Jr. Champions taking it to the next level

NEW FRANKLIN, OH — A pair of champion junior anglers will be making the jump to the next level of competition once they graduate from high school in the spring of 2025. Hoyt Nicely and Connor Bower have fished as a team while competing in the Prime Time Junior Anglers club that is the youth arm of the North Coast Bass Angler Association (NCBAA) in the Cleveland, Ohio area. The NCBAA is a member of the Ohio Bass Federation. Tony Farmer serves as the youth director for the NCBAA.

Once the boys are involved in collegiate bass tournaments they will no longer be fishing as teammates. In fact, they will be competing for two schools that are major rivals on the college bass fishing scene. Hoyt is heading north to attend Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan while his friend Connor is taking his talent (and Phoenix bass boat) south to the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Alabama.

Hoyt will graduate from North Canton Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio. He has been a member of the Prime Time Junior Anglers since he was an 8^th grader. That was also the time when he became aware of bass fishing scholarships being offered by Adrian College. With the family having a vacation home near Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan, the idea of attending Adrian College on a bass fishing scholarship became his dream. That dream became a reality when Hoyt signed on the line to accept the offer from Adrian’s bass fishing coach, Seth Borton. Hoyt’s parents are Geoff and Shawn Nicely.

Connor attends Aurora High School in Aurora, Ohio, but he is not a Buckeye native like Hoyt. His parents, Josh and Cathy Bower, moved to Ohio six years ago from their former home that was located north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From the time he was four years old, Connor’s angling experiences had been chasing trout in small ponds and streams in his home state. Once the family moved to Aurora with a pond next door, the bass fishing bug bit the youngster. That led to joining the Prime Time Juniors. One visit to Montevallo brought a scholarship offer from the bass team’s coach, William Crawford.

But Hoyt and Connor did more than join a junior fishing club when they were middle schoolers. The duo improved their bassing skills to the point of winning two major championships in 2024. Last April the collegebound young men took championship honors at a Major League Fishing High School Team Tournament at Alabama’s fabled Lake Guntersville. They concluded their junior careers with a state championship title in the Ohio Bass Nation Junior Championship held in October at Alum Creek Lake.

Both Adrian and Montevallo boast championship bass fishing programs. The Adrian Bulldogs took top honors at the B.A.S.S. 2021 championship as well the Major League Fishing title in 2024. The Montevallo Falcons have now won four consecutive Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia titles  with the most recent win coming in 2024.

Adding two of Ohio’s best young bass fishermen to their respective rosters speaks volumes about both schools in their search for excellence in their already championship caliber bass fishing programs. Hoyt will be seeking a major in Environmental Science while Connor has chosen a major in Marketing for his undergraduate degree.

Different schools, fields of study, and team jerseys will separate the best friends next fall, but it only takes one conversation with them to realize their friendship is as solid as their hooksets.

As much fun as it was meeting these two young men at Fisherman’s Central in New Franklin, Ohio on the threshold of their futures, I can hardly wait to do the follow-up story when they meet as rivals for the first time on one of America’s top bass fishing destinations.