By now, you know that Matt Van Cise, of Brookville, Pa., won the 2012 Grand National Calling Contest Senior Division title — the Super Bowl of competitive calling — Feb. 11 at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention in Nashville, Tenn.
The win marked Van Cise’s third Grand Nationals title, tying him with Paul Butski for the third most in history. Only Walter Parrott — five — and Jim Pollard — four — have more. Terry Rohm, the late Dick Kirby, Ricky Joe Bishop, Chris Parrish and Shane Hendershot have two apiece.
And consider this: Van Cise — a staffer for M.A.D. Calls, who makes the PreCise line of mouth calls — also has four World titles — 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2006 — plus three U.S. Open crowns, in 2005, 2008 and 2011. That’s 10 major calling titles since 2000, which is simply unbelievable.
Consider also the magnitude of Van Cise’s 2012 Grand Nationals win. He had a record score of 483 out of a possible 500. (Actually, it was 675 out of a possible 700, but the high and low scores — 98 and 94, in this case — are thrown out.) The 483 score represents an average score of 96.6 per judge, or an incredible 19.32 per call. A perfect score is 20.
“I don’t think I ever scored a caller as high as I just scored him,” one judge told me after the finals. “Three 20s and two 19s.”
Next up for Van Cise and the country’s other top-level callers: The reincarnated World Championship Turkey Calling Contest March 10 and 11 in Mobile, Ala.
Hi Brian: Both Shane and Matt are great callers. What is interesting to me is that 4 of the 7 judges actually had Shane as the better caller and Matt 2nd place.. Even more interesting is that Matt works for 1 of the 3 judges that thought he was better and Shane 2nd place. I know he could not see the callers, but this does not look very good. In my opinion he should not have been a judge.
While the winner is determined by the cumulative score and not based on the most first place votes it appears that 4 of 7 judges thought Shane was the better caller on that day. Having been there, what do you think?
Well, I think you hit the nail on the head when you say that Shane and Matt are great callers. At that level — rare air that few have ever occupied — the question of “better” is a point here or there based on the judges’ opinion of what a real turkey sounds like. Shane was only five points behind Matt in the contest. That’s one point less on one call per judge.
I wouldn’t have wanted to judge that contest, as the difference between these phenomenal callers is so close. Let me just say this: The folks who judged this were incredibly well qualified. Also, Matt doesn’t actually work for the judge you mentioned. That judge sold the brand for which Matt works years ago.
As one of the Judges during this very prestigious contest, I must say that Matt did a phenomenal job of turkey calling throughout the contest and deservedly WAS the winner! Shane, as well as the other top 4 contenders also called at top of the line levels and the results could of been switced around on another day but on Saturday, Matt came through… Make no mistake, as As Brian well described, these contests are decided by mere strokes of a pen and there are several factors that go into judging a major contest. Each judge`s score is based on opinion and those opinions are structured by years of experience in listening, learning and talking with the wild turkey. I am very familiar with the judge or judges that “cornflakes” mentioned. They are stellar individuals and very well respected in the the turkey hunting-calling world and all have been contestants at one time or another and very well know how important honesty is in this great sport. I`m convinced that they judged exactly to what their experienced ears told them… It was a magnificent afternoon of turkey calling by some of the greatest callers in the world and Matt deserves a huge round of applause.
I understand the frustration of Cornflakes and at that contest I have heard several people make the exact same comment. Let’s break it down since it is out in the open. The judges for that contest were; Mark Drury(98), Larry Shockey(98), Pat Strawser(98), Jeff Propst(95), Scott Bayshore(97), Dave Constentein(95) and Denny Gulvas(95). This is public knowledge and that’s the only reason I mention it here. That Judge (Mark Drury) that is being talked about is the founder of a company that Matt makes calls for. With that being said Jeff Propst is a Drury outdoors team member, he didn’t have Matt picked to win! Denny Gulvas who has been a very big influence to Matt had him in 3rd. Good judges are very hard to find and they all have an opinion of who sounds the most like a turkey in their mind on that day. If you get good judges it is almost impossible to find one that isn’t affiliated with a caller.
Sadler McGraw with 5 completely different judges won the prelims beat Matt by 20+ points an hour earlier that day. Five different judges get under there and Matt beats Sadler by 20+ points. By the way if Shane had not had a bye because of being the previous year champion he would not have made the cut, would have missed it by 2 points. Mark has been scoring Matt high for year’s way before he became affiliated with MAD calls. That is the sound that is soothing to his ear.
It is so easy to make arguments about who one thinks should win a contest and we will never get all the bias out of it. An extremely deserving caller won that contest that day! If you listen to the pureness of his sounds and rhythms it is amazing!
Great comments, everyone. I’ll just say one more thing. I’m friends with several of the folks who judged this contest, and I can assure everyone that they would only base their scores on one thing: How much a specific call or series of calls sounded like a real turkey. The integrity of the contest is extremely important to them, as it is to the callers.
A little food for thaught. If Matt was to win the world this year he would be tied with Ben Lee for 5 World Titles. It still just blows my mind what he has done and I think he is only 33 or so! No one has ever had the combined major titles that he has. I am going to go out on a limb and say he is now the best caller that has ever lived!