Cherokee Nation citizens River Eubanks, left, and his brother Parker competed together during River’s senior year at Plainview High School in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The brothers qualified for the 2022 Bassmaster High School National championship on Aug. 11-13 in South Carolina on Lake Hartwell. 

Cherokee Nation citizens River Eubanks, left, and his brother Parker competed together during River’s senior year at Plainview High School in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The brothers qualified for the 2022 Bassmaster High School National championship on Aug. 11-13 in South Carolina on Lake Hartwell. 

ARDMORE ­– Cherokee Nation citizen River Eubanks and his brother Parker qualified for the 2022 Bassmaster High School National championship after being named runners-up for the Angler of the Year award. 

The Eubanks brothers will be among 275 high school teams competing on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina Aug. 11-13. 

River, a recent Plainview High School graduate said he is excited to compete one last time with his brother, a sophomore, in the national tournament. 

“I'm excited that I get to kick off my very last high school tournament with him, and it was really special for me to get to fish with him this year,” River said. “We work really well together, and it was nice to be able to have some success together as well. We’re really blessed and just grateful that we were able to make it all come together at the end of the year.”

River started fishing at 11 years old for the Plainview Middle School team and competed all four years of high school, teaming up with his brother for his senior year. 

Through the BASS Nation high school series, the Eubanks brothers fished in a 10-tournament trail that ran through the school year at different Oklahoma lakes including Lake Texoma, Grand Lake, Eufaula Lake and Lake Tenkiller. 

“Each one of the tournaments, it’s a five fish, what they call a bag, so you catch your best five fish from the day of fishing and it is what you weigh in at the end of the day,” River said. “Then competitively you compare your totals to everyone else’s totals.”

He said the totals are compared between 75 to 115 state high schools. 

Most high schools are competing for the Angler of the Year title based off of a point system, which then qualifies them for the national tournament.

“So the Angler of the Year is a points race that we run during the entire season. Basically, you get a certain amount of points for your placing in each tournament,” he said. “Then the team with the most amount of points at the end of the year are the anglers of the year. So, it’s like pretty much the MVP, kind of the most coveted title for a high school fisherman.”

River and Parker took the runner up position for Angler of the Year this year, and it was River’s second year as runner up.

“So I placed second in that race two years in a row. Through that race, they send the top two or three teams in that Angler of the Year race to a national tournament,” he said.

River said he and Parker are preparing for Lake Hartwell by studying the history of the lake.

“A lot of our preparation just includes making sure we have all the different types of tackle that we may need, different types of baits that we may need while we’re over there, studying the lake, studying results from tournaments during that time period in years past,” he said. “So, seeing what the weights were for those tournaments, what we should be looking at to try and shoot for on how much weight we should probably try and catch each day. And, also, just map study of the lakes, figuring out which areas are going to suit (us) best, what areas are going to be most productive for this time of year.”

River was also accepted to fish collegiately for the University of Montevallo in Alabama. 

“They have right now they have the number one fishing team, collegiate fishing team, in the nation. Collegiate fishing actually works, kind of like any other college sport, it’s a national level. So we travel during the entire year to different lakes around the country, anywhere from east coast states back up into Arkansas and Oklahoma and northern states. We have some tournaments up in New York and stuff like that throughout the year. So, it’s a lot of traveling. It’s a really big deal.”