I was a boat captain at the state tournament this past weekend. The parents of my team suggested that for the future safety of their kids, we need to address an issue.

When the worst wind hit Cedar Creek Sunday morning, my 22' Triton got blown into the rocks and i lost my steering. It was all I could do, with waves into the boat and on the trolling motor, to keep us out from further damage and disaster on the rocks. I was nearly thrown from the front of the boat three times. One of the boys found the tournament director's number and called for help. He told the kid that he would need to call the sheriff of someone. What? I had the boy call him back and hand me the phone. TD would not pick back up the 2nd time. A distress message was left, but never a call back. Fortunately the wind subsided and we were able to troll out of danger. I then called tournament director on my phone - immediate pickup. I voiced my concern that we were not offered assistance and our second call was not taken.

Possible challenge is - if one of the boats is in imminent danger, what do they do? Could we get something in place that all boat captains are aware of in case of an emergency? Will there be emergency help available?

I'm sure we all agree, nothing is more important than the safety of all involved.

Hope all of this leads to a better organization.

***A shout out to the team from Atlanta. After trolling (and fishing) back to within a mile of the ramp, they stopped fishing to pull us in. Thank you Atlanta HS Bass Team!***

glad y'all are safe.
What would you suggest?

Your story describes you as an inexperienced boater who had no business placing those young men in harms way. Why would you be out with young men in excessive wind as you describe. How does a 22 ft boat get blown into the rocks if you are not already to close to the rocks. Why would you not pull up trolling motor fire up the outboard and drive out of harms way before hitting the rocks. I could go one but I see no reason , Glad you all got home safe.

So.... don't go getting bent about questions like that, story seems short on info. Did the motor die? anybody check the possible weather conditions. Those type questions are going to be asked first.

Maybe let competitive tournaments start at the college level, younger kids might should be learning in fairer weather conditions, trouble a brewing with this high school organization.

Here is my idea and maybe I am just to simple minded......I don't know. I got to believe response time would be quicker than even calling 911 though.

My suggestion would be for all boat captains provide their cell phone number to the tournament director at registration time or any time before the tournament starts. Those numbers could be entered into a group text and if the tournament director gets a call a distress text could be sent out to all captains describing the location, boat description, and nature of the emergency. Anyone nearby could be there in minutes.

Yes it would take some time to enter those numbers into a text but I bet there is some sort of app or something that it could be done much quicker. I am not a tech guy but I know the technology is out there to do a mass text for something like that.

yes, it would not be hard to have some type of policy like that in place.

What was THSBA supposed to do?.........it shouldn't be their responsibility to hand hold captains........people need to take personal responsibility and not put themselves or their kids in that situation. People should be more aware of their surroundings (i.e. incoming weather) and not wait to move out of harms way before it's too late.

might not be that difficult. there is a text format being used currently where captain's receive info from the director while on the water. Problem may be that not all teams have signal on some lakes. We had scattered signal dependingon where we were.
I have the numbers for my other teams and various other captain's in my cell so if something happens I can reach out for help. I've never considered call the director for help while on the water.

YOU AND ONLY YOU are responsible for the people in your boat, not the tournament trail, tournament director, or anyone else. Think of it this way, what would you do in an emergency situation if you were just out fun fishing? Thats the same thing you should do in a tournament. Call emergency personnel, flag down another boat, or shoot a flare. Tournament trails dont provide emergency assistance for competitors. Best advise I can give is exchange numbers with fellow competitors or team mates and put together an emergency plan among yourselves.

THIS

While I agree, I also realize we are talking about mostly minors here and for the most part those minors are not in the presence of their parents while out on the water. I don't see how having a few extra safety nets involved would hurt.

I don't even like what I see at the high school level to be totally honest. But I don't think telling someone "tough, figure it out for yourself" is the right approach either.

Anyone can get in trouble. They should have a mechanism to solve problems especially when its safety related.
The weather Saturday should have kept people from being in unsafe areas but things change and equipment fails.

Glad nobody was hurt. I like the idea of a group text or just a tournament directors special text number to log when a contestant boat needs assistance.

The weather did what was forecast, and I watched several boats head for soft coves right before it really started to stand up out there. Glad you didn't end up on the rocks!

Actually, for the most part, the kids are with their parents. The vast majority of captains are a parent (or grandparent) of at least one of the kids in their boat. Also, The high school tournaments have been around for years, and this safety net need was never needed before. So, why institute a new need that wasn't needed previously.

And I am just taking your post and quoting JCB because of the words in it, I am not trying to degrade your thought or your post.

Final thought, half the critics of high school fishing on here are going to say "these kids shouldnt have captains in the boat for this reason or that, treat them like adults if they want to play adult sports", the other half are "these are kids, we need to be overly cautious and safe to protect these precious resources". Its just good the organizations don't listen to the critics, this thing would be night and day different every year.