PONCA CITY, Okla. - The Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) announces a new program called SUPERFISH that is designed to bring a four-week fishing curriculum into junior high schools and their physical education classes.

SUPERFISH will get its start as a 10-school pilot project, thanks to the BoatU.S. Foundation who is providing initial grant funding to F3 to help schools offset the cost of participation. After the pilot phase, the program will be refined to a final format and then made available to all interested junior highs.

"We have been working on the pieces of this program for a long time, but we now have it ready to go," said F3 Executive Director Mark Gintert. "We built a program that is aligned to National Standards for Physical Education and condensed it into a four week module for the classroom. Our intent is to teach the fundamentals of fishing, as well as aquatic education and environment stewardship, to our target group of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, and then create a system of multiple fishing opportunities for them.

"We realize that at the end of the class not every student is going to want to continue on with fishing, but for those who do we have a format that leads them into a school fishing club where they can get those additional opportunities that they may otherwise miss out on. The program works well whether fishing from the bank or boats, and for all venues and species of fish. We just want kids to get outside and to the water's edge where they can learn a host of lessons that can't be experienced in a gym," Gintert explained.

Gintert further explained that key partners have helped F3 bring the school fishing program to fruition, such as the BoatU.S. Foundation, and also Zebco and The Bass Federation.

Once the pilot program is completed, SUPERFISH will be made available to schools in a format that will allow them to bring it in at a low and manageable cost instead of having to constantly seek grants for funding.

"We have a unique fundraising feature built into the program that eliminates about 85 percent of the fishing program's cost if a school is willing to do a little work," Gintert added. "We've made SUPERFISH an exciting program for the kids and something that's easy for schools to take and run with."

Junior high schools interested in being one of the 10 schools involved in the pilot or wanting more information on SUPERFISH can contact Gintert at mark@futurefisherman.org or by visitingwww.futurefisherman.org.

About the Future Fisherman Foundation
Established in 1986, the Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) unites the sportfishing industry and a nationwide network of state outdoor educators, national conservation groups, youth organizations and other educators dedicated to introducing America's youth to angling, conservation and the outdoors lifestyle. F3 operates under The Bass Federation (TBF) umbrella of companies and is the official education arm of TBF. F3 is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.


Contact:
Mark Gintert
mark@FutureFisherman.org