By Rich Winter

605 Sports

It has been a minute since the South Dakota sports scene has heard from Colman-Egan senior Josie Mousel. 

In January 2022 Mousel tore her ACL playing basketball and had to sit out her second favorite season, track season. A three-time Class B state high jump champion and a regular on Colman-Egan’s sprint relay teams, Mousel watched as the Hawks racked up 116 points on their way to the Class B state track championship.

“That was tough for me not to be able to compete,” she said. “In some ways it was fun to see the girls be able to win it without me though.” 

With the track season ramping up this week, Colman-Egan is the favorite to win another team title. Mousel is just glad to be back contributing. 

“Being back out for track is awesome,” she said. “This is the most excited I’ve ever been to run track. My teammates are happy that I’m back. I’m glad to be part of the team and my running and our relay teams have been solid so far this year.” 

Mousel has a career-high high jump of 5-5 and through the first two indoor meets of the season she’s cleared 4-10 as her season's best. Because her right knee isn’t quite back, Mousel switched her approach and is now jumping off her non-dominant leg, something she says feels completely backwards. 

“I’m dealing with some patella tendonitis,” she said. “I’m going to take a step back from the high jump for a few weeks and hopefully by the end of the season I’ll be back to jumping off my dominant leg.” 

While it has been about 15 months since South Dakota sports fans have seen Mousel in any kind of uniform, the standout rodeo performer was able to participate in high school rodeo last summer on a limited basis. She wasn’t able to do her favorite event, goat tying but Mousel did manage to qualify for the National High School Rodeo Finals in team roping. 

In the fall of 2022 Mousel was on the fence if she would play basketball for her senior year. Ultimately it was the tug of rodeo that helped make the decision for her. 

“My knee wasn’t quite right and that just drug on and on,” she said. “I decided I wanted to participate in rodeo in college and I wanted to try for a scholarship.” 

Colman-Egan senior Josie Mousel will be attending the University of Wyoming next fall on a rodeo scholarship - Courtesy photo

A talented performer in multiple events it didn’t take long for Mousel to find a collegiate home at the University of Wyoming. 

“They are just different, they want to win and they practice every morning and night,” she said. “They have a big team with a lot of kids and for me I just thought there is no way I won’t get better by going there.” 

Not going out for basketball gave Mousel an opportunity to hone her craft and get ready for her final season of high school rodeo in South Dakota. 

“I have been driving into town every day and roping and riding and tying,” she said. 

Missing out on most of the rodeo season last summer and a good chunk of her senior year of high school athletics, Mousel said the knee injury has taught her plenty of life lessons.

“My injuries taught me a lot about being mentally tough and overcoming obstacles,” she said. “The injury made a lot of things open up for me and I know that without injuring my knee I never would have made it to nationals in team roping.”