Two local St. Landry Parish high school students are bringing home some shiny hardware for their high school fishing team after coming in 2nd place in the TBF High School World Finals Championship. After competing against some of the best teams in the country, Bennett Fontenot and Braxton Speyrer from the Port Barre High School Fishing Team bagged 2nd place and over $300,000 in scholarships.
Traveling nearly 700 miles to Anderson, South Carolina for the 15th Annual High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship the Port Barre High School team battled their way to the top in the dual-event on Lake Hartell.
The World Finals is the most significant national High School event of Major League Fishing, awarding many prizes and scholarships, yet also being the most challenging to win. Bennett and Braxton competed in the dual-event against 450 teams from all around the world consisting of teams from 42 states, and even foreign countries including Canada, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
On Friday, the team bagged a total weight of 9-pounds for the World Semi-Finals coming in 7th place and positioning them for the spot in the World Finals Championship where they would solidify their victory taking 2nd place.
“It got a little stressful for the team at the end of the day but they showed resilience and pulled it off. These guys have battled this heat for 6 days and have not showed any signs of slacking!” stated from the Port Barre High School Fishing Team.
At the final weigh-in for the World Finals, their catch weighed a total of 12-pounds, 14 ounces, just 2 oz. shy of first place winners team from George Rogers Clark High School Bass Fishing Team out of Winchester, Kentucky.
When Bennett and Braxton were asked what helped them throughout the tournament, Fontenot explained that the main ticket for them was using the same cast in the same spot each day they fished which lead them to meet their limit within the first 15 minutes of the day.
Taking their spot in the World Finals, Fontenot and Speyrer were awarded multiple scholarship offers- $160,000-4 year scholarships offer to Simpson University, $32,000- 4 year scholarship offer to Bethel University, and a $70,000-4 year scholarship offer to Kentucky Christian University.
It’s a remarkable achievement not only for the community of Port Barre, but for Louisiana as well, as the only team in the state to make it in the top 31 fishing teams at the World Finals.
Photo credit: Port Barre High School Fishing Team
