The Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School with Willie
Webb, Jr.
COAGS’ Graduates and Their Futures
Editor’s
Note: The Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School (COAGS),
of Cripple Creek Colorado, is a unique learning environment
which includes indoor classroom instruction and outdoor,
hands-on activities that provide the students with the
groundwork needed to attain success in the outdoor-recreation
industry. Although most of the students aspire to become
employed in the outdoors, COAGS welcomes any outdoors
enthusiast who wants to become more comfortable in the
wilds to participate in any or all of the courses.
What Are the Types of Outdoor Opportunities?
The Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School welcomes
any individual wanting a career in the outdoor-recreation
industry. COAGS has been in operation for the past 13
years, and has had several thousand students graduate
from its courses. Throughout the years, students have
found opportunities across the United States with some
even venturing into Canada and Costa Rica. Most COAGS
students enroll for the hunting side of the industry;
however, students find opportunities in all aspects
of the outdoors. The COAGS website, www.guideschool.com,
has a list of careers found in the outdoor industry,
including hunting guides, videographers and park rangers
to working on guest ranches. However, most of the students
who contact the school about employment are in the hunting
industry. Too, outfitters from all over the United States
contact COAGS searching for employees. One of the 2006
job postings stated, “We’re currently accepting
resumes for part-time and seasonal hunting guides to
join our team. We specialize in guiding high-end clients
for both big and small game in Alaska, New Mexico, Texas
and Wyoming. We don’t work with horses or mules,
but with trucks, ATVs, boats and airplanes.” Another
job said, “Needs assistant guide, August 10 through
September 15, for moose, black bear, dall sheep, and
possible brown bear on the Kenai Peninsula. Fly into
Anchorage, horseback, packing, wall tents and spike
camps.” Other possibilities are: fly fishing in
Alaska, working in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana
or the Jim Bridger Wilderness in Idaho; and, whitetail
outfitters in Pike County, Illinois, Hondo and Carrizo
Springs, Texas, and west-central Alabama. The COAGS
family has worked all over, and graduates look to their
alma mater for other graduates to fill positions.
Many of the COAGS graduates become guides, and several
own outfits themselves. Some graduates have even become
members of the COAGS staff. The May 2005 COAGS Basic,
Pro Guide and Advanced Horsemen classes are an excellent
example of determined graduates finding careers in outdoor
industry. Joe Wilson started Adobe Ranch Outfitters,
LLC, www.adoberanchoutfitters.com;
Jeremy Williams is with 5 J Outfitters, www.5joutfitters.com;
and, Tony “Chewy” Tabaka began Professional
Guide Service. These three started up or bought existing
outfitting businesses in Arizona, Texas and Minnesota.
Miles Bate instituted his own predator-control business
in Texas. Mark Stone from West Virginia found a new
career as an instructor at COAGS, and Willie Webb, the
COAGS cook and instructor, is starting a writing career
and manages a small private farm in Mississippi during
the off-season. Diane Rudy is the cook for an outfitter
in Colorado, and Cheryl Martel found herself in Arizona
guiding hot-air balloon rides. Tito Bertalacchi guides
in south Texas, Richard “Bubba” Dickie has
gone to Wooden Rifle Outfitters in Wyoming, Tony Doucette
works for Golden Eagle Outfitters, and Jace Rigby has
found employment guiding deer hunts in Texas and turkey
hunts in Alabama. Nolan Mick is a part-time fly fishing
guide during the summer. Another 2005 graduate, Kevin
Johnson, spent the fall guiding for big game and the
Pack String Ranch in the Flat Tops northern Colorado,
spent the spring in Key West, Florida, driving a parasail
boat and headed back to Colorado in the summer of 2006
to work for a guest ranch until hunting season began.
Also, Melanie Regan, 2004 graduate, uses her horsemanship
skills acquired at COAGS to land a job at a YMCA camp
in Missouri.
Today, COAGS has a course just on white-tailed deer
– the Whitetail Pro Guide and Management School.
In this first year, students from the Whitetail program
have gone all over the United States: Jeremy Barner
is working for Vinegaroon Wildlife outside of Del Rio,
Texas; Casey Cambre went to guide at a very up-scale
operation in south Texas; and, Charles Hogan and John
“Buck” Sparks are both working at the La
Bandera Ranch outside of
Carrizo Springs, Texas. Gary Luck moved his family to
South Dakota to guide for an outfitter, and Ken Roberts
landed a job at Pushmataha Plantation in western Alabama.
Other whitetail graduates now guide for outfitters in
Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, South Carolina, Texas and
Nebraska. Lauren Fegan, a 2006 graduate, found work
in Wyoming at several different operations leading family
day-pack trips.
Many of COAGS students have also had the opportunity
to make television appearances: Sheldon Pedranzan was
the featured guide on an episode for the “Northern
American Hunter” show; Randall Reagan guided a
store manager from the Cabela’s Buda, Texas, store
on “Cabela’s Outfitter Journal TV”;
and, Chris Vaughn guided Mark Kayser on “Blackpowder
Hunting & Guns TV”. Other graduates have been
on “Bushnell Outdoors”, and “The Choice
and Better Built Outdoors” with Brock Ray. Graduates
have also guided well-known outdoor writers and celebrities,
including Joe Byers, Jim Zumbo, Dave Maas and Babe Winkleman.
Men and women from all walks of life the last 13 years
have used COAGS to open doors and broaden their horizons
to careers in the outdoor-recreation industry. Whether
sportsmen want to gain new skills or obtain confidence
in their own abilities, the Colorado Outdoor Adventure
Guide School has prepared students to follow their dreams
and make life-changing decisions.
If you’ve dreamed of making a living outdoors,
then go to the Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School’s
website, www.guideschool.com, or call, 1-800-714-4864.
Remember, attending a COAGS course is not just an investment
in your future, but an investment in yourself.
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