YOUTH GONE WILD
PRZYBYLSKI TEAMS WITH STATE REP. ZALEWSKI TO CHANGE LAW REGARDING KIDS, HUNTING
Will Przybylski aims to be an entrepreneur. I tend to believe the Brother Rice senior will do it. Case in point came more than four years ago. On Aug. 30, 2017, Will Przybylski sent a letter to Rep. Michael Zalewski (D-Riverside) suggesting a change to Illinois’ youth deer-hunting season.
In the letter, Przybylski recounted his journey to harvesting his first buck, a sixpoint in 2012. He was 9.
Then he got to the heart of the matter: switching the youth deer hunt, on the threeday Columbus Day weekend, from county-specific to statewide. For non-hunters, that would allow youth hunters to hunt anywhere in the state during the youth season, instead of being confined to a specific county by permit.
“I didn’t have to access to hunt in another county,” Przybylski said last month in a phone
interview after school. “With the [county] permit, you can only hunt in one. I wanted to change that. I thought you should be able to hunt in various counties because it creates opportunities for youth hunters to see more deer. Sometimes I could see a deer in one county and not on another property. It helps out to be able to move around and be creative.”
His family regularly hunts Hancock and McDonough counties.
The harvest in the youth season is statistically small, around 2% or less of the overall deer harvest in Illinois. In 2020-21, the preliminary overall harvest was 162,575 deer with a youth harvest of 2,321.
In his letter, Przybylski aptly noted that “The future of hunting, fishing, camping and all outdoor activities are at risk without a strong youth participation and interest.” That’s a topic he knows about.
He’s a good enough hunter to have harvested about 10 deer, enough that he said, “I’m losing track.” He also bass fishes for the Crusaders.
Przybylski’s concluding point was straightforward: “Making such a change would give other youth hunters, like my little brother, more opportunities to harvest deer.”
“I don’t know much about deer hunting, I am a fisherman casually,” Zalewski said in a phone interview last month. “But Will and his dad [Bill] clearly knew their stuff.
“This was unique because [Will] was a student, and he had what I considered a reasonable gripe, so I agreed to help him and this worked out for the best,”
Bill came down and testified for the bill. Public Act 101-0444 was signed on Aug. 23, 2019, by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
The key part: “The Department shall create a pilot program during the special 3-day, youthonly deer hunting season to allow for youth deer hunting permits that are valid statewide, excluding those counties or portions of counties closed to firearm deer hunting.”
The pilot program runs through Jan. 1, 2023. The nearly two-year process was a real-life civics lesson for Przybylski, who was playing hockey when the bill was signed.
He has been skating since he was 3 and played for the Hawks at the Darien Sportsplex. Now he’s a defenseman for Brother Rice at Oak Lawn Ice Arena.
“I am going to play in college or play in recreational stuff, if I can’t,” he said. “I will go as a walk-on. If not, I will still play.”
Life is full for Przybylski, who just became an Eagle Scout.
“It was a long process, but I was pretty exited when it got passed,” Przybylski said. “It was a relief.”
DALE’S MAILBAG
“Garrett did the mount himself. He plans to find a nice piece of natural wood to put it on.” — Randy Glennon, Garrett’s father
A: I ran into them on opening day loading Garrett’s big buck at Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area. I asked if Garrett was an Eagle Scout and his father replied, “Troop 196 out of St. Peter Lutheran church in Schaumburg. His group of scouts his age all made Eagle, about eight to 10 of them.”