By Kendra Rhodes
The spring of 2020 was supposed to be the chance for the Carbon Rodeo Club members to host their annual hometown high school rodeo and show off their skills after the winter break. All four members had hopes of qualifying for and gaining points in their respective events in order to compete at the Utah High School Rodeo Association (UHSRA) State Finals Rodeo, which was to be held in June.
Following the weeklong competition, the top four contestants in each event qualify to compete at the National High School Rodeo Association World Finals in July. As with all other spring high school sports, their season came to a halt before it even began due to the global pandemic COVID-19.
It was announced last week that the state finals rodeo would be cancelled. Now, the Carbon Rodeo Club is left with a storage room of prizes that they will be unable to award to the top contestants at their hometown rodeo and the members are left with goals that they will be unable to accomplish due to the season being cut short.
Most notably affected is Carbon High senior Kagen Rhodes who was sitting only one point out of first place for the year in his favorite event, trap shooting. The decision to cancel the UHSRA State Finals Rodeo means that the top four contestants in each event are determined by the cumulative of all points earned for the year.
The newest member of the Carbon Rodeo Club is Wade Boyce Bedke. Bedke is a freshman at Carbon High School and was not able to compete this year due to the cancellation of the spring season. His events are trap shooting and light rifle. Wade’s goal is to have fun, and he enjoys shooting sports, playing football and watching the Tampa Bay Bucaneers. We hope to see Bedke get to compete in the fall for the 2020-21 rodeo season.
Wesley King is a sophomore at Carbon High School who recently joined the Carbon Rodeo Club and was able to compete at the Dixie Six rodeo last November. He competes in team roping and tie down roping events. His favorite accomplishment so far was winning the Senior Riding Club Team Roping Heeler in 2019. King competed for two years in the light rifle event in junior high and qualified for the Silver State International rodeo in eighth grade. He enjoys riding his horse and competing.
Destinee Andrews is a junior at Pinnacle Canyon High School and is the 2019-20 Carbon Rodeo Club Vice President. This is Andrews’ third year competing in barrel racing and pole bending. Her goal was to qualify for the state finals. Andrews’ accomplishments include moving up to the Top 20 in barrel racing and placing first in the NBHA youth 3D.
Carbon High School senior Rhodes is the 2019-20 Carbon Rodeo Club President and he competes in the trap shooting and light rifle events. This is his fourth year competing and after all of the points were tallied, he finished the year in third place overall in the light rifle event. He is the Reserve State Champion Trap Shooter. Rhodes’ greatest accomplishment so far was his amazing NHSRA World Finals last year where he placed sixth in the world in light rifle and was the Reserve World Champion Trap Shooter. He hopes to once again compete at the world finals and place as well as or better than he did last year. After graduation, Rhodes plans to further his education at USU Eastern in the fall.
At this time, plans for the National High School Rodeo Association World Finals are moving forward and will be held in Lincoln, Nebraska, in July.
The Carbon High School Rodeo Club would like to wish all its members continued success in and out of the arena as they look forward to starting the rodeo season up again in the fall.