ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 18, 1996 TAG: 9603180093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
Wil Strickland pushed aside his plate of chicken, rice and broccoli at the Roanoke Marriott the other evening when some guys at the next table said they wanted to hear a bevy of his turkey calls.
Now that he is the Junior Grand National Turkey Calling Champion, it can be tough for the 15-year-old Hillsville youth even to eat a meal in peace.
He pulled a horseshoe-shaped Knight and Hale diaphragm call from his pocket, put it on his tongue, then crooked his mouth, cupped his right hand to his cheek and called. The guys at the next table were impressed with the mellow clucks, purrs, kee-kee runs, yelps, cuts and cackles that flowed from the call.
So were the judges at the recent National Wild Turkey Federation Convention in Atlanta, where Strickland won the calling championship for competitors ages 17 and younger.
And that's just the start, said Sherry Crumley, a board member of the National Turkey Federation.
``He is going to end up being the senior champion someday,'' said Crumley, who is vice president of Trebark Camouflage in Roanoke.
Walter Parrott, the newly crowned senior champ from Fredericktown, Mo., doesn't have to worry for a few years. Strickland won't be eligible to compete in the senior division until he turns 21. Next year, he moves into the Intermediate division.
Strickland is the first national champ from Virginia. In 1981, Tom Stuckey, a Roanoke resident, won the senior division, but he was living in Ohio at the time.
Like other young callers and hunters, Strickland is a beneficiary of a marvelous restoration program that has returned turkeys to their original range and beyond. That fact has created a growing interest in competitive calling, and given teen-age hunters and callers a maturity previous generations often didn't achieve until they were gray-headed.
The same National Wild Turkey Federation Conference that awarded Strickland champion status also raised more than $180,000 for educating youngsters, said Glenn Harrelson, federation board chairman from Charlotte, N.C.
``We are pushing all parents to please take their children hunting, to let them know what conservation is at an early age, and sign them up in the federation's JAKE program - Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Safety.''
Strickland got an earlier start than most.
``I have taken him hunting with me since we was about 2 years old,'' said his dad, Namon.
A couple of local hunters got him interested in competitive calling when he was 13. In 1993, he won his first major contest, the Mid-East Coast Championship in Farmville. Last year, he placed second, to Michael Pauley of Daleville, in the regional National Wild Turkey Federation calling contest in Roanoke. Later in the year, he went to Richmond, where he won the Virginia State Championship while wearing a leg cast, the result of a broken bone suffered in a baseball game.
``I couldn't walk or stand up when I called, and that was rough, because that's what I usually do,'' he said.
In January, he qualified for the national championship by winning a regional contest sponsored by the Roanoke Valley Chapter of the Wild Turkey Federation. Two of his cousins from Hillsville, Jeremy and Joshua Hendrick, placed second and third, respectively.
In Atlanta, he went up against 14 competitors, finishing in a tie that was broken with a sudden death call-off he won with a yelp.
What makes him a champion caller?
``The way we look at it, the good Lord has blessed him,'' said his dad.
That and up to 90 minutes of daily practice.
``He has put a lot of practice in and a whole lot of adult callers have messed with him, trying to help him out,'' Namon Strickland said.
Knight and Hale Game Call Co. saw young Strickland's potential early, and signed on as his sponsor. So did Trebark Camouflage. When Strickland stepped off the stage in Atlanta, several other call and camouflage companies rushed in to offer contracts, but he told them, ``I will stick to the ones who have been good to me.''
Strickland is a hunter as well as a competitive caller, and is hard-pressed to say which he enjoys more.
``I love to hunt, but, then again, competition is fun, too. I like to take my friends who never have been hunting before. They get tickled when they see a turkey.''
While calling becomes fierce competition in a contest, it is overrated in hunting, Strickland believes. ``Good calling is an advantage, but you still have to have good woodsmanship,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY. color.by CNB