About a month after the beginning of each school year, something else begins as well. Each fall, multiple hunting seasons for multiple species of animals begin, each with separate opening dates. While many students at Davis High enjoy and participate in the various hunting seasons annually, it creates a conflict for many of them since hunting is a rather time-consuming hobby, and leaves little time on the weekends for homework. While struggling to satisfy their passion for this outdoor activity, they also have the stress of maintaining their grades as they often miss multiple days of school to hunt.

To non-hunters, the solution might seem as simple as not missing school to hunt and only hunting on the weekends. While this might be possible for the less demanding hunts such as waterfowl or pheasant hunting, the big game hunts for deer, elk, and moose require much more preparation and time, and the seasons for these animals usually open on a week day, typically the third wednesday of September or October (depending on the species, weapon, and hunt area). Students who receive tags for these seasons are pretty much forced to miss at least one day of school if they want to compete with the adults who have tags for the same area on the opening day.

It is especially challenging for the hunters who travel to Southern Utah or other states to hunt and end up missing several days  spend days at a time. There are also some who are more dedicated to hunting and spend hours upon hours in the mountains scouting areas and preparing for upcoming hunts. These students really can’t escape the inevitable stress that builds up from the school they miss to do what they love.

However, in past years and in some rural towns across the country, some school districts give schools permission to cancel school the friday before the opening day of deer hunting, since so many students end up missing it anyway. Hunters today hear stories about how their fathers would run into their teachers or even their principal while up on the mountain deer hunting. Would this ever happen today? Unfortunately for these young outdoorsmen, it isn’t likely, since not as many kids are interested in outdoor activities as recent generations. However, most of them do not care, and will continue to engage in the sport they love, regardless of the academic damage that may result.