Wasatch High School senior Maxwell Andersen held on for dear life as the bronco bucked. He leaned backward so much his own back nearly touched the horse’s. His efforts were to no avail — the steed threw him to the dirt before the buzzer went off. Null points. He got right back up again, and within an hour, he was performing in a different rodeo sport altogether. A bull calf that had been restrained behind a metal gate was off like a shot, and Andersen chased after it on horseback.  Suddenly, he was on the dirt — he’d dismounted so swiftly and nonchalantly that it seemed like teleportation. He grabbed the bull by the horns and flipped it onto its back. The entire maneuver was so quick that he’d taken the lead in steer wrestling. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Wasatch High School senior Maxwell Andersen participates in bronc riding and steer wrestling. Andersen was one of dozens of high school students who competed in the Wasatch High School Rodeo at the Wasatch County Event Complex on Friday and Saturday. The event drew high school competitors from across the state, who hoped to earn points to qualify for the Utah High School Rodeo State Finals next month. The rodeo includes sports like bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, pole bending, trap shooting and roping sports like team roping, tie down, breakaway and goat tying. The Wasatch High School Rodeo team has existed since at least the 1960s and held its competition for about as long, according to Director Ty Bingham.  Students like Andersen have been called to the rodeo since before they could walk. Andersen’s three older brothers all competed on the high school team.  “A lot of competition,” he said. Andersen has participated on the team since his freshman year, practicing an hour every day after school. He plans on continuing to compete in collegiate or professional rodeo when he returns from a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission. He estimated that he’s been on about 200 horses in his life. The Wasatch High School Rodeo team competed with peers across the state over the weekend in sports ranging from trap shooting to bull riding. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park RecordThe Wasatch High School Rodeo team competed with peers across the state over the weekend in sports ranging from trap shooting to bull riding. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park RecordThe Wasatch High School Rodeo team competed with peers across the state over the weekend in sports ranging from trap shooting to bull riding. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park RecordThe Wasatch High School Rodeo team competed with peers across the state over the weekend in sports ranging from trap shooting to bull riding. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park RecordThe Wasatch High School Rodeo team competed with peers across the state over the weekend in sports ranging from trap shooting to bull riding. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park RecordThe Wasatch High School Rodeo team competed with peers across the state over the weekend in sports ranging from trap shooting to bull riding. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record When asked what kind of people are drawn to the world of the rodeo, Andersen said, “Adrenaline junkies. People that love horses. People that are stupid that want to get on bulls.” He’ll never compete in bull riding. It’s easy to see why, watching several of his peers get nearly trampled, barely saved by a colorful rodeo clown distracting the animal as EMTs from Wasatch Fire District tensed up on the sidelines. Bingham’s approach to safety is slowly easing students into the rough stock sports — those that involve a bucking horse or bull — by ensuring they’re comfortable riding their horse and have participated in plenty of practices and training before they’re actually on the animal.  Holding onto a bucking bronco is no easy task, even for the most seasoned cowboys. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “If you were learning to box, you wouldn’t get in the ring with Muhammad Ali,” he said. Unlike many other high school sports, rodeo is based on the individual rather than team performance. As such, most students practice on their own, with the team meeting infrequently.  That also means students have to pay their own way to compete, a barrier for which the high school team hasn’t quite found the solution, Bingham said. The sport can be especially expensive for those who aren’t consistently winning and taking home cash prizes, he added. “There are a lot of people who have been blessed to grow up on a farm, and they can train their own horses,” he said. “A lot of other parents are sacrificing to go to work to be able to help afford it because that’s their way into the sport.” Justin Sharp, president of the junior high rodeo team and a coach with the high school team, said part of the way to bridge the gap is to be willing to volunteer time and resources.  “I’ve helped lots of kids learn how to rope, and if they want to put in the time and the work to do it, I’ll give them a horse to ride,” he said. “It’s a big expense for me on that part, but I’m willing to help if somebody wants to try.” Despite the barriers, Bingham said the sport has “exploded” in popularity in the past 15 years. He couldn’t even count the total number of students on the high school team, but he said there were 16 juniors and 18 seniors. He said around 40 kids on the team have already qualified for state. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record One competitor barely holds onto his horse. Another goes flying off. While there are plenty of college rodeo scholarships, Bingham is aware that not all students will continue to compete after graduating. That’s why he focuses on teaching life lessons through rodeo that apply to students no matter where they end up. As he put it, rodeo is time-consuming, fast-paced and dangerous — and “you definitely lose a lot more than you win.” That makes it ideal for developing resilience and grit.  Rodeo also teaches competitors to be good stewards of their animals, he added. “They are high-performance athletes. All the animals are bred for this … but yet, we are the ones who have to be great stewards over them,” he said. “Our horses should always eat and drink before we eat and drink. When it’s really cold at night … maybe think about blanketing them. … It’s making sure that they have the right supplements. It’s really paying attention to how their eyes look and their bodies look, to make sure that they’re healthy and they’re vibrant.” Wasatch High School competitor James Dudley before the rodeo competition. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park RecordWasatch High School competitor James Dudley before the rodeo competition. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Bingham participated in the Wasatch High School Rodeo team in his teens. What stuck with him most were the friendships he formed not only with his peers but with his competitors. “Most competitors will help their competitor, whether it’s in practice or at the actual competition. Rodeo is notorious for being such a tight-knit group of people, where typically, we want to win, but we want to win when everybody else is at their best. Rodeo people don’t typically want to win because somebody else made a mistake,” he said. Justin characterized the rodeo world as a big family. His wife, Wendy, is a former rodeo athlete. Two of his kids compete on the junior high and high school teams, and his 8-year-old daughter, Mackle, is itching to tie a goat as soon as she’s old enough. The family competes in rodeos just about every weekend, and even halfway across the state, everyone seems to know everyone. For Justin, who has lived in Heber City his entire life, rodeo provides a chance to reconnect with his hometown’s ranching roots even as they disappear to growth and development.  “It’s our lifestyle. That’s what we grew up doing, and that’s how we were raised,” he said. “It’s fun to be able to succeed inside the arena, versus doing it out in the pasture like we used to do a long time ago.” Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record A Wasatch High School competitor rides a bucking horse as spectators watch. The post Students chase thrills at Wasatch High School Rodeo appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less