Bristol, Va. — The Virginia Tech Bass Fishing Team is inviting all college anglers to fish in a benefit tournament for a departed teammate who was killed in a vehicle accident.
The B.A.S.S. Nation college team is hosting the Milton Sheesley Memorial Fishing Open April 1 at South Holston Lake. The intercollegiate tournament is an Association of Collegiate Anglers (ACA) sanctioned event open to all college bass anglers. A portion of the revenue from the event will be given to the Sheesley family.
Sheesley was killed in a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, Va., on Nov. 12. The Virginia Tech angler had qualified for the 2017 FLW College National Championship, which he was going to fish this spring on Wheeler Lake.
The club is having a special jersey made up in Sheesley’s honor with all the team members’ signatures on it, according to Virginia Tech teammate Tyler Dixon. The jersey, flowers and a special memento will be sent to the Sheesley family.
“He was a civil engineer major and he always had a hard hat with him, which was kind of his personal thing,” Dixon said, “So we had a bunch of those stress balls made up (in a hard hat shape and labeled with his name) that we will be sending to the family as a way to honor him as well, and they will be selling those at the Virginia Tech Engineering Department.”
For more details about the benefit tournament, call Tyler Dixon at 276-492-9276.
