Montevallo High School’s newest sporting team is the fishing team.
Members include seniors John Wagner, Travis Hyde, Andrew Mabus, Ryan Edwards; juniors Myien House; sophomores Blake Majors, Dustyn Franklin and freshman Taylor Sellers.
Sellers, secretary for the team and only freshman and girl on the team, is excited about the new team and the season.
“I’m excited about the new fishing team,” Sellers said. “I hope we do well for the first year as a team.”
MHS principal Dr. Hester thinks that the fishing team is a great opportunity for members on the team.
“The fishing team is a great opportunity for the members to grow and to learn as people, as leaders, as fishermen and as representatives for MHS,” Hester said. “They get to go places and do things that other students don’t get opportunities to do. I admire their dedication and hard work they have demonstrated in creating the MHS team because all of them have done all the work, created ideas and made it happen.”
The team had their qualifier on Saturday, Jan. 4 at Lay Lake. No team member caught any fish that day, but they had a fun time being on the lake.
The team also participated in the 2014 Airport Marine High School Team Classic Trail with the team’s first tournament on Saturday, Jan. 25 at Lake Jordan.  Mabus placed fifth with 3.29 lbs. of fish, and Hyde and Majors placed eleventh with 1.41 lbs. of fish each.
The team worked at The Bassmaster Classic at the BJCC on Wednesday, Feb. 19 through Sunday, Feb. 23.  They helped set up for the event and sold merchandise for major boat companies including Mercury and Ranger. They also met famous fishermen including Randall Howell and Bill Dance.
Due to their work at the Bassmaster Classic, the team was mentioned in the March 17 issue of Sports Illustrated in the first paragraph of the article.
The team participated in the Alabama Student Angler Bass Fishing Association tournament at Lake Mitchell on Saturday, Feb. 8. Sellers caught one fish weighing 1.45 lbs, and Hyde and Mabus caught the limit of five fish weighing their total of 8.56 lbs, making the team total of 10.01 lbs. They placed 28out of 33.
The team continued their participation in the Airport Marine High School Team Classic Trail with another tournament at Lay Lake Saturday, Mar. 22. The team did not catch any fish to score in that tournament.