The phone message told much about a young woman whose life tilts heavily toward the outdoors.
“This is Britt. I’m probably either hunting, working or at college right now.”
So, how much else do you need to know?
Brittany Sorensen is a student at Metro State College with a major in business management, a practical endeavor that reflects the proper ambitions of a highly focused 19-year-old. That she also is studying journalism with an eye toward outdoor communication should not be held against her.
“I’ve written some stories,” she allowed recently between bites at a sandwich.
Despite such ambitions, one suspects it will be the stories penned about her that will make the grandest impression, not the ones she writes herself.
Such is the projection for a young phenom who at age 16 finished second runner-up in the Women’s World Duck Calling Championship at Stuttgart, Ark.
She since has placed third in the 2008 Colorado State Men’s Duck Calling Championship while also taking a run at the goose-calling game. Her resume includes positions on the pro staffs of Avery Outdoors and Buck Gardner Calls.
She lists Gardner, head of a Memphis-based company, as her new main mentor in a quest she hopes will put her near the top of the nation’s elite, among both men and women.
When she returned to Stuttgart last November, she again finished second runner-up, “but this time it was against much tougher competition.”
Sorensen is keeping her aim high.
“My goal is to win the women’s world championship and win state against the men,” she declared.
The latter might prove more difficult.
“It’s tough competing against men because they have much bigger lungs. I run regularly and do breathing exercises to boost my lung capacity,” she said.
Sorensen got her start in goose calling six years ago when she was persuaded to toot a call at the Denver International Sportsmen’s Expo.
“I sounded like a goose about to die,” she said of a halting effort that got the attention of Chad Belding, an Avery pro.
“He really got me started in calling,” she said of a postshow hunt Belding initiated with local guide Nate Caldwell. “That was the best hunt ever. It fueled my love for waterfowl hunting.”
Sorensen’s outdoor beginnings were as a 4-year-old towhead traipsing after her father, Brad, and grandfather, Marvin, in pursuit of rabbit and squirrel. She started hunter education at 7 and bagged a 5×5 bull elk at age 13.
A youth waterfowl hunting program at a turf farm near Barr Lake gave her a first taste of goose hunting, an endeavor she still holds closest to her heart.
“To me, that’s a bigger adrenaline rush than elk hunting. It’s so much fun trying to call something in,” she said.
Her own early experience makes her eager to share the outdoor world with kids she believes are much more removed from the natural experience.
“Kids are much too sheltered these days against the reality of what happens in the natural world. Outdoor enthusiasts should take the time to take out a neighbor kid, if nothing but to sit and watch,” she said.
Sorensen takes this affinity for youth to her calling activities.
“I love teaching kids how to call. Adults freak out when they mess up, but kids just call until they get it right,” she said. “They love the noise.”
None of this causes Sorensen to lose sight of her larger career goal.
“My parents raised me to be very disciplined. I want to use my business degree in the outdoor industry, along with the journalism to help with the promotion,” she said.
This outdoor writing thing may not be quite so crazy after all.
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com
