Daily Limit: Hanselman stars at Career Day

Life is full of disappointment and joy, as Ray Hanselman’s sons experienced recently. The first turned into the latter when dad was able to show all the kids at their school what he does for a living.

“They were jumping up and down wanting me to do it,” Hanselman said. “We had that tournament scheduled (that) week, and they were heart broke that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. It turned out it got canceled, so they were pretty excited.”

Hanselman and his visual elements were a big hit among the 762 schoolchildren grades K-5th at Buena Vista Elementary for Career Day during the week of the canceled event. With his Skeeter/Yamaha in tow, Hanselman joined about 20 other parents telling kids about their jobs.

“We tried to put on a pretty good display for them, explain everything,” he said. “I briefly kind of explained what a tournament was, how you win a tournament with cumulative weight over four days. The goal is to make the championship at the end of the year, the Bassmaster Classic.”

Standing 30th in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points, Hanselman is in good position to accomplish both. Working to impress the kids was taken seriously as well. With an early arrival time, Hanselman had a friend bring him a couple keeper bass from Lake Amistad, and he had one front and center in a tank and another in his livewell.

Hanselman also had a mounted bass, a framed article and a map with pins at the lakes he’s competed to show how far he travels. He passed out all but about 30 of the 800 B.A.S.S. decals he brought.

The event started early in the morning, and classes of about 20 would come by for his presentation, which he altered for age.

“The kindergarteners, you talked to them a little different. The third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, they understand,” he said. “The little kids, they just liked the fish in the tank, and I had a mounted fish there. I let them look in the boat at the one I had in the livewell.”

After giving his presentation of competing on the Bassmaster Elite Series, he asked the classes if they fished. He said many reported they did, mostly for catfish and from the bank.

“There was a quite a few. Everyone wanted to tell me their story of how big a catfish they caught, how big of bass,” Hanselman said. “Some of them said they are catching sharks out there on the lake. That was kind of cool. A couple of them said they caught a swordfish, which I’m thinking was probably a gar.

“They told me stories how they lost one this big. They’d stick their hands 3 feet apart — typical fisherman. They’re learning young.”

Several were familiar with Hanselman, including one of the half dozen who said they competed in local club tournaments. One said he watched Bassmasters TV and mentioned his top 10 appearance last year at Texas Fest on Lake Travis.

“There were a couple of the older kids who fished club tournaments, you could tell they were fired up over it,” he said. “They’re the ones telling me that they fish tournaments at the lake and kind of follow me a little bit.”

Hanselman’s sons, Mason (fifth grade) and Miles (second) were thrilled the Fort Gipson tournament was postponed until September so Dad could make it to the event. And they heard a lot of great feedback.

“My boys said there were on Cloud 9 all day because everybody was telling how cool it was — they got the coolest dad ever and all that good stuff,” he said. “They just said that everybody said I had the best station.”

The teachers and principals were also impressed to have a really different career represented, which opened eyes young and old.

“I actually went to same elementary when it opened in 1983, ’84,” he said. “I would tell them that and say just because you’re in Del Rio doesn’t mean that you’re stuck here. You can do whatever you want to do.”

While he was popular, Hanselman put his work in perspective for the kids, telling them that the first responders, the ambulance workers, firemen and border patrol agents alongside him, were the real important people at Career Day.

“The whole thing was a real treat,” said Hanselman, who was thrilled to turn his boys’ disappointment into joy.