The Mahtomedi Fishing Team was attempted to be started one day in 2018 when my daughter Kaylee came home from school one day and asked me to start a fishing team for her and her friend. This ask took me by complete surprise. How do i start a fishing team i asked her. Her reply was you will figure it out. so I started by asking the WBL fishing coach "Monty" he gave me the run down and said start with your athletic director and get school permission. So i did just that I went into the school and sat down with the athletic director (outgoing) and asked him if we can do it. His response was NO. so end of story no fishing teams at Mahtomedi right?..I'm not giving up that easy I talked to Monty again later that year and he informed me that when a school denies you the use of their name you can form a "club" and circumvent the school, but it was too late to join this year. So now all I have to do is go into the school in the fall and tell Mr. I don't want kids to fish that I want a letter on school letter head saying they don't want a fishing team. So that's what I did and much to my surprise the old grump was no longer there. so, I asked the new AD for the letter and his response was NO. He said let's do this and what do I have to do. I told him he could contact Monty directly, but I had done everything that needed to be done to start the team already. so off we go in 2019 our first year. Now back then the state HS league was a little "not organized" it was kind of like if you want to fish in a tournament and paid a couple dues you were in. so after a couple years of this it became more organized when more teams started showing up. we could only have 40 teams at a tournament and Centennial had 40 teams. wow, right? so the coaches got together and figured out a fair way to keep every school involved. Each school gets 6 teams to enter for a season, and the remaining teams above the 6 granted to the schools go to a "fish-in tournament" for the remaining 10 spots to bring us to 40. Then covid hits. all is cancelled. Nope I got together with James Derosa (Hill) and started our Thursday night league to keep everyone fishing. The 3 Highschool Conference tourneys were cancelled though so no state or nationals. The team has had a pretty consistent roster of 20-25 students every year since the beginning showing there is a lot of interest in this lifetime sport. Since this team uses the Mahtomedi school name only and receives nothing from the athletic department, we have to rely on 100% sponsorship from others to outfit our students with the gear and lures they need to be competitive in our conference (our conference is the hardest to be in to get to state). If you would be interested in sponsoring or donating to the kids anything and everything is welcome. 100% of all donations and sponsorship goes to the kids. all adults involved with the team are volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, we would welcome any help you can provide. Each year there are kids unable to fish due to not having a boat it's sad but a reality, if you have a boat and are free to fish Thursday nights you could take a team out fishing and fish with them. You can teach them some things, and they might even teach you something. If you would like to donate to the Mahtomedi fishing Team, you can Venmo it to Mahtomedi Fishing Team or contact Coach Doug for more ways to donate or sponsor. If you are a business and would like to have your business on our jersey donations above $500 should get you on our jersey (limited space) sponsorship of $1000 will get you on the jersey and a jersey for you.