TEAM FLORIDA AT NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL FINALS RODEO

SANDERS AND CLEMONS 2021 CHAMPS, OTHERS COMPETE IN NEBRASKA

Written by: Kathy Ann Gregg

The Sunshine State has a pair of National High School Finals Rodeo champions.

Ava Grayce Sanders of Vero Beach is the country’s top barrel-racer, Cole Clemons of Okeechobee its best tie-down roper.

High schoolers from 39 states, three Canadian provinces and Mexico converged on the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, July 18-24.

Top contestants in each of 13 events competed in two of the 12 performances to narrow the field to the “best of the best” and for a chance at stardom. And it is the Short

Go Round, ironically performance 13, that determines the ultimate champions.

Meet The Best

A sophomore and in her first year competing in the Florida High School Rodeo Association, Sanders placed first in performance 4, at 17.501 seconds, third in her second run at 17.525 seconds. With 20 racers in the Short Go Round, Sanders and her horse, King, kept their pace with a time of 17.547 seconds. The pair’s consistency in the three runs gave them the win in the average, ultimately a national title. She was with King in his stall when the announcement was made. “Coming in as a rookie, we were definitely a little nervous, but King did great, and we came together as a team when it really mattered. I’m really proud,” Sanders says.

Clemons placed fifth in his first run at 11.65 seconds. He shortened it to 8.85 seconds in performance 11, repeated that to land third in the Short Go Round. Like Sanders, his consistency in the three runs won him the average and Florida’s second national championship title.

Nipping at Clemons’s heels was teammate Travis Staley. Although a resident of Nashville, Georgia, Staley rode for Team Florida. His times of 10.53 seconds in performance 3 and 8.1 seconds in performance 10, overall first place, then 11.12 seconds in the Short Go Round, won him the Reserve National Champion Tie-Down Roper title.

TEAM FLORIDA’S GREAT SHOWING!

While not everyone ranks first or second, Team Florida had several outstanding contestants. In overall times, for example, Lakeland’s Ryla Bryant finished seventh in the pole-bending event. She took fourth and ninth places in her respective runs, then she and her horse, Harry, out of 18 finalists, ran 20.675 seconds for a sixth-place finish in the Short Go Round. As a young girl, Bryant was one of the Mason ProRodeo’s Patriotic Cowgirls.

Dade City’s Brock McKendree, as header, and Okeechobee’s Clayton Culligan, as heeler, ended with an 11th-place finish in the team roping event. Performance 3 saw them make a 6.67-second run, earning second place. McKendree also won the Teskey’s Top Hand Award, a $500 scholarship, and the Keith Maddox Memorial Scholarship, sponsored by the American Hat Co.

Okeechobee High School junior Leyton Watford ended up 14th in the breakaway roping event. She took first place in performance 6 with a run of 2.24 seconds.

The very last performance in the qualifiers, number 12, was big for Team Florida, with two names up in the lights. Ropers Cayden Newsome of Myakka City placed first in tie-down roping at 9.82 seconds, and Addy Gose of Lorida placed first in the breakaway roping event at 2.17 seconds. And these youngsters were not done competing following their Nebraska trip. Seventeen-year-old Gose, rodeoing from age 5, competed in the Jr. NFR in Fort Worth, Texas, finishing fourth in world competition. That started with 120 entries, dwindled to the top 50 finishing times, then top 20 times, then a championship round of the top 6.

SIDE NOTE: Cole Clemons, joined by Roan Hudson of Arcadia, competed in the World Championship Junior Rodeo from July 27-31 at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Clemons’s winnings totaled more than $5,000.

CONGRATULATIONS go to all members of Team Florida for a job well done!

Florida Country Magazine extends its deepest sympathy to the family of Paul C. “Chuck” Mack III and to his extended family with the Florida High School Rodeo Association. Mack passed away August 9. He was to be Association president in 2022. FCM

Roundup

National High School Finals Rodeo (2021) results, nhsra.com

World Championship Junior Rodeo (2021) results, wcjrodeo.com

Jr. NFR, jrrodeo.org

Clockwise from top left: Roan Hudson at the International Youth Finals Rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma, July 11-16, 2021, Addy Gose of Lorida, Team Florida in July in Lincoln, Nebraska, Ava Grayce Sanders with her parents, NHSRA reps and her winning hardware.