Beller wins improbable title on Lake Shasta
Disabled Marine veteran lives out a dream as he nets co-angler title, $5,000 first-place prize
By Gary Mortenson - 12.Jan.2008
REDDING, Calif. - If you think being disabled and confined to a wheelchair is an impossible hurdle to becoming a tournament bass angler, don’t tell that to Matt Beller. Not only did Beller successfully compete for four straight days under grueling conditions on Lake Shasta, but he also somehow managed to walk away with a tournament title.
To say Beller’s achievement was remarkable would not even do justice to what the young man from Anderson, Calif., had just accomplished. Throw in the fact that this was Beller’s first FLW Outdoors event of his entire career and you start to run out of words to put Beller’s triumph in perspective.
Simply put – you had to be there to believe it.
“It means everything to me,” said Beller, who ultimately recorded a total catch of 34 pounds, 2 ounces. “I’m on top of the world right now. I don’t even know what to say. I just really wanted to do this for disabled veterans everywhere.”Beller, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1994 to 1997, suffered a debilitating injury while attending the Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, Calif. The injury not only left him confined to a wheelchair, but also left him wondering what he was going to do for the rest of his life. But to his credit, Beller never once used his injury as an excuse not to move forward. And what Beller wanted to do most of all was compete as a tournament bass angler.
For full text, visit http://stren.flwoutdoors.com/tournament.cfm?cid=3&t=news&tid=6061&atype=21
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