The sound of success

The sound of a goose call intrigued Williams Barnes at a young age.
Barnes developed a deep love for the outdoors at an early age, and the prize-winning goose caller was eager to begin hunting with his two older brothers Collin and Jacob, his dad Joey, and his grandfather Jerry “Costello” Fontenot. At the age of seven William was finally able to experience the rush of piling into a blind and patiently waiting for a group of geese to make themselves a target.
His passion for the sport became an extra curricular activity that would eventually lead to his interest in perfecting goose calling. To begin learning the craft, Barnes turned to his older brother Jacob for guidance on mastering the art of calling. Barnes said, “It was my older brother Jacob that first began teaching me how to goose call.”
After learning the proper technique required for goose calling, Barnes began work on mastering the sound by putting his goose calling ability to the test. “I started using the call I had when I would go hunting,” Barnes said. “That allowed me to practice my calling.”
Realizing that it would take more than practice in the blind to perfect his goose calling, Barnes said, “I started practicing all of the time until I finally was able to reach a point where I felt confident enough to enter a competition.”
The first competition Barnes decided to enter was at the Louisiana Outdoor Expo in Lafayette this past summer. At the competition, Barnes took the stage and had only a minute to show off the product of his hard work. “I had practiced so much leading up to the competition that I really wasn’t nervous when it was my turn,” said Barnes.
When asked what the outcome of the competition was Barnes proudly said, “I won first.”
Since that first victory a few months ago, Barnes has entered two more goose calling competitions, where he showed up and showed out yet again. Barnes took home the first place prize at Gueydan Duck Festival in the State Speckled Belly Goose Calling, Junior Division and second place at that same festival in the open competition.
Barnes has won plaques, gift cards, and a shot gun for his calling skills, but the best prize he has received was having a young girl on his arm for homecoming.
When it came time to ask a date to the dance, the Sacred Heart School freshman decided that if the calling judges can’t say no to choosing him as a champion then no girl could tell him no if he used his proficient calling skills to ask her to the dance. He was right.
Barnes used several decoys to spell out SHS in the front yard of potential date Karli Fontenot’s home. Barnes then hid behind a bush in her yard and began using a duck call. Once luring Karli out of her parent’s home, Barnes then jumped out from the bushes holding a sign for Karli. The sign read, “Karli, can I call you my homecoming date?”
His duck calling skills won Karli over just like his goose calling skills won over the judges at competitions. Barnes himself came up with the idea to ask Karli to homecoming like this. “Me and my parents were trying to think of a different way for me to ask Karli to homecoming,” Barnes said. “I wanted to leave clues that would kind of let Karli know who was asking her to homecoming so I mentioned putting decoys in her yard because I knew she would know who was it was if I did that. Then we decided on the calling part.”
For Barnes’ mother Cherie, using his duck calling skills to ask his date to homecoming was something that really was true to who William is. “The idea to ask Karli using calls was very Will. You see, calls have been his thing since he was 3 years old,” Cherie said. “He loved to play with them.”
William’s love for duck and goose calling continues as he prepares for his next competitions. “I have a lot of fun at the competitions so this is something I am going to definitely keep working at.”