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Fairmont Wins FLW College Northern Conference Championship
Martinsville-Henry County recently co-hosted the National Guard FLW College Fishing Northern Conference Championships on Philpott Lake with Franklin County Commerce & Leisure Services, Patrick County Tourism and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers- Philpott Lake.
40 college fishermen from nine states and 14 high school fishermen from seven states participated in the tournament. Take-offs on Philpott Lake took place each morning at Twin Ridge Recreation area in Henry, VA followed by a Fan Expo with daily weigh-in and televised webcast at the Martinsville Wal-Mart.
FLW Invited the community to participate by singing and/or playing the national anthem for each day's televised weigh-in, by visiting area schools to talk about conservation and also visited an area high school football game to promote youth fishing. The organization hired more than a dozen student workers from Patrick Henry Community College and paid them an hourly wage to work at the Fan Expo.
Fairmont College Fishermen Wil Dieffenbaugh and Ryan Radcliff won the championship and the top five teams will all compete in the Nationals next spring.
The event also brought in a number of spectators to the fan expo, FLW reports that more than 900 spectators signed in at their welcome booth. Data gathered from this group indicates that the event had an economic impact of $49,566 in direct expenditures and approximately $441,000 worth of media coverage.
In addition to covering the tournament, NBC Sports also sent a crew to specifically film our area's top attractions. The highlighted points of interest included: fly fishing on the Smith River, Martinsville Speedway, Smith River Sports Complex, Virginia Museum of Natural History, The Big Chair, Studio 107, Uptown Martinsville, and the Circus Mural. The one-hour long program will air on NBC Sports December 16th.