In the baseball wrapped boat

If you’ve been following the Bassmaster Elite Series this season, you may have caught a glimpse of a boat wrapped with a baseball theme. There are two reactions I’ve experienced. One being, “Wow, that is such an eye catching and unique wrap.” The other being, “Why are there pictures of baseball players on your boat?” Or, “What is DuraEdge? Is it your company?”

Before we answer these questions and dive deeper into the tie between baseball and bass fishing, let me introduce myself. My name is Destin DeMarion, and I am a rookie on the Elite Series this season. I’m from Grove City, Penn., which one former Elite Series angler described as Mayberry — the idealistic town depicted in the Andy Griffith show of old.

I’m 30 years old, a Leo, and I like long walks on the beach … wait, this isn’t a Tinder profile. In all seriousness, I am 30 and a new father. My wife, Meghan, and I welcomed our first child, Eva, to this world back in February around the time the Chickamauga event was originally scheduled. The cancellation ended up allowing me to be there for the birth which was an amazing experience.

I’m also a United States Coast Guard licensed captain. I have run charters on Lake Erie out of Pennsylvania for six years and in Florida on the St. John’s River for the past four. We can delve into that more in a future column.

As far as fishing goes, I’ve fished my whole life. My grandfather got me into the sport very early on. I grew up in my grandparents’ home with them and my mom until I was a teenager. My grandfather, Steve, retired right around the time we moved there — I was about 3 — and he really got into fishing. He wasn’t a fisherman until that point, but in true Steve Slencak fashion, if he was going to do something he was going to go all-in. I was kind of the beneficiary of that as we both learned together. We fished for just about anything, but I branched off and got more into the bass side of things.

Although I’ve fished all my life, I’m still relatively new in my bass tournament career. I played football into college at Gannon University in Erie, Penn. So, I didn’t end up fishing my first tournament until I was at the end of my college career. I always wanted to be a professional bass angler from the days I would watch The Bassmasters with my grandfather. I grew up watching many of the guys that I fish against and that are still professionals in the sport now.

Although I fished some local series at first, I figured the Bassmaster Opens were the best way to achieve my ultimate goal. I fished all three Opens Series (there were three divisions, back in the day) over the course of four years as a co-angler to learn more before stepping up and fishing them as a pro. I had a lot of success as a co-angler and was able to learn a ton. It’s something I highly recommend if this is a path you want to follow.

I ended up qualifying for the Elites last season through the Eastern Opens series which was a dream come true. For more information on my strategy, check out DeMarion’s Elite Series puzzle.

Back to the DuraEdge questions. The answer is, no, I do not own DuraEdge. It is a company that started right near my hometown of Grove City, Penn., and it has blown up nationally and even overseas. It’s a very niche business; it started out solely as a manufacturer of infield mix for baseball fields … yes, essentially dirt.

I know what you’re thinking, “How do you make dirt, it’s just there?” Well, I’m pretty sure that was the thought process in baseball over a decade ago as well. Then DuraEdge came along. The owner, Grant McKnight, took over his father’s long-time sand and gravel business in the next town over, Slippery Rock.

After dabbling in different fields and trying to find his own path for the business, fate dealt a favorable hand. A customer nearby called about getting some infield “dirt” for their baseball field and Grant said, “OK, let’s figure it out.” They blended it up, the customer loved it and essentially the rest is now history. From that day, Grant and Natural Sand Company, later using the name DuraEdge, started perfecting blends of infield mix which took over Major League Baseball and on down the ladder.

Grant and his family moved across the street from my mother’s house when I was probably in my mid-to-late teens, but I didn’t really know him that well. I just knew he did something in baseball and traveled a lot to places around the country and abroad for work.

When my wife and I were living south of Pittsburgh in my early 20s, my friend Kurt Dove and I went up to stay at my mom’s house to fish in Northwest Pennsylvania. So, we had our boats, and we backed them into a residential, neighborhood driveway. My boat was 19 feet at the time, so it was a bit easier than having to back Kurt’s 21-foot BK Racing rig in. In order to do so, he had to drive up over the curb on the opposite side of the road and ended up tearing up the neighbor’s grass.

This neighbor was Grant McKnight. Of course he also happened to be outside watching the whole thing. He came over to Kurt’s truck, a bit annoyed at the incident, and discussed this with him at the time. Later that evening, he came over to the house and actually apologized which was pretty cool. That’s one of the reasons Kurt said Grove City was like Mayberry. Apparently, people don’t apologize for things out in the “real world” anymore.

We all got to talking, and Kurt’s BK Racing rig must’ve caught Grant’s attention — an not just when it was tearing up his yard. Grant and I met a couple times after that and talked more about fishing. Long story short, I ended up going to work for DuraEdge, and the company has sponsored me in fishing for nearly six years.

When I started, the company didn’t even have a desk for me yet as they had just bought a new office building away from the plant. For the first month, I worked at the plant bagging product and stacking it on pallets. From there I started working in the office in marketing and sales. I have done just about everything from surveying ballfields to taking our customers fishing everywhere from Maine to Northern California.

We started the DuraEdge Bass Fishing Experience a couple years ago to help take care of our customers, who primarily are groundskeepers, and tie in the fishing aspect. In that time, I’ve done cookouts for the crews at MLB, MiLB and college ballparks around the country as well as taking customers, reps and distributors fishing all over while I’ve traveled fishing the Opens and now the Elite Series. Many of our customers are outdoorsmen by nature and enjoy fishing. It’s been an awesome experience. Who would think running over someone’s yard could have led to this?

Like most of you, I’m excited to be getting back into tournament mode on the Elite Series. I’m optimistic we’ll be starting our northern swing soon. I’m excited to fish a little closer to home, and it’s always a treat getting to chase bronze fish at some of the best fisheries in the country.