If National Guard FLW College Fishing fans can learn anything from country music legend David Allen Coe, it’s that even when you think you’ve written the perfect story, occasionally there’s something more that is needed before you’ve got it just right.
In Coe’s famous song “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” he finishes singing what you think is the entire song. But then he explains that his friend that wrote the lyrics told him it was the perfect country-western song. Coe counters that it cannot be the perfect country-western song without a few additional components (mamma, trucks, trains, rain and a few other things). So, his friend revises the song with just one last verse, including mamma, trucks, trains, rain and a few other things. In the end, Coe decides it is indeed the perfect country-western song.
Well if Jake Gipson and Matt Wercinski were to write a story about their college fishing careers, most people would say that they did a fine job. The duo from the University of Florida won qualifiers, regionals and the 2010 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship, qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup and entering the record books as the first-ever College Fishing National Champions.
Click “save,” send it to the printers, story done, right? Wrong.
Gipson and Wercinski say that there is one last chapter, a repeat title, between them and a perfect finish. And as we look to close the 2011 National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship, they are only a few paragraphs away from completion.
After day one of the championship, Gipson and Wercinski were sitting in fifth place, just within the cutoff to make it to the last day. But on day two, they blew the tournament open with a 14-pound, 12-ounce stringer that propelled them into first place, where they are now in prime position for a repeat championship.
But that’s not even the whole story. The Gator teammates already have four National Guard FLW College Fishing victories to their credit: a 2009 qualifying event, the 2009 Southeast Regional Championship, the 2010 National Championship and the 2010 Southeast Regional Championship, which qualified them for the event they now lead.
So let’s put this into perspective. Gipson and Wercinski have won the only two Southeast Regional Championships ever held. They’ve won the only National Championship ever held. They have a qualifying event victory (oh yeah, and a second-place finish). And now, they are in the driver’s seat to win a second national championship, just when we thought the story was finished.
No matter how it ends at Kentucky Lake, Gipson and Wercinski will finish their college fishing careers today as the winningest anglers in National Guard FLW College Fishing history, by a mile. Sure, the program is only in its third year. But we might never see a duo dominate like this one has. They are undefeated in “postseason” events. They have consistently topped All-America competition when it matters most in what is probably the most competitive college fishing region in the country.
Some would argue that they were lucky to draw two regional events in their home state. But hey, they won the 2010 National Championship in Tennessee, lead this one in Kentucky and finished second in a qualifying event in Georgia. Plus, Gipson cashed a $10,000 check for a respectable 50th-place finish at the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Lanier, which is about as different from a Florida lake as you can get. Oh, and he was fishing against the top pros in the world with $600,000 on the line.
So who among the top-five finalists today can stop the mighty Gators?
Could it be Auburn? Shaye Baker is part of that Auburn team, but he has finished second, third and third behind the Gators in each of their postseason victories, and the Tigers must overcome a nearly 6-pound deficit.
Could it be the second-place team from LSU Shreveport? The Louisianans called out the Gators on stage at the day-two weigh-in, and they made it very clear that they have figured out a pattern on Kentucky Lake. They likely stand the best shot.
Perhaps it will be the team from Christopher Newport University. Nothing against CNU, but they were on nobody’s radar coming into this event. That also means they had no pressure and still don’t. In third place and less than 4 pounds back, they could pull off a surprise win for all the fellow small schools out there that dream to compete at this level.
Or it could be the All-America team of Kevin Beverley and Ben Dziwulski from NC State. They’ve been to a championship before and have tasted victory at the regional level, but they’ve got to overcome nearly 7 pounds to unseat the Gators.
Frankly, this is Florida’s tournament to lose, but you wouldn’t know that by talking to the champs. They’re cool as always, professional in their responses in front of the weigh-in crowds and focused on the water.
I watched them fish yesterday, when a DNR boat came up to perform a quick creel survey. Gipson and Wercinski never missed a beat. Their heads stayed down and they stayed focused.
The champs fish with a very quiet, unassuming intensity. They look almost mechanical, casting in rhythm and barely uttering a word.
Today, they’ll rely on that rhythm to try and hold off the charge that will surely come from one of the remaining top-five teams. But if the Gators go about the day with the “business-as-usual” attitude that has taken them this far, the final chapter of their story might be one that is never matched by another college squad for as long as College Fishing shall be. They’ll walk away two-time champs, with four postseason wins in as many tries. They’ll be legendary, forever stewards for the college game, and they will carry the collegiate banner once again to the Forrest Wood Cup.
And that would be the perfect college fishing story.