ORLANDO, Fla. — Gardner Nordman is an expert fisherman. But if he played football like he was fishing on this particular day, DeLand coach Rick Darlington surely would have benched the senior quarterback.

“I just had an off day,” Nordman said later.

It’s a good thing this kid knows how to catch all types of water species, because the second day was quite different.

Nordman, an avid angler, fishes for bass and crappie on the freshwater spots around DeLand and he also hits the open sea with his father, Michael Nordman, off Daytona Beach, trolling for wahoo, cobia, snapper, tuna, dolphin and, really, anything they can hook. They also love to go out and drop shrimp nets in the Halifax River. That’s what we did on our second day, and we brought home five gallons of shrimp so mom, Marie Nordman, could de-head and clean them. (Gardner and dad helped)

Mom and Gardner love shrimp. Dad doesn’t eat them. He just loves to be on the water, which has left an obvious impression on his son.

We started this adventure at the Highland Fish Camp near DeLand, which sits on the Norris Dead River tributary leading to the south end of Lake Woodruff. It was a mildly hot July day, the high reached about 87 degrees. Bass fishermen are not usually chasing big bass in the heat of July. But this is the time we chose, so off we went, and Highland guide Ronnie Paige was kind enough to oblige.

Paige knew the spots. He took us all the way to the north side of Lake Woodruff, near the DeLeon Springs State Park via the Spring Garden Creek to start off. That’s where we waited and watched; watching live shiners dance around at the end of our lines with not much attention being paid.

We watched patiently and with a bit of jealousy, as two women in a pontoon boat about 30 yards away were pulling in bass right and left. I usually try to never fish with women. They always catch everything. My mom, may she rest in peace, was the queen of stealing the day … and bragging about how she out-fished us at the end, every time.

I finally got some action about an hour into our excursion, a nice little 4-pounder that would turn out to be the best of the day. The fish had an apparent brush with death at some point, because it looked like a gator had gotten part of its tail.

After a while, we pulled anchor and hit some other spots that Paige knew about, but the water was pretty silent on this day; just an occasional Gator passing by. Mid July in Florida is when the big bass are seeking shelter from the sun and they become quite picky, especially after the coolness of the morning becomes Florida hot.

I caught two more bass, probably in the 2- to 3-pound range, while Nordman sat at the other end of the boat empty-handed. At one point, he was fishing around in the live well and I had to chide him a bit, “Dang, Gardner, you can’t even catch a shiner.”

Even though Nordman got out-fished by the old amateur 3-0, it was still a great day. Nordman is a great sport and was eager to get on the water when I mentioned a fishing story last spring. We have no tall-tales to tell from this day. We pretty much got shut out during this nearly five-hour run.

Nordman loves fishing. He said it even helps him with his football abilities.

“Fishing definitely leads to a lot of lessons, like patience and dealing with frustration,” he said, “and also adapting to things like you do when you are out on the field. Like against TFA (in the spring game) there were so many things we did differently in the second half, and they only scored 7 instead of 28 (like the first half), so it’s similar to fishing like if you are having a slow day, you try something else.

“Football, hunting and fishing teaches you so many lessons that a classroom can’t.”

DeLand won 12 straight games last year before being upended by eventual state champion Lake Mary in the Class 7A quarterfinals. That bitter taste still lingers, and the Bulldogs are eager to wash it away. There is reason to believe it can happen in 2026.

DeLand loses only one key player, Marceles Carey, now at Bowling Green, from last year’s team, and this squad, many of whom have played together since their Pop Warner days, have a state-championship-or-bust-mentality. The whole town believes it.

“It’s really, really cool. I’ve never seen a community so tight, and every time I go to lunch there’s like five or 10 people asking about how the season is gonna go. People are really excited about it and the team is really excited,” Nordman said. “I’ve never seen anybody this close as a team like we are.

“It feels like you are actually playing with your brothers. We have so many people from so many different backgrounds, but we’re all so close. It’s a really special team.”

Nordman loves to share his fishing experiences with his teammates. He takes many of them with him every chance he gets.

He loves to tell the story about a trip with defensive back An’Tario Wright.

“We went to my uncle’s lake up off (Route) 11 to bass fish, and ‘Tario had never caught a fish before, and he had fished a lot,” Nordman said. “We were all telling him, ‘It’s easy to catch small bass and hard to catch big bass, blah, blah, blah.’

“On his first cast, he was holding his bait halfway out of the water, just a rubber worm, and a 7 1/2-pound bass comes up and eats it off the top of the water, and the fear in his eyes when that thing took off was hilarious. He was so excited to catch it that he had to go put his gold teeth in to get a picture with it.”

For the second day of our adventure, Nordman decided we would go after a can’t-miss target. The shrimp run is still going in Daytona, and so the Nordmans took me and my 8-year-old grandson, Jett, to do some shrimpin.’

Nordman said he and his mother love to eat shrimp, but they also love providing shrimp for those who can’t get out and go shrimpin’ on their own. Gardner hurls the 12-foot net while dad drives the boat. He lets it sink to the bottom and then pulls it up, with shrimp and anything else that gets caught in the net in tow.

The extras on this day were several bait fish, which the Nordmans keep for another day, as well as a couple of baby flounder, and some small catfish. Gardner gave Jett a turn at throwing a smaller, 10-foot net a couple of times and the boy was overjoyed when his last throw netted a baby shark.

We hit the Florida limit of five gallons of shrimp per vessel for a recreational fisherman in about an hour and a half, dragging about a 200-yard swath back and forth on the Halifax, near the Dunlawton Bridge in South Dayton Beach. There is definitely a bit of a thrill for each net cast, because you never know what’s coming up out of the water. Nordman also likes to take teammates on shrimping excursions.

“I like getting to provide friends and family and community with fresh shrimp, and show people new experiences,” Nordman said. “Breathing the saltwater and being outdoors is something I’ll never get away from.”

It’s not often that he can get out on the water during the season, but he will sneak away when time permits. He’s hoping a college football coach will notice him this season, and Darlington said he’s expecting a big year out of his quarterback.

It’s a little difficult for a quarterback in Darlington’s single-wing offense to get much attention because the Bulldogs do not throw the football.

Last season, Nordman threw only eight passes per game. He completed a high percentage at 66%, but it leaves a bit to be desired for a quarterback. The attempts are well under most state-championship caliber teams, like Lake Mary, which threw the ball, with Notre Dame signee Noah Grubbs, 27 times per game last year.

Nordman threw for 1,369 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior.

“It’s pretty hard. I get frustrated because sometimes I feel (not passing) takes away some opportunities, but that’s why I like playing defense,” said Nordman, who is the only two-way playing quarterback at the large-school level in the Orlando area. As a safety last season, he had four interceptions. “It gives me more chances to impact the game. So if I can throw the ball seven or eight times and catch a pick or two a game and make six or eight tackles, I’m good.”

That’s what’s special about DeLand. Not many teams can stop the single-wing attack, especially with stud running back Taihj Moore, a junior, who is surrounded by 22 seniors.

Nordman recently got an offer from hometown Stetson University and he said it could be a good fit if he can get financial assistance to go to law school, and follow in his dad’s footsteps. Michael Nordman has a private practice dealing mostly real estate/property law. He is a graduate of UF.

But before he gets there, he and the Bulldogs have a huge task ahead of them.

“There has never been a season like this here that has been so anticipated by the fans,” he said. “There is a lot of pressure, but we’re all excited for it. We like the pressure.”

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