15 cadets be part of AGFC’s sport warden roster – Arkansas Sport and Fish Fee

BY Jim Harris
ON 09-25-2025
CONWAY — Fifteen cadets endured 18 grueling weeks of coaching and accomplished all the mandatory exams to be accepted as new sport wardens for the Arkansas Sport and Fish Fee throughout a ceremony Sept. 19 at Antioch Baptist Church.
An 83 p.c commencement fee for the category from the place it started, with 18 potential sport wardens, was good news to Lt. Tracey Blake, the AGFC’s assistant coaching administrator, who led Friday’s ceremony.
“It’s a fairly good return, contemplating particularly final 12 months after we began with 16 and solely graduated seven. However I advised them this week, ‘You’re a dedicated group.’ That’s why there’s 15 graduating, and that’s going to take them an extended methods of their profession, being dedicated to the company and the job,” Blake mentioned.
Cadets, households, AGFC commissioners and others heard from AGFC Director Doug Schoenrock, whereas Benecia B. Moore, a Justice of the Peace choose from the U.S. District Courtroom for the Japanese District of Arkansas, swore within the cadets. Lt. Col. Joe Williams, interim chief of the AGFC Enforcement Division, offered cadets with their diplomas and in addition addressed the brand new class, urging them to “be honest, be constant,” as he had realized from his first companion in AGFC enforcement, the late Pat Fitts, who finally rose to director of the company. Fitts, who retired in 2021, died earlier this 12 months.
“He had an expectation that you simply’re going to indicate up early, present up ready, and most significantly, he had the reward of speaking to folks and will construct these relationships,” Williams mentioned of his message to the cadets. “It’s about networking together with your group, attending to know the place you’re at. Despite the fact that it’s possible you’ll not know these folks, you’ve by no means been on this group in your life, get out right here and introduce your self and say whats up.”
Cadet Phillip Gage Gustavus, a resident of Shell Knob, Missouri, earlier than becoming a member of the cadet faculty, was elected through the fourth week of coaching to be the cadets’ spokesman, and he described their time on the H.C. “Purple” Morris Enforcement Coaching Middle east of Mayflower and simply off Lake Conway.
“You’ve seen us develop fairly a bit,” he mentioned to the viewers. “We’re a real household as properly. We will name everybody on this class a brother and sister. We weren’t going to let anybody stand in our means. We had our good days and our dangerous days.”
Schoenrock advised the “skinny inexperienced line” of cadets, “You had been examined to the acute. You’ve accomplished stuff you didn’t dream you’d do and, most of all, you succeeded. You’ve been referred to as. You’re prepared to make use of that coaching to face all the weather of your job.” He assured them that tons of of AGFC workers and the AGFC’s dispatch workplace, with which they’ll most work together, “care about you.”
The category, ready to enter the church sanctuary and take their seats on the stage, was urged by Blake to yell their class motto: “A sport warden is at his greatest when conditions are at their worst.”
New sport wardens and their county assignments are: Bennett Austin, Clay; Cody Carter, Crittenden; John Frantom, Desha; Phillip Gustavus, Arkansas; Clayton Man, Lee; Joshua Leech, Prairie; Richie Oliver, Woodruff; Haley Reed, Jackson; TraeMichael Samuel, Howard; Henry Sanders, Randolph; Steven Sheeley, Nevada; Carlton Talley, Drew; Dylan Watkins, Ashley; Triston Webster, Phillips; and Simon Whisenhunt, Ouachita.
13 of the cadets had been Arkansas residents after they entered coaching. Together with Gustavus working in Missouri, Oliver resided in Cypress, Illinois, when he was accepted into cadet faculty.
5 cadets stood out through the coaching and obtained particular awards.
Richie Oliver, who studied wildlife administration at Southern Illinois College in Carbondale, aced such actions because the mile-and-a-half enjoyable, the 300-meter run, situps, bench press and pushups to win the cadets’ bodily health award.
Steven Sheeley, who had grown up and attended highschool in Midlothian, Texas, earlier than becoming a member of the U.S. Air Pressure and dealing as a C-130 crew chief, achieved the best grade level common for all programs, a 92.9 common. He was offered with the Edward Hayes Armstrong Award.
Prime Gun among the many cadets for his precision with pistol and rifle, scoring 99.5 p.c accuracy, was Gustavus, who grew up in Conway and graduated from Berryville Excessive Faculty. He was most not too long ago working as a pipefitter in Missouri earlier than selecting the enforcement route.
John Frantom, a legal justice main at Ole Miss with a minor in historical past, gained the water survival award.
Triston Terrell Webster, who resides in Marvell and was most not too long ago with the Helena-West Helena police division, was voted by his fellow cadets because the winner of the Joel Campora Memorial Excellent Achievement Award, which honors the cadet who most shows the traits that marked the late AGFC sport warden. Campora and an Arkansas sheriff misplaced their lives in 2013 in an tried water rescue operation throughout a flash flood close to Y Metropolis.
The brand new sport wardens convey the whole variety of AGFC sport wardens to 158.
Blake, who was with the cadets the entire means, mentioned, “(The coaching) is fairly powerful. I believe the hardest half for them is being away from their households for that length … yeah, they get to go dwelling for the weekends, however that’s a day simply to catch up, perhaps do laundry and get their headspace proper simply to return again. That’s most likely the toughest half.
“Now, it’s no totally different than another navy primary coaching or legislation enforcement coaching. There’s the bodily facet of it, the psychological facet of it, they’re going to review, they’re going to take exams, they’re going to do reviews, shows. And all that, together with simply studying find out how to do the job, the protocols concerned, the processes that we search for as they get able to exit within the area. So, it’s grueling. It may be grueling and difficult, and it’s speculated to be that means.”
CUTLINES:
A COMMITTED GROUP
AGFC Director Doug Schoenrock assured the brand new class of Sport Wardens that tons of of company staffers “care about you” throughout their commencement from cadet to warden following 18 weeks of coaching.
LEADER OF THE PACK
Phillip Gage Gustavus, a local of Conway, was chosen by his fellow cadets as their spokesman for the category, and obtained his diploma from Lt. Col. Joe Williams (left), interim chief of the AGFC’s Enforcement Division. Gustavus additionally was honored for his marksmanship with the Prime Gun Award.
THE CADETS’ CHOICE
Marvell’s Triston Terrell Webster was chosen by his fellow cadets because the winner of the Joel Camora Memorial Excellent Achievement Award for the Class of 2025. Capt. Sydney Carman (proper), the AGFC’s coaching administrator, offered the award.
ADDRESSING THE TROOPS
AGFC Cadets hear from Lt. Col. Joe Williams, interim chief of the Enforcement Division, throughout their latest commencement ceremony.
 
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Sep. 23, 2025
Sep. 19, 2025
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