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From teaching to television

By Les Winkeler, The Southern

Friday, July 18, 2008 9:59 AM CDT

Nicole Jones never figured to be a television personality. The Murphysboro native dreamed of becoming a teacher. She earned an elementary education degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2006. Jones achieved her dream last year when she was hired to teach third grade in the Marion school system.

However, her dream took a slight detour during the past year when she became co-host of "Driven TV with Pat and Nicole," a hunting program that airs on various networks.

Being a television personality is still difficult for Jones to fathom.

"This is such a far-fetched dream for me," she said. "I was born in the outdoors, but kids were my passion. When I grew up, there were no women in the outdoors industry.

"I just always thought I would be an elementary teacher. It was my dream job, and it still is."

Although Jones is still in her early 20s, she took a somewhat circuitous route to the television screen. She credits her father, Jim, with guiding her on her first steps.

"I've actually been hunting since I was a little girl," Jones said. "I killed my first deer when I was six years old. It's just been in my blood. It's been my No. 1 hobby since I was a little girl.

"I would be in the woods with my dad and my brothers. I've literally lived in the woods since I was old enough to walk. I credit everything to my dad. He never dreamed his daughter would be doing something like this. He's just awed with it."

That passion for the outdoors eventually led to a job at The Great Outdoors Company, a Carbondale store that sells outdoors clothing and equipment. It was while working The Great Outdoors Company booth at the Southern Illinois Celebration of National Hunting and Fishing Days that Jones met Pat Reeve.

At the time, Reeve was a producer for North American Whitetail.

Jones and Reeve hit it off immediately and eventually became partners, on and off the television screen.

Reeve helped Jones earn a spot on the opening montage of North American Whitetail. Eventually, Reeve broke away from North American Whitetail to start his own program. That morphed into their current production which airs on Versus, Pursuit Network, Man Network and Mossy Oak Online.

"We are primarily white tail," Jones said. "This past year we went to Africa and we have an Alaskan sheep hunt in August. We try to do one or two big game hunts a year, but white tail is our primary focus."

The show involves four husband and wife teams hunting throughout the Midwest and Canada.

"It's quality," Jones said. "It's not some basement production.

"The show is broken up into four segments. Normally, we do two hunts per show and we have a segment called the Muzzy Minute. It varies from week to week. It could be a tip segment and viewers send in clips themselves."

Although the role of women in the outdoors has expanded exponentially in recent years, Jones occasionally gets some negative feedback.

"At Hunting and Fishing Days I actually had a man come up to me and tell me I'm not supposed to hunt because I'm a woman," she said. "It's one of those things, you have to ignore them. Ninety-five percent of the people you meet are happy you're involved in the outdoors."

And, Jones earned a place in the spotlight.

"I have actually killed the largest typical ever taken by a woman with a bow on camera," she said. "It was in Saskatchewan. It scored 182 inches."

When her television career runs its course, Jones plans to return to her primary dream - teaching.

"Think of the experiences I'll have to share with my kids," she said.

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com

351-5088