If you’d asked Dennis Loskot ten years ago whether he’d one day be a bass fishing coach in Mount Olive, he might have chuckled. He’d already coached youth baseball in Japan, California, and Illinois. He’d logged time on the football field and even coached youth soccer. But fishing?

“Let’s just say I didn’t exactly plan this,” Dennis said, smiling beneath his ever-present cap. “But I love it. And I’ll do it as long as they’ll let me.”

Dennis took over the Mount Olive bass fishing team after longtime coach Bob Wyatt stepped down. It was Megan Durbin from the district office who reached out, asking if he’d be willing to step in. “My wife’s family is from here, so I already had a connection,” Dennis said. “I said sure. And now here we are.”

And “here” is a rapidly growing team with ten active student anglers—a big number for a school of Mount Olive’s size. That number is likely to grow as incoming freshmen sign up, even with three seniors graduating this year.

“It’s gotten so popular,” Dennis said. “Five or six years ago, there were so many teams at state that they had to create a regional level just to keep it manageable.”

Bass fishing at the high school level isn’t just about casting a line—it’s competitive, strategic, and increasingly structured. Students practice. They learn to read water conditions. They talk weather patterns and fish behavior. “We just took four students to a NICAST tournament down at Newton Lake,” Dennis said. “It was raining and cold, and the kids had never been on that lake before. But they placed 19th out of 59 boats. That’s pretty good for a first run.”

That kind of success doesn’t come from luck alone. Dennis is a strong believer in pre-fishing—taking time to study the lake in advance to understand how fish are behaving. “It matters,” he said. “Knowing where the fish are sitting, how they’re moving—that’s a big deal.”

Still, he admits there’s always a little mystery in fishing. “You can plan everything perfectly and still come up empty,” he laughed. “That’s part of the beauty of it.”

The team currently includes one female angler, Brooklyn, who’s just getting started. “We don’t have a lot of girls yet, but we’d love to have more,” Dennis said. “Fishing is for everyone.”

For Dennis, coaching isn’t just about competitions—it’s about connecting with kids in a way that classrooms often can’t. “You see a different side of them out there,” he said. “On the water, they’re in their element. They’re open. They talk. They trust.”

That kind of mentoring, he believes, is what makes coaching so vital.

“You’re not just teaching them how to fish,” he said. “You’re showing up when it matters. When they lose a close tournament or something slips off the hook—it’s like any other sport. You’re there for the high fives and the heartbreak.”

Dennis has fished against local legends, coached across multiple states, and lent his boat to another team when theirs broke down. He’s not in it for the spotlight. He’s in it because it matters.

“This is a way for kids to find themselves,” he said. “It’s not about being tall or fast. It’s about patience, focus, and love for the outdoors. If they’ve got that, they’ve already won.”