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!