After flirting with a championship last season, these Huskers are hooked on winning.
They hope that people notice.
Or, in the words of the team captain: “Our team had never done much. This year it was pretty darn good. Our biggest problem is that no one knows we exist.’’
Clearly, these aren’t the words of a member of the Nebraska football or women’s basketball teams. They are the words of Kyle Branecki of Omaha, who will graduate from UNL next month with a marketing degree and a dream.
Branecki, 24, helps lead the Husker Bass Anglers, UNL’s bass fishing club.
The team of about 15 veteran and rookie bass anglers receives no funding from the university. Members sell T-shirts and do other fundraising to finance gas-guzzling drives towing a boat to Texas, Arkansas and other tournament fishing holes.
The team landed some big ones this year but none bigger than a home-state booster.
Cabela’s, the Sidney, Neb.-based outdoor retailer, sponsored the Husker Bass Anglers for the first time. The payoff was immediate. The team finished in the top 15 in three of the four FLW College Fishing tournaments it entered.
The success wasn’t a fluke, Branecki said.
“Instead of worrying about money for tackle or securing a boat for a tournament,’’ he said, “I was able to focus on studying the lake we would be fishing.”
Cabela’s initiated the deal after hearing about the Husker Bass Anglers, which had minor sponsorships and an unreliable boat-use agreement last year. Cabela’s provided a Ranger boat out of the company’s La Vista retail store, designed the NU boat wrap and supplied the trolling motor, electronics, lures and team uniforms. Evinrude provided the engine. Geico took care of the boat insurance.
“Anytime our sponsorship dollars can go toward keeping young people involved in outdoor recreation, we’re all for it,’’ said Chris Sprangers, Cabela’s marketing manager.
Branecki said that without the boat and the electronics, the team wouldn’t have found the spot that gained the anglers the lead on the first day of the season-ending tournament last month.
Branecki and first-day partner Brandon Rudloff led the Collegiate Bass Fishing Open after the first day, catching all but one of five bass from a single sweet spot on a medium-depth ledge in Kentucky Lake. They weighed in a total of 43.84 pounds of bass.
Other teams in the top five after the first day were Murray State, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Eastern Kentucky and Southeast Missouri State.
Because the Cornhuskers had three anglers who wanted to compete but had only one boat, Branecki changed partners on the second and final day of the tournament. He partnered with Chris Reimers on day two. Rudloff served as a non-fishing observer and accompanied David Cosner of Texas State, who fished solo.
The Husker team eventually finished in the top 20.
“We should have won,’’ Branecki said, “but our cranking battery wouldn’t start the outboard (motor). We didn’t make it back to weigh-in in time.’’
Even after the drop in the standings, fishing Kentucky Lake was a lifetime dream realized for Branecki. The reservoir is the second-largest man-made lake in the nation. It features 2,380 miles of shoreline and 250 square miles of surface water.
The Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series will be televised weekly on Versus beginning in August.
Branecki, a graduate of Omaha Skutt, said he is excited about the Husker Bass Anglers’ prospects. The club was started by Tony Cimino of Omaha in 2007.
“I want these guys to keep winning,’’ he said. “Cabela’s’ help completely turned our team around.’’
Branecki, who has been fishing since he could hold a pole, intends to pursue his dream of professional tournament fishing.
But first, a vacation. Fishing, of course.
He plans to leave Monday for Missouri to spend a week fishing Stockton Lake. He considers Stockton — where his grandparents retired and where he learned to fish — his home lake.
“It is a long shot, and many people just don’t make it,” he said of his pro-angler dream. “But right now, I have no tie-downs in my life, so I am going.’’
Contact the writer:
444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
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