BEAVER SPRINGS — Rodeo is a tough sport. Just ask Cody Rice or Kesley Pontius. They were two competitors who tumbled off their rides in the Saturday night rodeo at the Beaver Springs Fairgrounds.
Rice was the third contestant in the bull riding, and only seconds out of the gate, he was tossed to the ground, landing with an audible thud. Pontius, riding at a full gallop in the poles event, was flung from her mount as she wheeled sharply to start around the first pole. She limped out of the arena, while leaning on an official, to applause from the audience.
Both were among more than 50 high school students from around the state, all members of the Pennsylvania High School Rodeo Association. The show at Beaver Springs marks the first time the rodeo has been there.
Misty Guyer, rodeo secretary, explained that the 80 students who are members of the association travel around the state from August through June each year, riding in about 24 rodeos each season, vying for a chance to compete in the state finals at the Farm Show Building in Harrisburg on June 6. The top four contestants in each event go on to nationals, held in July.
“It’s a huge commitment,” said Guyer, whose daughter, Brelyn, is state rodeo queen this year. “From where we live in Newburg (near Shippensburg), this was a three-hour drive. Some of the trips are six hours or more.”
From August through Thanksgiving and then again from March through June, Guyer and her daughter are at a rodeo every other weekend. In addition to performances all over Pennsylvania, they have travelled to West Virginia, New York and Canada to compete.
An hour or so before the Saturday night show, a heavy thunderstorm came through the area, and the students and their families huddled inside a building at the fairgrounds as rain and strong winds lashed the area, lightning flashed and thunder boomed. Officials were undecided whether to hold the 7 p.m. event, but when the storm passed and the rain stopped, they decided to proceed 15 minutes late.
The young men competing in bull riding kicked off their sneakers and pulled on western-style boots, then buckled on leather chaps over their jeans. They donned heavy vests that resembled body armor to protect them from the flailing hooves of the bulls.
Some of the boys stood alone, stretching and arching their backs, while others sat on the fences above the chutes, poking and kidding one another as boys do. When a contestant prepared to board his bull, he pulled on a helmet with a face guard. Once aboard the bull, his intent was to stay aboard until a horn sounded 10 seconds into the ride. Then he needed to get off the bull and away from it safely.
“It’s tough,” said Roger Gee, of Lawrenceville. “You can get hurt easy.”
In order to cover all the events in about three hours — “That’s how long most people will sit” — Guyer explained that only the first 9 or 10 contestants in most events compete during the main show. The others competed earlier in the afternoon, in what’s known as “slack.” Their scores count just as much as the main event.
As soon as the nine bull riders had completed their rides, the first girls event, poles, began. In this event, riders gallop the length of the area, then turn sharply and zig-zag between half a dozen poles, wheel around and do it again, then gallop full-tilt to the finish line. The object is to complete the course without touching any of the poles in the best time. Several riders managed to do so in the 22- to 26-second range, although several did knock over poles, costing them points.
Later in the evening, barrel racing, goat tying, calf roping, breakaway roping, bronc riding, steer wrestling and team roping took place.
Only a small crowd, mostly parents and friends of the riders, watched the show, keeping one eye on the sky, where thunderheads gathered as the sun went down.
Area students competing include Jake Werich, of Beavertown; Alainie McDade, of Selinsgrove; Lauren Wagner, of McClure; Dustin Holub, of Sunbury; John Ryan Foster, of Weikert; and Kesley Pontius, of Watsontown.
A second performance at Beaver Springs will take place this afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for children 12 and younger.
News
Related Photos
-
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item
-
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item
-
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item
Discussion
Beaver Springs: Cowboy up ... and down
50 students take part in rodeo
- News
-
-
New Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
SEATTLE — Money donated by the nation's most chartable people is starting to catch up with pre-recession giving, thanks in part to some very large bequests from a few donors. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports today in its annual report of the nation's most generous people that the top 50 donors made pledges in 2011 to give a total of $10.4 billion.
-
State Rep. William DeWeese convicted on five counts in corruption case
HARRISBURG — A jury today convicted a senior Democrat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on all but one of six charges in the latest corruption trial stemming from a five-year investigation into the use of taxpayers' resources for political purposes.
-
State gas-drilling bill may pass today
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top-ranking state senator says he's hoping for a speedy vote in his chamber on sweeping legislation to impose a drilling fee and update safety regulations on the booming natural gas industry.
-
Senator warns of 'dramatic' and 'difficult' state funding cuts
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top-ranking senator says he expects dramatic and difficult spending cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett's budget plan. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said Monday that Pennsylvanians should be prepared for a debate on how best to use tax dollars, and he warned that he can't envision lawmakers raising taxes to ease spending cuts.
-
'It's just amazing'
PAXINOS -- Eli Manning may have been the Super Bowl's Most Valuble Player, but Henry Hynoski was the name on everyone's tongue in the Valley onSunday night. Patrons gathered in blue Giants jerseys to support Hynoski, the 23-year-old Elysburg native and Southern Columbia High School graduate who is now the proud owner of a Super Bowl championship ring.
-
Schools await word on Corbett's budget
SUNBURY -- Winston Churchill once said, "A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."
-
DA wants Loving Care leader held liable for $68G fine
MIDDLEBURG -- More than a year has passed since the former corporation that operated a Selinsgrove personal care home was convicted of stealing a resident's money, but the case still lingers in court. In December 2010, Loving Care Nursing Center Inc. was convicted of stealing about $32,000 of former resident Francis T. Simonoski's money while he lived at the 308 S. Market St. home in 2007. The corporation was fined $100,000, which later was reduced to $68,000 following an appeal.
-
For Riverside couple, game day means party
RIVERSIDE -- Super Bowl Sunday is more than just a sports day for Joe and Leanna Muscato. It's also one of their biggest parties of the year. They have been holding Super Bowl parties for 32 years. They have been holding Super Bowl parties for 32 years. "When it started, it was in my little apartment" in Danville, Leanna said. Only eight people were at the first gathering. Now, there are usually 25 to 30 people every year.
-
Who will feed US?
SUNBURY -- More than 60 percent of farmers are over the age of 55, and without young farmers to replace them when they retire, the nation's food supply would depend on fewer and fewer people. "This is an alarming revelation that we have been hearing for several years," said Tim Lesher, a member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Young Farmer and Rancher Committee and president of the Northumberland County Farm Bureau.
-
A dip'll do: Few linger in 41-degree water
LEWISBURG -- Why? Group by group, about 250 otherwise perfectly sane-looking folks dived in and ran out of the Susquehanna River at St. George Street landing Saturday in the Seventh annual Polar Bear Plunge, part of the yearly Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival.
-
5 of 9 coaches: Giants will be super
CATAWISSA -- Around 10 tonight, it will be the New York Giants being showered with multi-colored confetti, holding preprinted newspaper front pages that proclaim "GIANTS ARE SUPER!" and getting sweaty fingerprints all over the 7-pound sterling silver Lombardi Trophy, so say five of nine Valley high school football coaches.
-
State mandates manure must be managed
HARRISBURG -- Anyone who spreads manure on fields or has a pasture, barnyard or feedlot must now have a manure management plan, even if he has no animals and imports manure only for his fields, a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection official said Friday.
- More News Headlines
-
New Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
