The turn of a key changed my life and my fishing career at the age of seventeen.  I entered a drop your name in the box contest at a boat show in 1997. 375,000 contestants were then narrowed down to the luckiest 15.  We all showed up at a local big bass tournament and drew a number.  That number was the order in which we were to draw a key out of a box. If the boat started, the boat was yours.  I drew number 6 and walked away with an 18.5 ft Champion Bass Boat, brand new and loaded.  When I moved to Austin to go to college I immediately joined the River City Bass Club at the age of 19.  A club filled with strangers, I was warmly welcomed and made some of my best friends to this day.  Incidentally after over sleeping a tournament or two is where my tour nickname “Sleepy” came from.  It was given to me by my friends Scott and Damon Ross, Damon by the way became my fishing coach when I went pro and helps me to think everything through and calm my psyche when I’m on tour.  From the bass club I began to move up as most do through the levels of tournament trails.  I couldn’t begin to list all the tournaments I’ve fished throughout my career or the money I’ve won….and lost.  I just know that over time I progressed to the point where I felt the time had come to make a choice.  In 2008 I began my full time tournament fishing career debuting in the Bassmaster Open on the Red River.  I didn’t do to well but it was the beginning to living my dream.  I couldn’t have picked a better place or tournament trail to start.  I currently fish the Bassmaster Opens in the northern region, cherry picked FLW Stren series and all four regions in the Bass Champs tournament trail in Texas when schedule permits.  Every tournament I fish is a career highlight and it just wouldn’t be fair to try to narrow it down to just the money I made.  But if I had to pick just one highlight, it was last week.  I was offered the opportunity to give back.  I went down to Choke Canyon Lake and did a guide trip for children from the Sunshine Kids.  Those kids are cursed with cancer but they and I and the other guides that were on the trip were all about as happy as life allows.  I highly recommend all pros or anyone with a boat to give it a go if given the chance.