High School National Championship Berths At Stake As Regional Conference Championships Begin Nationwide

The first of five, TBF/FLW Conference Championships is set to begin this Saturday as the Central Conference Regional action heats up at Lake Carlyle in Central Illinois.
Twenty one schools, representing ten different states were qualified from the central part of the country, take to the waters of Lake Carlyle with the hope of advancing to the 2016 High School National Championship. The Conference Championship will advance 10% of the field (the top two teams in this case) to the National Championship event which has found a home with the TBF Adult National Championship and a FLW Tour stop each spring.
Last year ten teams from five TBF/FLW conference championships advanced to the National Championship held at Oklahoma’s Grand Lake. There, the National Finalists were put into ten brand new matching Z520 Ranger Boats for the two day competition which concluded with the top five teams weighing in at the FLW’S Beaver Lake Tour stop in Rogers Arkansas in front of a huge crowd at the John Q. Hammonds Center. At that event North Carolina’s Tyler Black and his partner KJ Queen took home a $10,000 College Scholarship.
Queen took his scholarship money and moved on to Bethel University in Tennessee where he is also a member of one of the top collegiate programs in the country while Tyler Black is on a mission to repeat. He will be competing in the South East Conference Regional Event in Gainesville Georgia on the ever popular Lake Lanier.
The top ten percent from each state championship run by the TBF and FLW advance on to one of five regional Conference Championships, as stated from there the top ten percent advance to the High School National Championship.
“This format allows us to reward those areas of the country where High School Fishing is growing in leaps and bounds” commented TBF National Youth Director Mark Gintert.
“The more teams that fish your state championship the more teams get to advance. Likewise the more teams from across your region who advance to the Conference Championship the more teams that get to advance to the National Championship” added Gintert. “We feel this equalizes the playing field and rewards teams from big participation states as well as provides a motivator for smaller states to help grow their program so they can get more qualifying spots in the Conference Championships” concluded Gintert.
In addition to the Central Conference event on Carlyle, the four remaining Conference Championship Include:
Northern Conference Championship, September 19 at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
Southeast Conference Championship, September 26 at Lake Lanier, Gainesville, Georgia.
Southern Conference Championship, October 17 on the Arkansas River, Pine Bluff Arkansas
Western Conference Championship, October 27 on Clear Lake, California.
Good luck to all of our SAF Anglers as they begin their quest to become the next High School National Champion!
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