A fan of rodeos may not realize this, but there is a place where the sport is alive and well in the heart of Bluff. Just toil around Three Rivers College and lo and behold, there is the Raiders rodeo squad, consisting of seven men and two women, who are currently wrapping up the fall portion of their schedule. Eighth-year head coach Chad Phipps may not have as many athletes to work with as he would like, but his group of Raiders have done plenty to make him very optimistic about the future as they attend a rodeo at Murray State (Kentucky) University rodeo today and Saturday to wrap up the event which began Thursday. They will pick things up on March 16-18 for the East Mississippi CC Rodeo in Meridian. “I expect a national college berth in some event,” Phipps said of the June event in Casper, Wyoming. “Brandon Ballard has finished (highly) in the finals and I expect to see him start progressing and get better.”

Last season, the now graduated duo of Casey Roberts and Cole Skender captured first and second place in the bull riding national finals. The boys this year are led by five bull riders (Brandon Ballard, Grant Mayfield, Brendle McDaniel, A.J. Jenkins and Josh Senn) and they have a bareback rider (Colton Mitteis), while another competes in calf and team roping (Kolby Krieger) and is an online student out of Texas while the two girls compete in breakaway roping (Poplar Bluff’s Alonna Haley) and barrel racing (Lex Keith and Haley). “We are definitely a young team,” Phipps said. “The only returners are Kolby, Brandon and Colton. They are the team leaders. Kolby has done pretty good and he has placed in most of the rodeos for team roping, but still has some ground to make up. “I try to keep it a family atmosphere and to hope they lift each other up. We’ve had guys that have loved it here and would come back and try to get another 2-year degree. We have an excellent ag program.” Mitteis sustained an injury during a rodeo and is working his way back and should be fully healthy come the next semester.

Phipps said he hopes to add two more athletes in the spring semester, but he is making do with what he has to work with. He noted that he would like to add more on the girls side. He recently returned from a multi-state event in Georgia. “We talked to a lot of people and the cool thing is that it used to be if I went to an event like that, I’d have to introduce myself and this time when I did, many of them already knew who I was,” Phipps said. “That’s cool for our team.” Phipps said that high school rodeo is still popular with an estimated 16,000 kids involved and every state has an association. “Because it’s an individual sport, you don’t really have teams,” Phipps said. “So, it will be spread out throughout a state. Some schools will have one kid in rodeo and another might have five or six. “We have kids that compete locally, and I try to go after as many as I can. Kids in high school always think they want to move West for rodeo. A lot of kids in Missouri will go to Oklahoma and Texas and it’s hard to keep them close to home.” 

Alan Dale - Daily American Republic