Due to snowy and freezing weather, it took the USAngling Youth Bass team 53 hours to get home from South Africa.
It was supposed to be a mere 23-hour trip.
Once they made it home Dec. 14, they were treated to single-digit temperatures after spending a little over a week sweating in temps in the 90s.
“It was crazy,” said Orland Park’s Nate Uldrych, who is one of the 13 members of the team. “Coming back off that plane, a wave of ice came over our bodies.”
As for the rest of the trip?
“It was flawless,” he said. “Every single thing about the trip you could script out as being perfect.”
The United States won the gold medal at the Tri-Nations Cup at Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga, South Africa in early December.
This is the second year of the event. Last year, the team accepted a last-minute invitation, was not prepared and finished last.
This year was a different story as USAnglers pulled in 200-plus fish totaling more than 420 pounds, more than 100 pounds better than runner-up South Africa.
Area members of the national team were Uldrych, Adrius Stankus, Scotty Miklos and Caleb Moore.
Stankus and Uldrych and Miklos are Sandburg High School graduates from Orland Park who helped lead the Eagles to a third-place finish in the Illinois High School Association state meet at Lake Shelbyville in June.
Moore is a sophomore at Marist who is a rising star on the angling circuit.
Anglers on the team also came from Michigan, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama.
Sandburg coach Jason Uldrych, Nate’s father, is also the USAnglers head coach. He said it was a world of difference in 2025 compared to 2024, when it was held in Zimbabwe in uncomfortable heat and humidity that reached triple digits.
“Last year we were not able to prepare,” he said. “There was nothing online about the lake, so our hands were tied as far as knowledge goes. And we never fished in weather conditions like that. We’ve never been that close to the equator.
“But every day we got better in competition and won the last day.”
This year?
Those who think bass fishing is just dipping a line in the water don’t know these elite anglers. Technology and communication come to play big time and the USA brought the goods, including a tech foot-long map to help with strategy.
That paid off.
“We didn’t know we would slap them by 100 pounds,” Jason said of the lopsided victory.
Nate said using LiveScope technology, which allows anglers on the boat to see what’s under water, was a boon to the team. But communication among the boats was even more essential to finding some of the hotspots.
“It was shocking how well our team worked together,” Nate said. “Having half or our team being complete strangers and being able to work together as well as we did — we went from strangers to family overnight.”
He said team members made a vow to try to get together once a year because they enjoyed fishing with each other so much.
The competition started out with one of the organizers warning the anglers this was going to be a tough event.
“December is their hardest time of year,” Nate said. “Going into the tournament, the South African director said the fishing would be the hardest it will ever be — ever.”
They were told the area hosted multiple tournaments that pressured the fish and with the sun beating down and no clouds, the fish would not react.
That didn’t stop the USA from dominating, although it took a little while to get going.
“The first day was a grind,” Nate said. “I went 10 hours without a single bite. But I wasn’t disappointed and I kept my head up because you cannot be selfish.
“The next day, I was with my partner Adrius and we ended up catching 26 pounds. It can turn around just like that.”
It was a big year for the Uldrych family and Sandburg. Aside from the strong IHSA finish, the Eagles won their second straight Illinois Bass Anglers Sportsman Society team of the year award for its success in five events.
“We had a great season,” Jason said. “And winning the gold in South Africa was icing on the cake.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.