Story by Hunter Sales
One of the questions I get asked the most from my friends is “What does a college fishing coach do?” In this column, I’m going to dive into that and set the stage for follow-up articles about my day job. Fishing is certainly unique from many of the traditional sports that we have all grown to love, but also similar in the fact that it requires similar discipline and commitment.
In my opinion, a successful college bass fishing coach will be someone who can create an excellent culture, keep anglers accountable, motivates them to chase goals bigger than they believe possible, and mentors them through their exploration of the fishing industry.
Creating a culture is the most important part of any leader’s job. To elevate everyone’s performance in a sustainable way, the group must agree on core principles. It’s not enough for the leader to just name these, but rather actually sell the group on the benefits behind upholding the principles. This will create an environment where these principles are self-policed.
At Carson-Newman University, our “Eagle Anglers” program stands on four pillars: Integrity, Unity, Diligence, and Resilience. These were decided by our group of anglers roughly four years ago as the non-negotiables of being a part of our team.
Integrity is something you hear a lot in any organization, but our sport is particularly sensitive to the topic of integrity. In a game that is self-policed and full of grey areas, we want to create a reputation as a team that does things the right way. Furthermore, operating with integrity helps to build trust among team members which leads into our next pillar.
Unity is defined in our handbook as “the state of being one.” This is important in a sport where so much of our learning comes from our network. If we can create a team that fully trusts each other, operates as one unit, and wants to see teammates succeed as much as individuals, we can create a team that prioritizes teaching and learning from each other.
Diligence is defined as careful and persistent work or effort. This should be present in everything you do, whether that be class, tackle preparation, etc. We want a group of anglers who do things the right way all of the time regardless of who is watching.
Finally, resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Fishing, not unlike other sports and life in general is full of highs and lows. You can’t let your highs be too high or your lows be too low. You must realize that the moment you are living in will pass, and you must be able to focus on that next cast regardless of the one before.
Accountability is something that we can all benefit from. It isn’t enough for me just to spell these pillars out to our team, but rather I must provide the accountability to keep them on track. As a group, we’ve decided this is how we are going to operate and realize how it helps us reach our goals. It’s easy to drift off track — skipping class or getting priorities out of order. Either way, one of the most important jobs a coach has is to recognize this drifting and correct it so that the angler doesn’t lose opportunities in the future. Likewise, motivating anglers to reach goals is important. It’s very difficult to spend meaningful time in the boat with every angler on our roster, but when I do, I’m always blown away at how advanced the average collegiate angler is. They are truly some of the best fishermen in the country, but a lot of times they may not even realize it because their friends are also ultra-talented. Helping them to keep the belief that they have what it takes to make fishing a career is as important as anything a coach does. This keeps their work ethic high when it may be easy to slack off.
Finally, mentorship in both life and the fishing industry is something we value highly at Carson-Newman. Aside from the difficulties these 18-22 year-olds will deal with in life, the fishing industry can be an overwhelming and sometimes nasty place. Helping these guys see which doors to open, which paths to walk down, who to trust, and where to fish is one of the most rewarding things that I do. It’s not easy to develop a platform in this crowded arena even for me, but it is certainly possible with the right choices and a plan.
In the coming weeks, I will break down some specific advice that has helped some of our anglers in this space.
Hunter Sales – Angler Profile
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