High School Rodeo is Coming!!

Well the qualifying for the National High School Finals Rodeo has begun. Regular season rodeos and regionals are over and now the State Finales are in sight. Bozeman hosts the Montana State Finals June 9-13...the Bowman is the location for the North Dakota Finals June 17-20. The next weekend is really buzzing with trailers hustling down the pavement: Hastings will be the location for the Nebraska finals June 22-26; Douglas the traditional Wyoming High School finals competition June 23-27 at the state fairgrounds, and Belle Fourche, the Black Hills Round Up grounds is the scene for the South Dakota Finals. After the dust has settled in all those venues, the qualifiers gear up for the Nationals in Gillette, Wyoming July 18-24. Oh and just ahead of that the National Junior High Finals is in Gallup, New Mexico June 27-July 3.

I'll never forget announcing my first National High School finals. It was in Rapid City and I sat next to my friend Jon Hutson. What a thrill to see all the stands full and the excitement of that event. I was chosen for the National Finals later for 3 years in Pueblo, Colorado, then 3 years in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the back to Gillette. Eventually I understood that if Jim Thompson continued to announce that rodeo, there's be one less spot for some deserving young person who wanted a break. So i retired from the announcers stand and turned to doing radio or television play by play of the Finals. But all in all, it was a pleasant experience. Lots of future Pros came through that portals...I remember watching Cody Ohl rope and many others...I won't drop any names just suffice it say, the high school rodeo is a great place to start an adult life.

See ya down the road!

PBR

The Pro-Bull Riders have changed CEO's - Jeffery Pollack is the guy in that post now. He was last with the World Series of Poker and before that with NASCAR, so undoubtedly he has some credentials. 

It doesn't matter to me one way or the other frankly, but I can only look to the PRCA for an analogy. They added Steve Hatchell and before him Lew Cryer. The PRCA touted their credentials to the high heavens as the salvation of the rodeo world. Obviously there are several possibilities why they failed so miserably; primary because neither had the actual ability that their resume indicated. Another reason could have been that the PRCA didn't give them proper latitude to do their job. I don't think that was the issue with either of them; they were just hired without proper oversight as to what they could do to help Pro Rodeo move forward.

So, what does that say about the PBR? At this point, I think that the main advantage they have over the PRCA hiring technique is that the ownership is much more than a bunch of cowboys with little business skill. This group that's owned the PBR is making business decisions and so I'll trust their judgement with Pollack until he proves otherwise. Justin Milles of the NILE in Billings, MT joined me on my radio show "On the Road Again" to say essentially the same thing: Billings probably won't be affected by the change in leadership but he'll just have to wait and see.

Other news: Bob Christopherson didn't get selected to be inducted into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, but Lee Selland and Buzz Fredericks both did. Congratulations to them, and Bob, your time is coming.

How do they keep him out?  The high school championship, college championship, circuit championship and NFR qualifications...plus winning the average at the NFR in Oklahoma City all to Bob’s credit. Certainly Bob Christopherson has nothing more to prove; however, if I were voting I'd probably have looked at the fact that all of the above credit happened while living in either Iowa or Montana. He's been a North Dakotan for some time now though, so eventually you have to give him his due!

Rodeos coming up include both Sturgis and Crazy Horse Pro Shows on the weekend of June 18-20. I'll be announcing at Crazy Horse again this year all three days (with help this year from Alec Whipple) and doing the steer roping on Sunday morning in Sturgis for Tom Reeves Wild Card Rodeo Company.

See ya down the road!