By Rich Winter

605 Sports

A year ago recently graduated New Underwood senior Eastan West was just happy to have made his first National High School Finals Rodeo.  

With that experience under his belt, the 2023 South Dakota High School all-around champion is ready and raring to go in his first round of the National High School Finals Rodeo Monday in Gillette, Wyoming. 

“It helps having been there because you realize it is not the bright light’s that everyone makes it out to be,” Eastan West said.

West won the saddle bronc state title at the South Dakota High School Rodeo Finals in Fort Pierre in June and finished third in the team roping competition with his long time partner and good friend Caden Stoddard of Kadoka.

The pair qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo in 2022 but didn’t have the results they wanted or were accustomed to. 

“We’ve been thinking about last year's finals for an entire year and we feel like we have some unfinished business,” he said.

The pair have been roping together since junior high and once qualified for the Junior High National Finals Rodeo. 

“I was a little bigger than him when we were younger but we used to see each other at wrestling tournaments,” West said. “We started roping together in seventh grade and have been together ever since.”

Eastan West and Caden Stoddard have been roping together since seventh grade. The pair finished third at this year's South Dakota High School Rodeo Finals in June -Photo courtesy of Shane Carmichael

Fueled by a desire to prove their worth on the biggest of stages West said their years of experience together will pay dividends next week. 

“One thing about being together is that neither one of us is afraid to say exactly what we are thinking,” West said. “Each of us knows what the other is going to do and we’ve been through so many ‘situations’ that if any of those situations comes up we feel like we’ll be ready for them.”

It seems that every summer elite saddle bronc riders come from the western part of South Dakota, particularly from the Wall, Philip and New Underwood areas. All four National High School Rodeo Finals participants for saddle bronc in 2023 hail from western South Dakota. 

West won the state saddle bronc finals with 85 points. Hereford’s Thayne Elshere was second (76), Newell’s Cade Costello third (69) and Kadoka’s Gabriel Fauske fourth (64.5).

Like many of the West River saddle bronc riders that have come before him, West has worked with saddle bronc guru, Mike Heathershaw.

“I hang out and rodeo with Malcom and Matthew Heathershaw a lot,” West said. “Mike Heathershaw has had a huge influence on my rodeo progression over the last couple years.”

West entered the South Dakota finals with maximum points having rolled through his two regional rodeos. At the state finals West scored 15, 13 and 18 points in the three go-rounds setting the stage for a promising week ahead at the national finals. 

“When you come into the state finals with that many points it does take some pressure off,” he said. “You know you can do it and you also know you don’t have to change anything from what you have been doing.” 

The future Casper College rodeo athlete knows the stakes get higher and the stock gets tougher at next week’s national finals. 

“I expect the horses to be a little more rank at nationals,” he said. 

West participated in basketball his freshman and sophomore years at New Underwood but gave up that sport because of his love for rodeo and the outdoors of South Dakota.

“This way I’m able to rodeo or practice rodeo all year round,” he said. “I love to hunt and go coyote calling in the winter.” 

Rodeo runs deep in West’s family. His great grandmother Ardith Bruce was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last summer. Bruce made the National Finals Rodeo for eight consecutive years from 1963-1970 and was the 1964 World Champion barrel racer in 1964.