DETROIT (July 12, 2008) - Odenville, Ala., native Scott Canterbury, who made his mark in the Bass Fishing League before qualifying for the FLW Tour, won the 2008 Rookie of the Year award with 817 points over six qualifying events.
With those 817 points, Canterbury also qualified for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup by finishing the season ranked in the top 40 overall. He was followed in the Rookie of the Year standings by pro Greg Vinson of Wetumpka, Ala., with 789 points; pro Kyle Mabrey of McCalla, Ala., with 770 points; pro Rob Digh of Denver, N.C., with 760 points; and pro Keith Combs of Del Rio, Texas, who made the top-10 cut Friday and could finish the season with as many as 729 points. For winning Rookie of the Year, Canterbury earned $1,000 and a year's supply of Duracell batteries. "Winning rookie of the year was a goal I had at the very start," Canterbury said. "It's an awesome accomplishment. It's been a long journey to get to this point, and now I'm looking forward to fishing the Forrest Wood Cup."
Canterbury started the FLW Tour season off with a dismal 158th-place effort on Lake Toho in Kissimmee, Fla. After Toho, he rebounded nicely with back-to-back top-10 finishes on Lewis Smith Lake in Jasper, Ala., and Lake Norman in Charlotte, N.C. In those two tournaments alone, Canterbury earned $91,000 - finishing second and third respectively. At the Open on Beaver Lake, the rookie pro took 64th place and a check worth $10,000. He earned a 69th-place finish at the Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes in Knoxville, Tenn., and wrapped up the qualifying season with a 93rd-place finish on the Detroit River in Detroit.
In roughly a month, Canterbury will head to Columbia, S.C., for the no-entry-fee Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Murray.
Last year's Rookie of the Year, Bryan Thrift, finished fifth in the Angler of the Year race with a total of 966 points. The Rookie of the Year title is determined by the total accumulated points from six regular-season events. Two hundred points are awarded for a win, 199 for second, 198 for third, and so on.