Teaching fishing as a sport? I don't think so, mostly because most fishing involves no competition. Moreover, it is a primarily solo activity, meaning no teamwork is involved. In my experience, the most successful high school activities will include at least one of the two qualities listed above.

Team sports such as football, volleyball, and the like attract the most interest due to being both competitive and requiring extensive teamwork. In the last few decades, even inherently non-competitive activities such as band and orchestra have been turned into competitive activities.

Despite fitting the dictionary definition of a sport, fishing will be relegated to clubs and interest groups (along with the Math Club and FBLA) because it is very difficult to convice school administrators that it has the necessary teamwork and competitive aspects that would fit in with the rest of the school's athletic program. Face it, despite our derbys and the attempt at competition in the bass community, the competitive aspect of fishing simply isn't for kids. The equipment needed to be competitive is simply too expensive.