August 11, 2023
FCA Outdoor Fishing Tournament Hosted by Former NFL Player Sammie Smith!
By Kyle Coppola
FCA Outdoor Fishing Tournament Hosted by Former NFL Player Sammie Smith!
Former NFL Player Sammie Smith Hosts FCA First Annual Florida Junior/High School Bass Fishing Classic!
The Inagural Florida Junior/High School Bass Classic will take place at Lake Harris Chain @ Hickory Point on August 12th – 13th, 2023. This is exciting news and we are so happy that the sport of fishing is continuing to grow in our area.
(Event flyer explaining about the fishing tournament.)
The event will start at 6:30am and weigh-in on both days is at 3:00pm. There will be two divisions represented in the tournament. The Junior Division is for 8th graders and under and the High School Division which will be for 9th thru 12th grades. The cost to enter the tournament is $110.
There will be a Big Bass Pot Raffle which you can enter for $10 and there is some big cash money up for grabs. In the High School division, 1st place in the tournament gets $1,400, 2nd place earns $700, 3rd place $350 and 4th place $100.
For the Junior Division 1st place earns $1,000, 2nd place earns $500, 3rd $250 and 4th place earns $100. Each participant will receive an FCA Outdoors Bible (if desired) & al registered teams will be placed in the raffle to win a rod & reel.
(Sammie Smith is a former FSU running back who would go on to play for the Miami Dolphins.)
The event is coordinated by former Florida State Seminole & NFL player Sammie Smith who played with the Miami Dolphins in the 1980s and 1990s as the teams running-back. Smith was the 9th selection in round 1 of the 1989 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins.
Sammie Smith’s daughter goes to MDCA. He recently moved back to Lake County. He says “It just feels good to be home.” Smith was recently working with Ole Miss and has moved back to work with FCA. “Logically coming back to Lake County, we have some of the best lakes in the USA. The Harris Chain is always a great competitive lake to fish on. It was only natural to have the tournament there.”
(Sammie Smith now works for FCA and lives in Lake County. He has a daughter that attends Mount Dora Christian Academy.)
Smith has been working with the FCA for over 12 years now. He was also a recent speaker at the FCA Ministry Black Mountain Boys Camp in North Carolina which was a huge honor for Smith. He hopes to see the sport of fishing grow for youths in our area. The sport of fishing in High School is one of the fastest growing sports in our nation. Smith says he has kids coming from all over the place including Georgia and other fishers coming out of state.
We hope the event is a huge success and that everyone involved has a great time!
Photos Provided By:
Ole Miss
NoelFan.Org
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
