournament by competing in tournaments across the state and eventually earned the 10th ranking in Tennessee. DeKalb County High School’s fishing coach Jeff Taylor said the boys have the community excited.

“We’re super ecstatic about it, we’re proud of both of them,” Jeff Taylor said. “They have worked really hard this year. We fished numerous tournaments, and even traveled out of the state a couple of times to fish like a Bassmaster or something like that. So they’ve really worked hard and they enjoy it you might say.”

The tournament will be held on Lake Chickamauga on Thursday through Saturday and over a hundred duos are expected to compete. Jeff Taylor said that the event is the biggest tournament at the high school level and that both Kent and Mason Taylor have their eyes on the next level of competition.

“It’s like the biggest thing next to the Super Bowl and stuff in fishing,” Taylor said. “This is as high as they can go at the high school level and both of them are kind of looking forward to going to do it in college too. So, this is kind of like a step up for them.

Kent and Taylor became partners in their freshman year at DeKalb High, a partnership that goes beyond fishing.

“One can be kind of serious for a moment and the other can kind of joke and carry on. They just kind of feed off of one another,” Taylor said. “They laugh and have fun too while they’re fishing in the tournaments and stuff. You can see the camaraderie when they’re together, even when they’re not fishing, they’re doing stuff outside of fishing too.”

Jeff Taylor said this tournament is not only a huge moment for the boys, but also the future of the program.

“I’m hoping for the future that the kids coming up, from eighth grade and on, that they can see that, ‘Hey just a small town club can make it to the nationals,'” Jeff Taylor said. “They just got to have that passion and want to do it.”