- VICKI: Oh my goodness.
Nervous?
- ZACK: Little bit.
- VICKI: Little bit?
[laughs]
- We are honored to be with you today,
our 62nd Game Warden Academy Graduation.
[applause]
Give them another round of applause.
Your new state game wardens!
[cheering and applause]
- NARRATOR: Our lives are made up of a series of moments.
Some stay with us.
And a few change our lives forever.
- Zack, I'm proud of you.
You earned this badge.
- ZACK: Thank you.
- Okay hold it, one, two, three!
- ZACK: I made it.
- VICKI: I am so incredibly proud of you.
That's just incredible son.
I love you.
- I love you too.
- PHOTOGRAPHER: One, two, three.
Let's shoot several because somebody always blinks.
- NARRATOR: For Zack Stephenson,
this is a momentous day.
He is now, officially, a Texas Game Warden.
But this day might never have happened
if not for one weekend a decade earlier.
[tape rewinding]
- ZACK: Where's this one coming from?
- It's going to be number one.
It's going to go out straight away.
- ZACK: Pull!
[shotgun blast]
- INSTRUCTOR: Very good.
Good shot.
- It tested like everything.
If you knew how to lead and if you knew where it was
coming from and follow through with it.
I did all right.
[shotgun blast]
When I was a kid I wanted to be outside
and I wanted to go hunting.
I was raised by a single mother and I told my mom
I wanted to go hunting and she didn't know where to start.
She didn't know the first thing about hunting.
- Parents and all, first off, I want to
thank y'all, it's going to be a lot of fun this weekend.
- What we do is we offer a program.
We can furnish the firearm,
we can furnish the ammunition,
we can furnish the place to hunt.
All they have to bring with them is the desire to go hunting
and enjoy the outdoors.
- INSTRUCTOR: Gentlemen, y'all get in line.
Get you something to eat.
- ZACK: She had friend that was a part of the
Texas Youth Hunter program
and that's how we found out about it.
- What time are we getting up?
- We're getting up at 5 o'clock like normal time.
- VICKI: Five o'clock in the morning?
- INSTRUCTOR: Uh huh.
[laughing]
- VICKI: This isn't for tomorrow afternoon?
[laughs]
- No, 5 o'clock in the morning.
- INSTRUCTOR: It's going to be deep at first
but it'll end up being about this deep
so when we get to walking so just stay in single file.
- ZACK: For me, because I did grow up
relatively close to Houston,
I didn't get to go out a whole lot.
[duck calls]
- VICKI: It's something that he wants to do...
[duck calls]
that's something that he can do forever.
- INSTRUCTOR: Get em!
[shotgun blasts]
- VICKI: They've started out with the gun safety.
- INSTRUCTOR: All right.
- ZACK: That was actually pretty fun.
- VICKI: It wasn't near as bad as I was thinking
it was going to be.
- ZACK: While we were on that youth duck hunt,
we actually had a large group of game wardens
come out and talk to us,
and it was the first time I ever heard about
what a game warden does.
[water sloshing]
That was the day it clicked for me,
that was what I wanted to do
and pretty much since that day,
I've started working towards it.
- NARRATOR: The moments that make up our lives
are interconnected.
One leads to the next,
eventually shaping who and what we are.
- ZACK: So you're volunteering to go first, right?
- CADET: Nope!
Have you ever seen an alligator?
- Oh yeah, I've seen ‘em all the time yeah but
there's a difference in seeing one and handling one.
- INSTRUCTOR: Watch this thing,
cause this thing will come up and get you.
All right.
There you go.
Hold on tight.
Gotta be quick.
Push it down when it's flush on the ground,
then curl your fingers up and lock it in those jaw bones.
That way if you just push down, you know that mouth is closed.
- ZACK: Okay.
- INSTRUCTOR: There you go, work it underneath there.
All right, whenever y'all are ready.
- ZACK: One, two, three.
- INSTRUCTOR: Good job.
- I believe it's the finest training in a
law enforcement academy in the country.
- INSTRUCTOR: Just because we're down to the
last three weeks, don't unplug.
By this point, you've got to own it.
- GRAHAME: They go through conservation law enforcement,
they go through standard law enforcement...
- INSTRUCTOR: Yeah, what's your question?
- GRAHAME: Wildlife identification training...
- INSTRUCTOR: So that's going to be the Guadalupe bass
which is the state fish.
- GRAHAME: You know, how to deal with hunters and anglers.
I mean really the gamut.
[rushing water]
- INSTRUCTOR: We're giving the cadets a basic understanding
of swift water awareness.
What the water does, how to react.
All right go ahead.
- CADET: Right step!
Step!
[rushing water]
Right step!
Step!
[rushing water]
- INSTRUCTOR: And it's an eye opener for them.
You look at it and think, "Oh, it's really not that bad,"
and they get in it and realize,
"Oh my gosh, this is a lot harder than I thought."
[rushing water]
Hold him up!
Get back!
Fight it!
See what happened out there, they got turned around.
What should they have done?
Just turn around and the back guy's now the front guy.
It's hard isn't it?
[upbeat music]
This is the strainer.
This is everybody's favorite part.
If you get stuck on a strainer,
I don't care how strong you are,
you can not pull yourself off of it okay?
Oh!
You do not want to go under.
If you go under it, you die.
Swim, swim, swim!
Keep swimming!
- ZACK: Definitely a little more difficult than I
thought it was going to be.
I'm pretty tired, but I do.
I feel like if I ever needed this training,
I have it in the bank.
- GRAHAME: Y'all wanna talk a little bit more
or you want to figure out where you are going?
All right!
[laughter]
Nathan Lavender!
Lotta game wardens, a lot of people that work for us,
grew up, it's their dream.
So it's truly, when they graduate,
today when they get that assignment,
it's a dream come true for them.
Zackary Stevenson.
Duval County.
- ZACK: Thank you.
- Congratulations.
- ZACK: Thank you.
- GRAHAME: Every person that graduates from this academy
gets to serve a mission.
It's the mission of protecting the natural resources of Texas,
helping the communities that they live in.
Responding during some of Texas' darkest hours.
But that core mission of protecting our
natural resources, I mean, what could be more important?
- ZACK: Duval County, it's very rural and the population
pretty much doubles or triples every deer season.
It's a deer hunting county and that's what it is
and that's what it's known for.
There's no place to stop for food around here either.
You better pack a lunch or you won't have one.
[upbeat music]
- NARRATOR: The moments that make up our lives don't
all unfold the same way.
Some happen by chance.
- CAMERAMAN: Shoot something?
- ZACK: Yes I did.
Got a green teal.
- Green wing teal.
- ZACK: Green wing teal.
- CADET: Right step!
Step!
- NARRATOR: Some only happen through hard work.
- CADET: Right step!
Step!
- NARRATOR: And every so often,
we get a little help along our journey.
- ZACK: It was a great experience being able
to do that duck hunt with my mom
you know, it was totally out of her element
and I don't know if I could get her into a pair of waders now
but I'm so thankful she got into a pair for me back then.
- CAMERAMAN: What are you feeling right now?
- Just pride.
Just so happy for him and so excited for
his future and where he's going to go.
[upbeat music]
- ZACK: I plan on retiring in this job.
It's something I really love to do.
All right guys, state game warden.
We're going to do a quick compliance check.
Can everybody pull out their hunting license?
Looks like you had a pretty good morning.
- ZACK: Appreciate it.
- HUNTER: Yes sir.
- ZACK: The same opportunities that were provided to me
when I was a child, I want to make sure those same
opportunities are available for the next generation.
[duck calls]
And that's why I do what I do.
[light wind blows]
[engine rumbles]