Starting Late Doesn't Mean Starting Behind

Born in North Carolina, Jeremy spent time in California before putting down roots in Austin, Texas in 2015. He was always curious about the outdoors but never had a clear way in.

That changed with a documentary. Steve Rinella was on a book tour, talking to non-hunters about where food comes from. The idea was simple: if you eat meat, you should at some point be part of how it got to your table. This stuck with Jeremy. It started with doves, a shotgun and a bucket, nothing complicated, then a trip to Kansas for geese, pheasant, and duck. By the time he was asking how to go after bigger game, he'd already found his answer: the Adult Learn to Hunt Program.

He joined as a student in Mason, TX in November 2021 through Stewards of the Wild. Jim Wentrcek and Matt Hughes were his mentors. Though the learning curve was steep, he quickly learned what he needed. The next season, Matt called and asked if Jeremy wanted to volunteer. He spent that first weekend as the cook, making sure the hunters had as good a time as he'd had the year before. That was enough. He's been mentoring ever since, and now leads hunts. He also serves on the Hunting Heritage Committee with the Texas Wildlife Association.

Ask him what mentoring means to him and he doesn't reach for a grand statement. "Shepherding someone on their first time afield is an honor that's hard to explain," he says. It isn't necessarily about the harvest. It's about the conversations, watching the sun come up, and what happens when you get to observe a world that doesn't know you're there.

His daughter Arden is 12. She got interested in hunting the way a lot of kids do, watching her dad leave for a few days and come home with stories and a full freezer. When she asked he didn’t hesitate to teach her.

Her first deer was a South Texas spike on a Texas Youth Hunt Program hunt. They watched two spikes for nearly an hour, waiting on a doe that never came. Time was running out. The mentor gave her the green light on the bigger one. Jeremy listened to her settle her breath, find her scope, and squeeze the trigger. That buck now hangs proudly in their dining room.

"She can do hard things on her own," Jeremy says. That's what he hopes she takes with her, an appreciation for wildlife and conservation, a connection to this state, and the confidence that comes from earning something in the field.