Hollis Brookline offers a wide variety of sports for students to take part in. One sport, however, that has not been offered before at HB is bass fishing… until now.

This fall, Hollis Brookline will have a high school bass fishing team. Nothing is confirmed yet, but Kyle Bentall ‘18 and Richard Cadario ‘17 have been working to bring a team to HB, and the chances of having one next year are very likely.

Cadario and Bentall went to the Bass Pro Shops in Hooksett, along with representatives from other schools, to find out more about high school bass fishing and to get some tips for the season. “A semi pro came in and talked to us,” said Bentall. “There were some tank demonstrations and some giveaways.”

“Most of our competing schools have bass fishing teams,” said Cadario. “It makes sense for us to have one.”

Milford High School and Bishop Guertin High School are the closest schools to HB that already have bass fishing teams. Many of the other New Hampshire teams are located in the Lakes Region. There is only one division, so regardless of school size or location, every bass fishing team is a Division I varsity team.

The setup of a bass fishing team is one of the aspects that makes it different from other school sports. A varsity team only consists of four members, due to boat restrictions. Each team must supply their own boat, and certain specifications for size must be met. This makes it difficult to include a junior varsity team, but Bentall and Cadario are still investigating the possibility of having one. “There could be a JV team but there are a lot of requirements and regulations,” said Bentall.

High school bass fishing is a competitive sport, which may come as a surprise to many. Competitions run eight hours long, in which teams try to catch the five biggest bass possible. A bass must be at least twelve inches long to qualify for the competition. The total weight of all fish caught by each team determines the winner of the competition.

The odds are looking good for bass fishing to become HB’s newest sport. The interest is there, they have the resources, and students have done the work needed to get it off the ground.

“We’re looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun,” said Bentall.