Coach John Owen and his Murray State College Aggies are one of the best stories in collegiate bass fishing.
TISHOMINGO, Okla. (February 19, 2026) – Located in rural Oklahoma with just over 3,000 full and part-time students, Murray State College is small, but growing quickly. The NJCAA Division I school’s bass fishing team is certainly doing it’s part to create notoriety.
Over the past three-and-a-half years, the Aggies have won two back-to-back Junior College National Championships, an MLF national conference title on Grand Lake, two Oklahoma School of the Year titles, and are currently poised to win a third. The most remarkable part of the story? There was no Murray State College Bass Fishing Team three-and-a-half years ago.
John Owen, 48 years old and hailing from Ardmore, Oklahoma, is the head coach for Murray State College and also serves as the Oklahoma Bass Nation college coordinator for the state of Oklahoma.
“I started out in 2016 as a coach at Plainview High School in Ardmore. High school bass fishing was just getting big in Southern Oklahoma at the time, and my son was going there. We got with the AD and got a program started,” Owen recalls. “I still help out and run the high school stuff for the state… schedule their tournaments, things like that. Anyway, Murray State College reached out to me a few years later and wanted to start a collegiate program. They ended up hiring me to be their head coach and start a team. That was in 2022. We started with zero kids and have built it to over 40 now.”
Owen and his team have stacked up a lot of achievement in only a few years. And being a junior college, they’ve done it with freshmen and sophomores. “This is really just our third year of having a true program, and we’ve won the Oklahoma School of the Year title twice in a row. It looks like we’ll win it again this year,” Owen says. “This is a competition between about ten collegiate programs, most of which are four-year universities. These kids are all hitting the ground running and are ready to go. I mean, for a junior college team in just our third year… I’m shocked and impressed with what these young athletes are doing.”
Owen does his best to help his team members both on and off the water. “Our biggest hurdles come that first semester. I tell the kids it’s going to be the hardest semester of their college career,” Owen says. “Because they have to come in and they’ve got to learn how to navigate being away from mom and dad, doing homework, doing their laundry, making sure they eat dinner, always having all their gear ready… those things. Then the on-the-water stuff… we’ve got to start training these kids if they don’t already know how to start picking their spots, knowing when to stay, when to go the next spot, where to go, why they’re going there, and why the fish are or aren’t biting. All these things have to be coached and learned that first semester.”
Then there’s making sure everyone has gear. Owen says St. Croix Rod and SEVIIN Reels’ scholastic programs are a huge benefit.
“I started using St. Croix rods back in 2016. I’ve used other rods and, honestly, St. Croix are the best rods on earth. And their warranty program is also the best,” Owen states. “Part of the job is teaching these kids how to develop relationships in the industry, and the St. Croix and SEVIIN scholastic programs open the door to this, provide them with quality gear they can rely on, and teach them the value of a two-way relationship. In today’s market with fuel prices and tackle and everything constantly going up, these programs have tremendous value to us, not just financially, but also on the water. Fishing with technique-specific St. Croix rods, the kids learn about rod power and action, watch their hookup ratios go up, and lose fewer fish. We use a lot of Legend Tournament Bass rods and the kids love them. And it never hurts when they see those same blue rods in the hands of guys winning Elite events like Trey McKinney and Pat Schlapper. It connects the dots for them.
“Same with the reels,” Owen continues. “I recently started using SEVIIN Reels myself and I’ve experienced the benefits firsthand. Especially the adjustability and casting distance. It’s way up with SEVIIN. We watched Hank Cherry win the Bassmaster Elite at Guntersville a couple weeks ago using the SEVIIN GS and our team was like ‘yep, we know all about that reel.’”
The Murray State College Bass Fishing Team turned in another championship performance this past weekend at Round 4 of the Oklahoma College BASS Championship on Lake Texoma.
Leading the way for the Aggies were Riley Motrych and Carl Robbins, who captured first place with a combined two-day weight of 32.40 pounds, strengthening the team’s hold on first place in School of the Year. The Aggies have six more tournaments this season. Sam Rayburn is next, February 25-26. The final Oklahoma BASS Championship event will be held in April on Grand Lake.
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For more information on the St. Croix Rod and SEVIIN Reels Scholastic Programs, email [email protected].
About St. Croix Rod
Headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly crafting the “Best Rods on Earth” for nearly 80 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with skilled craftsmanship, St. Croix is the only major producer to still build rods entirely from design through manufacturing. The company remains family-owned and operates duplicate manufacturing facilities in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With popular trademarked series such as Legend®, Legend Xtreme®, Avid®, Premier®, Imperial®, Triumph® and Mojo, St. Croix is revered by all types of anglers from around the world. The St. Croix Family of Brands includes St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, Rod Geeks, and the St. Croix Factory Store.
About SEVIIN Reels
Wherever and however you fish, the reel in your hand should help create better experiences. Born from St. Croix Rod’s seven decades of design and manufacturing expertise, industry-leading customer service, and unbroken private ownership by the Schluter family dating back to 1977, SEVIIN reels are meticulously engineered and purpose-built to help anglers conquer every species on every piece of water on the planet. SEVIIN focuses on reels and reels only, designing and marketing products that improve the angling experience, regardless of the rods anglers choose. Seven seas, seven continents, seven days a week, SEVIIN reels are fueled by a collective love of fishing surpassed only by a passion to deliver the most reliable reels on the water. The St. Croix Family of Brands includes St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, Rod Geeks, and the St. Croix Factory Store.
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