Cam Kozeal can swing bass into the boat and baseballs out of the park.
The second baseman for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team said his love of bass fishing has brought teammates together, which quite possibly helped them advance to this week’s College World Series.
“I love to fish,” Kozeal said. “It’s a great way to relax and get the mind right.”
After a first-round ouster in the SEC Tournament, the Hogs got their minds right, blasting through Regional and Super Regional play to reach the program’s 12th College World Series. A well-rounded team helps, but fishing didn’t hurt.
Kozeal introduced teammates to fishing this spring. A number of Razorbacks players joined him wetting a line in the pond beyond the right-field wall at Baum-Walker Stadium. Calling it Lake Norm after longtime Coach Norm DeBriyn, the small drainage pond holds bass and bluegill.
The Razorbacks found it wasn’t just a great stress reliever — it helped the team’s camaraderie.
“I think that’s been the biggest benefit of it,” Kozeal said. “It’s a place for guys to get together. With the transfer portal, we have all these kids with different backgrounds, from Australia, Canada, Hawaii, from everywhere.
“When you have something in common like that, you get to spend more time together. It’s fun, it’s relaxing. It’s a really cool thing to have Lake Norm out there, and it’s definitely brought the team closer together.”
The fishing hole was a draw for Kozeal to come play at Arkansas. Outdoors was huge in his life growing up in the small town of Sargent, Neb., pop. 525, and he’s always looking to fish.
“Grandpa Mick and my dad really taught me how to fish,” said Kozeal, who has an NIL deal with a fly fishing store near Fayetteville. “Being a blue-collar family from the middle of Nebraska, we hunt and fish. That’s what we like to do in our spare time.”
And play ball. Moving to Omaha, Kozeal starred at Millard South High School. Among a lengthy list of accolades, he was twice named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball.
Academics helped him get into Vanderbilt University, but he entered the transfer portal after one season hoping to play closer to home. Perennial baseball power Arkansas piqued his interest when hitting coach Nate Thompson sent him photos of players holding bass from Lake Norm.
“I had to go see if that was true,” said Kozeal, who always has fishing gear in his truck. “One of the first days I was here on campus, I went out there and caught a nice little bass. I was like, ‘This is awesome!’”
So last fall, before, after and in between classes and practice, Kozeal fished the half-acre pond. Teammates soon followed, and Kozeal showed them the ropes.
“This spring, things really heated up,” he said. “Some guys who’ve never fished before starting coming. They’d catch a fish, and now they’re hooked. I’ve never seen anyone catch a fish, reel it in and say that wasn’t fun.”
Coach Dave Van Horn certainly doesn’t mind the players hanging out and fishing, as long as they follow one stipulation, Kozeal said.
“He’ll come out there once in a while and look at us like we’re crazy. He’ll talk to us for a little bit, but he says ‘Don’t eat the fish!’ We will not eat the fish,” said Kozeal, noting runoff from the well-groomed ballfield.
Kozeal has sort of mapped out the pond, taking his kayak out and measuring depths with a long piece of PVC. With only some reeds on one end, he and his teammates placed fish attractors for shade and cover.
With growing interest among teammates, Kozeal stocked a corner of the Hogs’ locker room with fishing rods — he keeps his good baitcasters and Shimanos in his truck. He also donated a tacklebox with lures, usually Texas-rigged Senkos so the newbies don’t lose any more of his. He slapped on a piece of tape on it, writing “Lake Norm Community Tackle Box.”
The biggest bass caught from Lake Norm was Kozeal’s 6-pounder last fall, short of his personal-best 8-pounder back home. Shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, the SEC Player of the Year, has the next best, a 4-11. Brent Iredale, the first Australian to play at Arkansas, always catches fish, Kozeal said, because he “fishes soft plastics really slow.”
Kozeal posted a photo of wayward baseballs he’s pulled from the pond. Besides catching some “taters,” Kozeal said he can remember only one “tater” splashdown in a game, a mammoth home run.
“The only guy who actually cleared the scoreboard into Lake Norm was Reese Robinett. I’ve hit the scoreboard a couple times,” said Kozeal, who has 15 home runs on the season. “When we hit a home run to right field, we call it Feeding the Fishies.”
The Hogs’ bass connection is becoming more well-known as news reports add up. Celebrating the CWS berth on the field, an unknown fan threw a plush bass toward Kozeal, who paraded with it and the NCAA trophy.
“I don’t know if they wanted it back, but it ended up in my hands,” he said. “They didn’t come looking for it, so now it’s my little bass stuffed animal.”
It’s actually now with his younger brother in Omaha, where the lil’ hog will be there helping cheer on the big Hogs against LSU in their CWS opener Saturday night.
“It will be nice to play that late game Saturday, kind of get a feel for the city and get a feel of the event,” he said.
Kozeal is looking forward to competing on college baseball’s biggest stage in front of friends and family, but there’s always a bigger one down the bank.
“We’re excited. We want to win a national championship for Coach Van Horn,” Kozeal said. “We have a close group of guys who are excited to go play up there.”
And some of the credit goes to bass fishing.