Kentucky basketball, football stars ready to fight for a state title ... in bass fishing?

A few Henry Clay athletes have earned one final shot at a state title before they graduate, but not in the sports in which they’ve starred throughout their prep careers.

Seniors Keaston Brown and Harris Hawkins, two All-City selections who helped lead the Blue Devils to the 11th Region basketball championship game in March, qualified for the KHSAA State Bass Fishing Championships after placing 20th out of 155 boats in the 2nd Region Tournament at Lake Cumberland on April 27.

Both boys competed with the team throughout high school but were never able to compete in the region tournament due to AAU obligations. With their college basketball choices solidified — Brown is headed to Tusculum University in Tennessee, Hawkins to Hope College in Michigan — they were free to compete in their final season of eligibility.

“Being from a city school, not many people know there’s a bass fishing team,” Hawkins said. “It’s big out in the country but a lot of kids at Henry Clay aren’t too familiar with it. They’re like, ‘bass fishing, what? How is that a sport?’”

Mike Blanton — a former Lexington police commander who retired from the force in 2013 — is Keaston and Hawkins’ boat captain, and they heaped praise upon him. The Magoffin County native is a semi-pro fisherman — one of his biggest victories came a few years ago when he and a teammate won a $40,000 boat — who discovered his own love for bass fishing while he was studying at Berea College, for whom he played basketball. He’s a friend of Keaston’s dad, Daniel Brown, Henry Clay’s basketball and bass fishing coach who also played college ball at Berea, and Harris’ dad Brad, whom he met through pickup basketball games.

Blanton loves that kids have an opportunity to compete in the sport for their schools. The KHSAA has sponsored a bass fishing championship since 2013.

“Tournament fishing is not like regular fishing where you go out and just kind of relax and cast your line out there,” Blanton said. “You’ve gotta work at it. You’ve got to put in a lot of effort and you’ve got to stay focused. It’s all about time management. The more casts you can make in a day, the more presentations, the better chance you’ve got of catching more fish than somebody else that doesn’t manage their time as well or work as hard at it.”

Harris and Keaston believe mental sharpness is the biggest skill that’s applicable to bass fishing and basketball.

“In basketball, when someone’s yelling at you and you mess up, you’ve gotta stay level-headed,” Keaston said. “Being on the lake for eight hours and you’re not catching anything, it can wear on you for sure.”

Henry Clay learned five days after the regional that it would get to field another boat — senior Ben Bates and junior Ethan Whitaker, both football players — at state after the KHSAA, in conjunction with Fishing League Worldwide, determined it would be able to add 26 additional qualifiers from across the sport’s four regions. Bates and Whitaker originally missed the state cut-off by an ounce.

“You go from not thinking you’re making it ... and now all of a sudden you get to go, so that’s cool,” Daniel Brown said.

It is the first time a Lexington school will have multiple boats in a single state tournament. Lexington has sent only five duos to the state tournament previously: Riley Cobb/Ben Marshall (Lafayette) in 2013, Matt Rue/Tyler Berryman (Tates Creek) in 2014, Cameron Nuchignani/Landon Orr (Lafayette) in 2016, Orr/Aaron Bussell (Lafayette) in 2017, and Bryce McPheron/Josh Roberts (Tates Creek) last year. Rue and Berryman have the best finish to date, placing 29th out of 46 boats.

Bad luck sometimes can make moot every ounce of skill one brings to the water. For instance: Tristan Barrett, who comprised one half of Marshall County’s state-title winning boat last year, was unable to hit the maximum amount of weighable fish (five) this year.

“Basketball and bass fishing, me and Keaston have talked about this, they’re both games of runs,” Harris said. “Basketball, you go on a 10-point run and the other team goes on a 20-point run. You go back and forth. In bass fishing, you catch a bunch of fish for 20 minutes but then you might go three hours without catching anything.”

With that in mind, Henry Clay’s anglers will head to Kentucky Dam Marina this Friday with state-title hopes, but only one expectation: have a blast representing their school one last time.

“I didn’t get my ring I wanted in basketball season so I’m gonna have to settle for a big bass on my finger. That’d be great,” Harris said. “Henry Clay is such a great school with a bunch of tradition, so why not add to that with a bass fishing title?”

State Bass Fishing Championships

When: Friday and Saturday

Where: Kentucky Dam Marina

This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 4:12 PM.