Provided by The Ada News – Jeff Cali
Many of you might recall my column from just over a week ago about Ada High School wrestling coach Kyle Bohannon agreeing to tackle the Stinky Fish Challenge if his booster club was able to raise $5000 to go toward new wrestling mats.
A day or two after that column was published, $6,000 was raised for the good cause.
However, that meant Bohannon was about to go on a smelly adventure and that happened Wednesday night just outside the Ada High wrestling room.
About 30-40 of Bohannon’s biggest fans gather to cheer him on — ok they were there to laugh at him — as he tried to take a bite of a piece of fish in a can labeled Oskars Surströmming that was shipped all the way from Sweden. The fish are fermented Baltic herring filets that are a delicacy overseas. They are not a delicacy in Ada, Oklahoma.
Bohannon was feeling squeamish in the minutes before sitting at a table with a can opener and his supper sitting before him.
“I started getting nervous about an hour ago,” he said.
Bohannon’s wife, Krissy, was asked if she was going to join him at the table and she basically said he was on his own. But she was his favorite cheerleader.
After a nice introduction by booster member Erik Johnson, Bohannon sat at the table and began to open the can.
After a couple of turns of the can opener, fish juice began squirting out. Apparently, there is some pressure in the can which makes the challenge even more disgusting.
Yours truly was next to the table capturing the historic event on video and could smell the disgusting contents of that can through my facemask. The smell can be best compared to a trash can full of leftover food that has been sitting in the sun for a couple of days. Nasty.
Bohannon had to pause a couple of times before getting the can open.
After the lid was finally off, the sight of those dead fish in those awful-looking juices would have made some folks run away. But to his credit, Bohannon was a trooper.
He picked one up with fish guts hanging out. Nasty indeed.
Bohannon made many faces while trying to get the guts (pun intended) to put that dead herring in his mouth.
“My hand just doesn’t want to move,” he told the crowd, who by this time was laughing hysterically.
Bohannon finally made the connection from mouth to fish and tried his best to rip a piece off. It seemed like he spent an eternity tried to pull off a piece with his teeth but this fish was tough and he couldn’t get a bite before nearly gagging. Still, he got a full-on taste of those juices.
The boosters were merciful and let him off the hook at this point.
“It’s kind of salty,” he said. “My wife probably won’t want to kiss me anymore.”
Well, she sure might wait 24 hours or so.
