Ranger Bass Boat Strengthens Mississippi College Team

Jim Turcotte, MC vice president for enrollment services and dean of students, and MC bass team president Andrew Smedley of Birmingham, Alabama show off the squad's 20-foot 2009 Ranger bass boat in front of Nelson Hall.

Generous donations made it possible for Mississippi College’s bass fishing team to use its own boat to participate in spring tournaments this year.

The first FLW (Forrest L. Woods) tournament comes Saturday February 14 when MC student anglers compete at Lake Seminole near Bainbridge, Georgia.

It will be Valentine’s Day at the tournament in the Peach State, and MC bass team members are already showing lots of love for their new boat.

The Christian university’s newly purchased 2009 Ranger bass boat is “outfitted with everything any bass professional uses such as a trolling motor, depth finder and on-board computers,” says Jim Turcotte, vice president for enrollment services and dean of students.

Turcotte serves as the adviser to MC’s bass fishing, equestrian, clay shooting and archery teams.

He’s delighted with the solid support coming from several individuals, including an anonymous donor who pledged $10,000 if Mississippi College matched the gift.

“We did raise the money and the boat is valued at over $20,000,” Turcotte said.

Thanks to the recent purchase, MC’s bass team, he said, will have “one of the most outstanding boats in comparison to other university bass programs.”

The Mississippi College bass fishing team was launched in the fall of 2012. In recent years, the Baptist-affiliated university could send students to tournaments only if the school had access to a boat. “Now that the university has a boat we can easily compete with anyone,” Turcotte said. “This boat will make all the difference for this team.”

Presently, there are more than 400 collegiate bass teams in the United States. The list includes: Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mississippi, Auburn, Wisconsin, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Murray State and Georgia Southern.

Mississippi College junior Andrew Smedley of Birmingham, Alabama serves as president of the MC bass team this season.

Turcotte predicts smooth sailing ahead for the energetic MC squad that loves to fish and compete. “Our anglers have made fishing an academic exercise and we expect that they will represent us well.”

For more information on MC’s bass fishing team, contact Jim Turcotte at 601-925-3315 or turcotte@mc.edu