Whitetail Rendezvous

Prior to ATA, Matt spent 17 years with Freeman, a $2.5 billion world leader in event marketing. He spent nearly six years as vice president and 30 months as senior vice president of corporate account sales.

Matt served three years as a trustee for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas and was a member of its budget and finance committee. He previously served as a consultant to startup companies, providing vertical assessments, sales strategies, investment networking, and general advisory input.

Matt is an avid archer, a certified USA Archery judge and Level 2 Instructor. Since joining the ATA, he has also become a frequent bowhunter.

During his time at ATA, he has been engaged on industry-critical issues including: R3, marketing, and intellectual property. “The services we provide members are unmatched,” Matt says. “With each effort, we’re focused on inspiring growth, increasing participation, and preserving these sports we all love.”

Matt has continued his professional development through coursework at Bell Leadership at the University of North Carolina and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, among many others.

Welcome to CRCS Outdoors!

If you were ever wondering who we are and what we do, here is a brief report. CRCS stands for Cuba-Rushford Central School and the outdoor program is an extension of our Fisheries and Wildlife Technology classes. Our motto is making a difference “one young hunter (fisherman or student) at a time. “

In 2011-12, the schools environmental programs were featured in national magazines and television. CRCS Outdoors was featured every Saturday morning on the Pursuit Channel with 26 original shows produced right at CRCS and highlighted graduating film editor Cody Card. However, the programming would not have made it on air without support from our outstanding sponsors KA-BAR Knives, Western & Central New York Chapter of SCI, and the TRI State Chapter of SCI!

As we all know the future of our hunting and fishing heritage rests in the hands of our nation’s youth. If we do not do our part and get them out there early, research says all may be lost. New York State has been slowly doing their part by lowering the hunting age and providing youth seasons. CRCS Outdoors has been making a conscious effort to do our part by providing area youth with opportunities that they may not get elsewhere.

CRCS Outdoors hopes to expand nationally and bring the study of fisheries and wildlife/ hunting and fishing into the mainstream of the nation’s educational platform, and to promote student centered scientific research, studying natural resource conservation, aquatics, wildlife, forestry, land stewardship, biology/ management and conservation, Math/ Science and Technology, GIS, satellite images, remote sensing, radio telemetry, data collection and analysis. Through these opportunities students are also exposed to numerous career development opportunities as well as gaining ownership in what they do through choice in what they learn and gaining responsibility.

CRCS Outdoors has traveled to South Africa to hunt, as well as anual trips to Alaska, New Zealand, Texas, and locally around NYS and PA. Students enrolled at Cuba-Rushford have the first option to participate on trips and opportunities, after that, these projects and trips are open to any student, anywhere!

Awards: National Rural Educator of the Year 2017. NYS Rural Educator of the Year 2017,Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching Washington, DC, Named to USA Today All Teacher Team, National Winner, Named as Educator of the Year, Roger Torey Peterson Institute, Named as Educator of the Year SCI, National Environmental Educator of the Year, Awarded NYS Conservation Educator of the Year, Named to National Board for Fisheries & Wildlife Education in the USA, SUNY Cobleskill Alumni of the Year Award, Cobleskill, National Wild Turkey Federation’s Educator of the Year, Nashville, TN,Toyota Tapestry Winner, National Science Award, Awarded the Feinstone Environmental Educator of The Year

Hardcore but also conscious! My passion is the outdoors, to explore nature, forest and of course go hunting. I hunt 2-3 times per week year-round. Love to know where my food comes from. I make the most out of my life and I´m always positive. I´ve been hunting for 18 years but only the last three years this much.

I quit my job as a producer at Swedish Television and are now freelance, film and content in hunting business. But nowadays more of an influencer with sponsors like Sauer and Swarovski Optik. My whole life is on Instagram @swedishvenatrix – I´m a proud hunter and to me a success isn’t always a game with me back home (but I for sure love to pull that trigger)… success can be helping next generation, a nice day by the fire, meeting friends and se new places.

And being mentally strong makes you achieve what others say you can´t do. Makes med wanna try harder and go further. Of course, I want to win and of course I´m gonna give you something extra in that Extreme Huntress-show! I mostly hunt in Sweden, but I have also been to Alaska, England and the Alps in Austria. Love the mountains, love the challenge of hard work before you find the animals.

I knew I had to start hunting different to have success. Having my boy was a blessing in disguise when it came to my hunting success. Now that I had a boy and full-time job I couldn’t go hunt whenever I wanted, I had to pick and choose the times to go. I had to start thinking differently about hunting and that’s when I came across Quality hunt’s vs Quantity hunts. I told myself if I wanted to have success than I needed to start hunting differently. I came across the Wired to Hunt Podcast and it really did change how I hunted.

Without any doubt, knowledge is power and content is king, and you acquire both of them best outdoors. Scott Haugen of Haugen Enterprises answers the why of hunting in this ever-changing industry. For nearly twenty years, he has made a living through hunting and fishing, appeared on more than 450 TV shows, penned over 2,500 magazine articles, and written more than fifteen books. Needless to say, he is one of the living legends in the industry. As Scott breaks down what is special about hunting, find out the art of content creation and the business of the outdoors. On top of that, learn what it takes to be successful in the outdoor field and why it is essential to keep acquiring knowledge.

Kip Adams is a certified wildlife biologist and QDMA’s Director of Conservation. Kip received his B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from the Pennsylvania State University and his M.S. in Wildlife from the University of New Hampshire.

He worked as a wildlife biologist for the Florida Game and Fish Commission for four years and as the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s deer and bear project leader for two years prior to his employment with QDMA in 2002.

Kip writes the Whitetail Wisdom column for Quality Whitetails, has authored chapters in five books, has given over 500 presentations on deer and habitat management, and has provided whitetail content for numerous television shows including Whitetail Properties, Canadian Whitetail, Scentblocker’s Most Wanted, Whitetail Slam and others.

My name is Jamie Belknap and I am a 26 year old first grade teacher from Spokane Valley, Washington. People ask me all the time how I got into hunting but I would not say I got into hunting, I would say I was born into it. From as long as I can remember hunting and fishing is what my family did. My father would pick up my brother and I from school and we would put camo on in the truck over our Catholic school uniforms.

I learned how to read reading the hunter education books and got my license when I was 8. That year I missed the biggest whitetail of my life and will never forget that exact moment. The next year, I was able to successfully harvest my first buck in northern Washington and have not looked back. I have hunted all over the world and competed in the Extreme Huntress competition the last two season. My passion is getting other women and youth involved in the outdoors.

On 11/9/2008 I connected on a 184” 6.5 year old non-typical and was absolutely blown away at the size of a more mature deer. I then thought it was easy at this point but bow hunting can sure humble you quickly. I went on a long drought and wasn’t able to harvest another buck until 10/27/2015 when I was able to take a 185 1/8 gross typical 4.5 year old.

Scott’s show, The Hunt, which he hosted and produced, is the widest-reaching TV show in network television history, is airing in nearly 50 countries, on Amazon Prime and was on Netflix for 1.5 years.

When we leave this world, we leave something behind. One way or another, for better or worse. Equally true is our inheritance upon birth. I was not born in to wealth rather a rich life. My inheritance is one of skills, knowledge, and passion for the outdoors. I am fortunate for my upbringing. Most girls and women never get the opportunities that I did. I am working to change that.

My personal and professional interests surrounding the decline in hunter participation and its impacts on wildlife resources has driven me to spend a significant amount of time working with hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts focused on women. I relate to the Extreme Huntress competition goals through recognizing that women play critical roles in their children’s perspective and eventual participation in hunting. It has been said that you cannot plant seeds on sidewalks. To me this means that we can’t continue to pour our limited R3 resources in to youth hunting programs and expect success if we do not recruit the parents. In the end, if the parents are not supportive of their child hunting and do not continue to provide opportunities to develop skills, the youth’s interest will wither and die. As a result, we gain no new hunters to stem the decline. For positive results we should look to the non-hunting parents, especially mom.

Women are the fastest growing demographic in hunting but there are still significant barriers to their recruitment. One of the hurdles of recruiting women in to hunting is breaking the ingrained perspective that hunting is a man’s sport. This is one area that I feel like I can make a difference. One way to overcome this perception is to increase efforts that promote knowledgeable and competent female role models and leaders that hunt in the media and beyond. In addition to my efforts to develop a women’s R3 program I strive to be the best example of a hunter and angler in both my personal and professional life and continue to produce positive images and examples of women in the field in different media outlets.