BY HANNAH HERRERA FOR THE OBSERVER

AUBURN — Two Lee County locals helped bring home gold for Team USA in the 19th Black Bass World Championships. Auburn native Logan Parks and Beulah native Kyle Welcher both had their Team USA international debut last week in Arabie Dam, South Africa. “There’s only six people in the entire country that get to represent team USA and that’s really, really cool to be one of those six,” Parks said. To have two of us from this area is amazing.” Because the professional sport of bass fishing originated in the U.S., Team USA is almost automatically expected to win, Welcher said. But in last year’s world championship, they placed fourth. And this year, they were trailing Italy by 19 penalties going into the last round. “It was very disappointing the first couple

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