Rodeo season kicks off for junior high competitors
On Saturday at the Kjerstad Event Center, roughly 190 fifth through eighth grade cowboys and cowgirls finished up competing in an array of roping and all rough stock events.
RAPID CITY, S.D. — The Junior High Division for rodeo is off and running in South Dakota.
On Saturday at the Kjerstad Event Center, roughly 190 fifth through eighth grade cowboys and cowgirls finished up competing in an array of roping and all rough stock events.
It was the first year in which fifth graders were allowed to compete in a chance to qualify for the National Finals Junior High Rodeo in Perry, Georgia starting June 19.
“Some of these fifth graders are sure getting their feet wet. Some of them do little britches or other organizations. In the rodeo family, some of these kiddos started pretty small, as young as they can throw a leg over a horse,” said Leslie Merrill, the president of the South Dakota Junior High Rodeo Association.
No matter what age they are, Merrill says that there’s a lot of powerful lessons the competitors learn in the dirt.
“I think the sport of rodeo is extremely character-building. It’s humbling,” Merrill said. “There’s a ton of responsibility learned. They have to take care of their animals. They have to practice or the animals aren’t going to be fit. They’re not going to be ready to go in there and do a good job. So there’s no slacking in rodeo.”
Competitors in the Junior High Division will have four more opportunities to build up points to compete in Short Go Sunday in late May.
And whether they started competing now or years ago, for the parents, they get the chance to see their children learn from those that they compete with.
“Those bigger boys have helped my son immensely. Older goat tiers have helped my daughter. It’s really a stepping-stone process in a big rodeo family,” Merrill said.
Junior high rodeo contestants will be back in Rapid City on May 6-7 before coming back to compete in the state finals on May 20-22.
