The Final Season
Talented seniors embark on last rodeo go-round
By Scott Rochat
Monday, October 23, 2006
The Lyon County Fairgrounds were freezing when the high-school rodeo competitions started Saturday. Between a cutting wind, a chilly rain and dirt that had turned into muddy glue, conditions were far from ideal for ridin’ and ropin’.
But none of that really matters. Not when it’s your last time before the home crowd.
“It didn’t really hit me before yesterday,” barrel racer Josie Wamser of Allen said Sunday. “I realized this is my last Emporia high school rodeo.”
She had plenty of company. Wamser is one of five Emporia-area seniors taking their last cut at the high school rodeo circuit this season. And it does make things feel a tad strange.
“Every place we go, it’s like ‘This is the last time we’ll high-school rodeo here,’” said Lindsey Hollond of Emporia, who may be on her way to a second straight all-around title at season’s end and a fourth straight pole-bending title. “After four years, it feels pretty weird.”
Hollond and Wamser are joined by team roper August Stueve of Olpe, team roper Jacob Miller of Madison and tie-down roper Jesse Britton of Waverly.
“It feels a lot different than it did in my first year,” Britton agreed. “There’s not as much pressure as before. I know a lot of the people. It’s a lot easier this year.”
Easy is a relative term, of course. Nobody had it easy at any time during the Lyon County Showdown this weekend. A bullrider who fell into the mud would get up seemingly wearing half the arena. Wind would knock lariats off course while the muck would grab the hooves of horses and calves alike. Riders stayed carefully bundled up when not in the arena — though even that didn’t help Wamser, who went home sick after Sunday’s events.
The weekend’s all-around cowboy and cowgirl titles went to Jake McKellips of Lacygne and Stephanie Lindsay of Brookville. But there was still local glory to go around. Hollond won the pole bending both days, Wamser grabbed a second-place finish in the barrel racing on Saturday, junior Paige Edmonson of Eureka took second in breakaway roping Saturday, and Stueve was part of a third-place roping team on Sunday with Jared Schlegel of Westmoreland.
Even the best will have off-moments of course. Wamser is the state’s fourth-ranked barrel racer and may have moved into third after this weekend ... but she still managed to hit a barrel on Sunday and knock herself out of the running that day. And while Hollond had little difficulty with the pole bending, she struggled in goat tying Sunday, managing only a fifth-place finish.
“The funny thing was, on Friday we went to Kansas City for the Kansas-Missouri war and I actually won goat tying. Then I got to the high-school rodeo and kind of crashed.”
Both Hollond and Wamser have managed to pull stellar seasons out of difficult beginnings. Hollond’s horse Dandy grew ill during the national competitions last summer, forcing her to pull out; Wamser’s horse Rose, meanwhile, injured itself on some barbed wire in May. Both riders had to take some time to get back in sync once their mounts recovered.
“I went through three different horses that summer, so it was pretty hard getting back on (Rose) after not being on her for three months,” Wamser said.
There’s still some season left, not to mention state and national competitions. Then, for the rodeo seniors, it’s time to ride off into the sunset — or at least into college. Not to mention the college rodeos.
“I don’t want to give it up yet, I don’t think,” Hollond said.
canchaser_412 (anonymous) says...
Very nice article and good coverage about the rodeo.
October 25, 2006 at 2:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )