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Long cast as a sport enjoyed only by those with experience undergoing lobotomy, angling has never enjoyed a prominent spot among the hallowed athletic traditions of Brown University. The fall 2009 season, however, promises a renaissance within the Brown angling community with a large recruit class of three accomplished piscators, all admitted under Early Decision, hailing from waters the world round.
"Angling, or fishing as you ignorant landlubbers probably call it, is perhaps the noblest sport man could ever pursue," explained Captain James McAddenborough III '10, who has earned the nickname Ahab from his teammates. "Not only do we traverse a terrain unlike any other on Earth, we must also hunt creatures that have had millennia to develop counter-strategies to our stratagems."
Brown Angling was founded in 1920 when students needed a pretext for meeting bootleggers early in the morning on the canal. Out of this necessity came a pleasurable pastime, for students found it more enjoyable to fish while inebriated than to try and hook some flappers at Pembroke College. "But now we get all the babes," McAddenborough added quickly after recounting this early history.
All the recruits have devoted their lives to the craft. Jonathan Dixon, from Possum Trot, Kentucky, dedicates five hours each morning to the study of currents and ichthyology, and he spends his free time fiddling with my rod. Peter Pesci, from Louisiana, regularly reeled in fish twice his body weight before he had even grown "full-size sea legs." The final recruit, Bob Pecheur, spent his formative years "learning the intricacies of streams, ponds, bass, and selling fish tanks to stoners."
The team's mascot and occasional fish bludgeon, a four-foot-tall ivory statue of Poseidon, is a constant presence on the Knights of Neptune, the group's all-purpose watercraft. Team member Eric Haywood '11, sporting his team-issued "Salty Bears" form-fitting Gore-Tex jacket, remarked that competitions are "nothing like those languid fishing trips with your Dad, a 12-pack of Bud, baloney and mustard sandwiches, and those awkward tales of his accidental groping of your drunk female cousin on Labor Day."
According to a visibly heated McAddenborough, other athletes "are just pussies. We go deep-sea, stream, fly, two-rod, at night, with floss, with kelp nets, whatever the competition calls for. Dammit, I've even fished on the canal during WaterFire. Have you ever seen dedication or obsession like that from any other team?"
Anticipation is already building within the team for their first performance in early September. "The training regimen is already up to ten hours a week, and film time adds about another two hours," explained Haywood. Some members of the team already plan to take three courses S/NC next semester just to cope with the pressure.
The recruits are expected to come to campus sometime in late March for an informal "fish f�te." "I can't say too much about it because I don't want to give anything away to our opponents, but the Brown community can rest assured that we'll do them proud," explained McAddenborough.
