By Rich Winter

605 Sports

I distinctly remember looking through rodeo results in early June and wondering what athletes from small towns like Reva, Smithwick, Hereford or Ortley were going to enthrall us with their exploits in rodeo. 

For a high school sports reporter, early June is generally thought of as “let’s slow down for a minute.” Track and field sends the high school sports seasons out with a bang in late May and you look at the calendar and suddenly Aug. 23 (opening day of high school football season) looks a long ways away. But then, after a practice rodeo and back-to-back weekends of regional rodeos, a plethora of fresh faces with stories to tell emerged that instantly lit up the summer.

One of the real challenges during the summer is coming up with contact information for these rodeo athletes or their parents. During the school year setting up an interview with a kid usually involves emailing the athletic director or coach and in desperate measures, somehow sweet talking the person who answers the high school phone into getting involved.

But who is the gatekeeper for high school rodeo contact information?

I’ll let everyone in on a little secret there. Amass an army of Facebook friends that participate in rodeo or have a vest interest in rodeo. Can't tell ya the number of times this summer I had a head-scratching connection conundrum and after asking for help, usually within minutes I was hooked up.

Early in the summer I asked for story ideas and within minutes had a plateful.

From the Little Britches ranks all the way through college, South Dakota rodeo is blessed with hard workers that have incredible talent. While watching the South Dakota High School Finals Rodeo in Fort Pierre and seeing Tierney Breen, Woonsocket, Mataya Ward, Fruitdale, Bailey T. Verhulst and Raylee Fagerhaug, Wessington Springs secure spots to the goat tying national finals, I wondered aloud if South Dakota is the toughest goat-tying team to make in the country?

One of the people that really helped move the rodeo register was Jaimi Lammers. She went above and beyond to answer questions, share photos and bring our best coverage ever to the Junior High National Finals Rodeo. 

If I started a list of favorite stories or favorite athletes that I visited with this summer we would be here awhile. So many polite young people across South Dakota that say “yes sir,” and “no sir,” work hard and that really opened up and shared their love of the sport. 

 So, I’ll narrow a list to three favorites.

Connie (Stinson) Price and animals come first - Not often I have the chance to visit with a rodeo legend like Price who was the South Dakota All-Around Cowgirl in 1960 and ‘61. 

It’s hard to encapsulate the effect someone like Price has had on rodeo in South Dakota but when you visit with her the passion still gleams like she’s a little girl. I really liked her analogy about feeding and tending to the horses before feeding oneself.

Need to set the other favorites, Newell’s Kimberly Johnson and Pierre’s Ryen Sheppick, up just a bit. 

On a quest to nourish my own mental health, I asked just about every athlete to tell me their mindset when the chute opens or when the pressure is on. I’m not sure if I was surprised or just impressed but nearly every cowboy and cowgirl I visited had a clear head and trusted their training. A few had specific markers they were looking for early into the ride but most just kinda rolled with whatever happened. 

Kimberly Johnson, Newell — Very impressed with this young lady who is attending Mount Marty University where she will be playing volleyball while working toward a double major in pre-chiropractic and business. Johnson has a list of duties and responsibilities that would make my head swim but she dropped a little wisdom that works for her and would probably benefit a few others in getting things done. She told me she focuses on doing one thing at a time, getting that done, and then moving on to the next thing.

Ryen Sheppick, Pierre — Of all the athletes I visited with, Sheppick was the only one that admitted to struggling with her busy thoughts in rodeo. She read books on the matter, listened to podcasts and then one day the answer came to her when she attended a camp  facilitated by Joey Williams and Jessica Holmes. 

“At the clinic we talked about having the right mentality,” Sheppick said. “Just because I have a bad run in roping doesn’t make me a bad roper. When we would watch videos we would watch them with the mindset of seeing what I did right.” 

Now that’s the right mindset. 

And just like that the summer calendar has rolled to fall football. It’s been a great ride, y'all, see you again soon.