Friday, May. 23, 2008

Marcus, FMHS Riders Head to State

Rodeo Journal

By John English

Contributing Writer

The Marcus rodeo program will send nine of its riders to the North Texas High School Rodeo Assocation Finals Competition on May 29-31, and team sponsor Denyse Swaney said the school has had a strong season to this point, ranked third in the association overall.

Swaney is also the sponsor of the newly formed Flower Mound High School rodeo team, which will have one representative at the competition.

"Both of the high schools are members of the North Texas High School Rodeo Association," Swaney said. "It draws high schools from as far south as Waco. There are about 85 schools that are members this year, and it is a series of 28 rodeos."

The rodeo season began in September and wrapped up last weekend, and scoring is based on a cumulative points system.

"The top 15 competitors in each of the events get to go to finals," Swaney said. "We had 10 kids in that top 15 of their individual events, including some girls going in four events each and two girls that are competing in three separate events."

The Flower Mound rodeo team is three members strong and will send a competitor to the finals competition this year, but for Marcus, a strong presence at the contest is starting to become a tradition.

"Some of our senior girls this year have gone all four years," Swaney said. "We’re going to hate losing all of them, because they have made a big difference."

There are six seniors on the Marcus team this year, including Shady Foreman, who is competing in breakaway roping, steer undecorating, goat tying and pole bending; Samantha Trent, who is competing in breakaway roping, goat tying and pole bending; Nicole Lewis, who is competing in barrels; Katelyn Spradley, who is going in steer undecorating; Corey Adolff, who is competing in chute dogging and steer wrestling, and Coby Rose, who is competing in chute dogging and steer wrestling.

The other competitors for Marcus are juniors Julie Swaney, who is competing in goat tying, steer undecorating and pole bending, and Eric Egan, who is going in steer wrestling, as well as freshman Aly Foreman, who is going in steer undecorating.

Sophomore Quinn Massey is competing in steer wrestling for Flower Mound.

"A lot of these kids have done this their entire lives," Swaney said. "We had over 20 members on the Marcus team this year, which is quite a bit bigger than it was last year, so it is definitely become more popular."

The NTHSRA finals competition will take place May 29-31 at the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth.

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