The 2022 Bradley Roy High School Open was one of the most closely contested events in the tournament’s 10-year history. For the first time, the winning team on Saturday also triumphed in the Sunday fish-off.
Nearly 140 high school teams and 34 junior teams (6th-8th grade) competed on Oct. 8th at Lake
Cumberland and the Top 5 fished the following day on the Beaver Creek section of Barren River Lake in Glasgow, Ky.
The tournament is an officially-sanctioned high school event by the Kentucky Bass Nation. Two
spots in the 2023 Bassmaster High School National Championship were awarded to Saturday’s top finishers: Zavian Smith of the Lake Cumberland Bass Club and Jake Mattingly of Danville Christian Academy.
The winner weighed a bag of five fish totaling 11.96 pounds. The runners-up weighed in a bag of five fish for 11.83 pounds.
Both team members from the top two teams were offered four-year, $10,000 scholarships to
attend Campbellsville University by head coach Pete Hedgepath. Kentucky Christian also offered four-year scholarships to teams in the Top 5. In all, the potential scholarships were close to $300,000.
"I want to shout out to everyone who helped me pull this tournament off for the 10th consecutive year," Roy said. "If you have ever run a tournament, you know this stuff does not happen easily; I have an awesome staff, family, and sponsors. Even though this tournament has my name on it, I am just a small part and none of this happens without them.
“Our winner this year, Zavian Smith, his mom was also the boat captain. This year in our Top 5, we had two mother boat captains, which is so awesome. Last year we had our first female angler in the Top 5. It’s just so cool to see that and know that this is not just a sport limited to men, that a wider audience can join in."
