This trophy, designed by the makers of the hardware for the Bassmaster Classic and Orange Bowl, will be fought for by seven local fishing squads during Saturday’s inaugural Cullman, Alabama High School Classic on Smith Lake.

The Cullman, Alabama High School Classic is finally in sight.

Introduced in February but slated for Saturday on Smith Lake, the first-time fishing event will settle county and city bragging rights for the next full year. Thirty-five boats from every AHSAA-sanctioned high school in the area except Hanceville and St. Bernard — neither currently fields a team — will take off at daylight (around 5 a.m.) and return for weigh-in at 1 p.m.

That leaves about eight hours for the best prep anglers inside county lines to duke it out on the water for a hefty traveling team trophy made by the designers of the hardware for the Bassmaster Classic and Orange Bowl. Only the top three boats from each school will count toward determining the team title.

After each winner’s year-long reign — or longer for repeat champs — the trophy will be replaced by a plaque the school can display for as long as it likes. Plaques will also be distributed for the first-, second- and third-place boats, as well as for big fish.

Obvious favorites for the team crown are Good Hope and Cullman.

Good Hope landed four tandems in the top 12 — Cole MacDonald and James Wright (fourth), Nathan Doss and Christian Simmons (sixth), Blake Barrett and Tucker Putman (eighth), and Colton Williams and Landon Graham (12th) — at the Alabama Student Angler Bass Fishing Association State Championship on Smith Lake to wrap up the circuit’s Team of the Year honors. Cullman, meanwhile, put a pair of boats in the top 10 — Cam Glassock and Lawson Graves (sixth) and Jake Smith and Kody Kite (ninth) — at the Alabama B.A.S.S. Nation High School State Championship on Lake Eufala.

Smith, set to attend Campbellsville University on an angling scholarship, and Kite sat in second after the first day of the high-stakes tourney. Half of the duo that finished third — Vinemont’s Eli Chambers — and therefore qualified for nationals in July, won’t be in Saturday’s field because he’ll be competing at a separate invitational. His usual partner, Hunter Herfurth, will instead team up with Sydney Shields for the classic.

Aside from the aforementioned pairs and based on respective state results, other expected contenders in the boat division include Cold Springs’ Dylan Byrd and Hunter McClendon, Fairview’s Noah Garnett and Blake Kent, and Good Hope’s Davis Dickerson and Will Dickerson.

Holly Pond is the defending county champ, though, as Cullman County tournaments have gone since Cullman High initially left for the Tennessee Valley Conference more than half a century ago, the Bearcats weren’t in last year’s field.

The public is encouraged to attend Saturday’s festivities and take their own boats out to follow the anglers. There will be a DJ in the weigh-in area starting around noon.

The boat breakdown by school is as follows: Good Hope, nine; Cold Springs, Cullman, Fairview and Holly Pond, five each; Vinemont, four; and West Point, two.

The classic is presented by Peoples Bank of Alabama.