POCATELLO – Believe it or not, high school rodeo is set to begin this week.
On Friday night and again on Saturday morning, the young cowboys and cowgirls will be at it again, trying to earn spots in the Idaho State High School Rodeo Championships that will take place in June in Pocatello.
All of the action gets underway this Friday, with the performance beginning at 6 p.m. at the Bannock County Fairgrounds. The first two weeks of activity will be held in the covered arena on the lower fairgrounds.
You will find the usual events — bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing, goat tying, pole bending, and of course bull riding.
Following the Friday night performance, the cowboys and cowgirls will be right back at it on Saturday morning with the performance beginning at 10 a.m.
Many of last year’s stars will be back for another go this year. One of those cowboys is sophomore Rawley Johnson, who as a freshman qualified for the National High School Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Johnson was the runner-up in bull riding a year ago, but won the District 4 title in bareback riding and looks to be a mainstay at the top of the standings in many of the rough stock events. This young cowboy has a great future in rodeo and it all starts this week in Pocatello.
The District 4 Rodeo will be in Pocatello for two weekends, April 12-13, April 19-20, then will shift the action to American Falls where the rodeos will take place on April 26-27 and May 3-4 and then will move to Blackfoot, where the rodeos will be on May 10-11 and May 17-18.
The cowboys and cowgirls earn points based upon their finish in each of the events, with scoring for the top 10 in each event each week.
The points awards will be based upon a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis each week and the cumulative total will allow the contestents to advance to the state rodeo in June.
The top 10 qualifiers in each event advance to the state rodeo.
The action will be hot and heavy and the standings look to be tight throughout the six weeks’ worth of competitions in the District 4 rodeos as these competitive athletes look to advance and earn scholarships toward their college education.
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