OKEECHOBEE — Okeechobee High School’s Justin Hevey and John Pearce are this week’s Big Lake Athletes of the Week for their performance during the Florida B.A.S.S. Nation high school fishing tournament held near Tallahassee on March 31.

Special to the Okeechobee News/OHS Bass Club Justin Hevey holds the 6.9 pound whopper he brought in during the Florida B.A.S.S. Nation tournament on March 31.

Justin and John brought in nearly 15 pounds of fish at the final weigh-in, including the biggest fish of the day which weighed in at a whopping 6.9 pounds.

The performance in that tournament earned the pair enough points to put them into the national tournament scheduled to be held on Kentucky Lake in July.

It’s the duo’s second time being awarded Athlete of the Week. Back in October 2018 the two were recognized for their performance in the Florida B.A.S.S. Nation Regional/National tournament held on Lake Okeechobee in which they took first place out of the 100 teams competing, bringing in a final bag of 25.90 pounds.

Special to the Okeechobee News/OHS Bass Club Justin Hevey (left) and John Pearce (right) with their haul from the tournament on March 31.

After that tournament, Pearce laid out the team’s game plan for the rest of the year.

“I hope to keep placing and gaining more points and knock out as many tournaments as possible,” said Pearce.

And that’s exactly what they did.

Not to be outdone, two more teams from the OHS Bass Club were able to earn enough points to qualify for nationals during a tournament held on April 3 on Lake Okeechobee. Latt Durrance and Case Durrance and Wyatt Cannon and Trent Nelson were both able to punch their ticket to Lake Kentucky as well.

With the three teams competing in the national tournament this July, Okeechobee should be well represented on Kentucky Lake.

If you’d like to nominate a student or athlete for Big Lake Athlete of the Week, email the name of your nominee along with what sport they play to Lake Okeechobee News sports reporter Richard Marion at rmarion@newszap.com.