Frank Owens always finds time for kids
After long road trips, Frank Owens could just sit back and relax at home. But his commitment to introducing kids to fishing becomes a priority then.
For the last six years, Owens has served as a member of the Ranger Boats tournament support crew that travels to bass and walleye tournaments throughout the United States. He has worked at Red Man regional qualifier events, Red Man All-American Championships and a variety of circuits such as the Master Walleye Circuit, Professional Walleye Tournament Trail, EverStart Series, Central Pro-Am, and the Guys and Dolls husband-and-wife team events.
Anglers running Ranger bass and walleye boats can count on Owens’ expertise to keep their boats maintained properly during competition. “Anything they tear up, we’ll fix it,” says Owens, who sometimes lends a helping hand to others. “If someone else breaks down in another (company’s) boat and I have the part he needs, I’ll do what I can to get him back on the water.”
The walleye tournaments keep Owens on the road the longest. When the circuits are in full swing, he averages about two to three weeks away from home each month, except for a break in December. “I have been gone as much as four weeks in a row,” Owens recalls. The trips also put a lot of mileage on his Chevy truck each year. One of his long-distance jaunts this year was a 3,000-mile trip to Wyoming for a walleye tournament.
Traveling alone those long distances could be monotonous, but Owens finds ways to entertain himself. “I’ve got my CB radio, and I carry a lot of CDs with me,” he says.
After spending long hours on the road, Owens then averages about 12 to 15 hours a day working at the tournament site. Some of his maintenance tasks include working on livewell timers, aerators, bilge pumps, trailer brakes and wiring as well as routine outboard motor work, such as changing spark plugs.
Besides his maintenance and repair work, Owens takes on public relations duties when dealing with anglers.
“That’s the hardest part of my job,” Owens admits. “I have to learn how to play everybody. I have to deal with different situations from an unsatisfied customer to one of the fisherman being disgusted. They’ve been out fishing all day and are tired and worn out, then a problem occurs and they are short tempered and kind of disgusted. So I’ll fix their boat for them. I also try to work at getting them into a better mood.”
Meeting fishermen is Owens’ favorite activity, even though he sees them at their worst when a problem occurs. “They are friendly people,” Owens says. “I enjoy meeting people, and I’ve met some different ones all the way from Florida to Sault Ste. Marie.”
Walleye anglers have a tendency to change Owens’ Southern dialect though. “If I stay up north too long, I start saying, `Eh?'”
Traveling has been an occupational duty for Owens with two employers. Before joining Ranger Boats, Owens planted pine trees throughout Southeast Texas and Louisiana for a paper mill company. Ironically, he left this job because it required too much time on the road.
“I was away from home and the family, and we had just moved into the Flippin (Ark.) area,” recalls Owens, who has worked for Ranger for 17 years. “There weren’t a lot of jobs there, but I was ready to settle down and start staying at home because that running around year-round wasn’t too good. But I kind of fell back into it again.”
Beginning with Ranger in the gel-coat processing department, Owens kept on the move the next 11 years inside the Flippin plant. “Over the years, I just started going from one department to the next and learning from one end of the boat to the other,” he says. “Then I got to the rigging shop where they hang the motors on the boats and also started working tournaments part-time. I started working the tournaments then because there weren’t many people who knew the boat inside and out. Most of the people were working in one department and that is where they would stay.”
Even though he’s back on the road again with his tournament work, Owens has few qualms about traveling since his sons Lorin and Levi are grown now. “I enjoy what I’m doing, and my wife gets to go with me once a year,” he says. “We both have a good time. She sees how much I like it, and she supports me on what I’m doing.”
The traveling has curtailed some of his involvement with children’s projects he has organized. “I’ve always been interested in my boys and trying to do everything I can with them,” says Owens of his interest in children’s activities. “Both of them have kind of stepped into fill my shoes and are starting to work with young kids now.”
While at work about five years ago, Owens picked up an entry form for the “Like Father, Like Son” circuit and decided to get involved with this concept of kids paired with their parents or a near relative in a bass tournament. He eventually ran the Arkansas division of the national circuit and conducted three to four tournaments a year and a championship. “It was kind of like the big bass tournaments but we had a small entry fee,” Owens says. The early events drew about 20 boats. The field eventually grew to more than 100 teams.
After working with the “Like Father, Like Son” program for three years, Owens decided to leave the national circuit. “I was wanting to take it to a different level,” Owens says. “Instead of going with the organization, I had to go independently to have another similar father-son tournament. There are several of us in Arkansas who wanted to keep the tournaments on our lakes.”
His new venture, however, now requires more time than Owens can give. “We’re slow because I’ve been on the road so much,” he laments. “But we do have a couple of events a year now (on Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes) and we’ve had pretty good turnouts. There’s been lots of interest from retired people at Bull Shoals who have no kids or relatives left, yet they have boats and are willing to take out kids.” These retirees help Owens find partners for the youngsters without parents or guardians.
The Wal-Mart store in Mountain Home, Ark., and local bait-and-tackle shops have become involved with the tournaments that draw youngsters from ages 6 to 16. “They see that it’s a good benefit to the community,” Owens says.
Trophies and plaques are awarded to the top three finishers in the tournament, but Owens emphasizes there are no losers in his events. “We’ve had such a good response from our sponsors that we have prizes for all the kids, so everybody is a winner.”
Another activity for kids keeps Owens busy one night a week when he’s home. On Friday nights, he and his wife, Sylvia, supervise an open gym at the Midway Baptist Church.
“The kids will come in and play basketball or horseshoes,” Owens says. “We just invite anybody and everybody who wants to come.”
Thirty-five to 40 kids of all ages from the Midway, Ark., area flock to the church to participate in games and occasional cookouts. When Owens leaves town, the local kids can still enjoy this activity because Sylvia and their sons supervise.
Owens plans to reduce his travel schedule someday so he can spend more time with the kids fishing tournaments. “I would like to slow down a little bit (on the job) to give me the opportunity to work more with the kids,” Owens says. “I have seen such an interest in working with these kids and these fishing tournaments that I think the number of kids you could get to fish could just go off the charts. Everywhere I’ve gone, the attention it’s drawn has been unreal.”
While he waits for the days when he can devote more time to his project, Owens plans on using the children’s tournaments at Bull Shoals and Norfork as a pilot program. “We’re going to see what happens there first,” Owens says. “I think it’s going to turn a lot of heads. A lot of people are going to be looking at us.”
Although he’s unsure what his role will be, Owens wants to be involved somehow in the growth of nationwide kids fishing tournaments. “There are a lot of things I don’t know about tournament directing,” he admits. “Maybe I’m not the one to take it to the next level, but I can help out someone else if they need it.”