Reginald Crews, Tournament Angler

One of the most important things that has happened to me in years occurred in October 2008. It might not be huge in your eyes but it was huge to me and God sent it at the proper time. I was preparing to leave out of Anderson Photography (www.slimaging.com) from a photo shoot when I told the photographer, Sam Anderson, that I was going to Alabama to fish in the American Bass Anglers National Championship. He stopped me in my tracks and told me two words that changed my view of competitive bass fishing and life. He said, "Go win." You hear things like that all of your life but never listen to the words. That October day I listened and acknowledged those words like I never had before. Later that day I stopped by another business and was talking to a young lady there about the tournament and at the end of the conversation she told me "Don’t go just to compete but go to win!" I was stunned that I had heard pretty much the same message from two different sources. As I walked away I just said "Thank you Jesus."

I thought about those occurrences for days. I thought about the number of tournaments that I had competed in where I was "hoping just to finish in the top ten" even though there wasn’t any money after the top 4 positions. I thought about the times where I was happy just to be competing. I knew then that I had matured in my thought process.

I’ve watched my son play football since he was 7. After my "awakening", I thought back to some of the parents that told their sons "Don’t worry about winning. Just go out and have a good time." There were times that I caught myself looking at the parents like they had a third eye on their forehead. They were telling this child to go out and just be happy to be on the field where 11 other boys are taught to eagerly hunt down their son and hit him as hard as they (legally) can with the possibility of doing bodily harm. Every time that I had a chance to speak to those kids, I would tell them to go out and try everything within their power and the rules to win the game. They were going to get clobbered so why not let there be a payoff to those hard practice days and painful nights? Now I had to take my own advice!

Here I was paying $70 or more for each entry fee, paying outrageous gas prices for the truck and boat during the tournament and practice, and buying so much fishing tackle that my wife once banned me from buying any fishing gear for two months (but I put it on lay away... don’t tell her) just to go out and "hope" that I do pretty well. Thank God for opening my mind! Now when I speak of competing in tournaments I say "I’m going to Lake _______ to win!" and I believe it.

"You play to win the game!" - Herm Edwards, Kansas City Chiefs