The third time’s the charm.
At least it is for County of Barrhead teen and Barrhead Composite High School Grade 8 student Levi Schmidt.
For the last three years, Levi, along with various partners, has qualified for the National Junior High School Finals Rodeo (NJHRF), but never managed to win anything substantial.
It was this year that he and partner Denim Ross from Botha finally won the team roping championship.
“I want to thank everyone who helped me get there, my family, my partner, Denim, LCOS [a sponsor],” Levi said. “Plus I want to thank everyone who sent me their well-wishes and congratulations from Barrhead on social media. It really means a lot to me.”
Levi said he wouldn’t have been able to reach the level he has without his other partner, his horse Cody, who was named the Alberta High School Rodeo Association’s horse of the year.
The NJHRF is the world’s largest junior high school rodeo, featuring more than 1,100 contestants from 48 states, five Canadian provinces, and Australia. This year’s event took place in Huron, South Dakota from June 24 to July 1.
In the team roping event, a steer is released from the chute and a team of two ropers on horses both attempt to rope the steer.
The first roper, known as a header, ropes the front of the steer, usually around its horns but sometimes as low as its neck. Once the steer is caught, the header then wraps his rope around the horn on his saddle and uses his horse to turn the steer to its left. Meanwhile, the heeler attempts to rope the steer’s back feet.
Levi acts as the header of the team, while Ross is the heeler. The duo has been together for just short of a year, teaming up together in August 2017.
Levi and Denim qualified for the NJHRF after the pair competed at the Alberta High School Rodeo Association Championships in Ponoka in early June.
Along with his parents Elaine and Ronald, Levi left Barrhead at about midnight on June 23, arriving in Huron the next evening.
The pair’s first competition was the morning of Tuesday, June 26.
The night before, Levi said he was up late because of a jackpot competition and although they are part of the rodeo are not part of the championship.
“It was really hard to get with it mentally, but I just tried to get my job done and make my heeler a winner,” Levi said, adding they finished the run with a time of 8.28 seconds, good enough for third place out of 180 teams.
Two days later in an evening competition, Levi and Denim won the go-around with a time of 8.48 seconds.
Ronald noted all the teams competed once in the morning and once in the evening “just to make sure it is fair,” noting that because it was an outdoor arena, artificial lighting was needed for evening events.
The final competition, the short-go with the best 20 teams, was held the evening of June 30.
A few hours before the final competition, Levi and Denim — who were given the nickname of team Blue Jeans because of the similarity of their names to the apparel — were interviewed on RFD TV.
Despite the attention the pair received due to to their 16.76 second-leading time, Levi said he wasn’t nervous heading into the final.
“I was actually feeling pretty comfortable and ready to win,” he said.
Having the leading time also gave the team the enviable position of knowing exactly what they needed to do to win the competition, drawing the last position of the night.
The team finished the competition with their best time of the event, 7.59 seconds, to win the championship with a three-steer combined time of 24.35.
Ronald noted the NJHRF was great for Alberta. For the first time in the event’s history, two Alberta teams finished at the top of the team roping standings ,with Coy Skocdopole and Clay McNichol placing second.
As for how Levi got into the sport of rodeo, he said it was in his blood.
Both his brother Kolton and sister Taylor compete competitively in rodeo. In 2015, Kolton won the National Intercollegiate Championship along with his partner Sawyer Barham, and has qualified for the Canadian Finals Rodeo as well as National Finals Rodeo. Taylor is currently attending Weatherford College in Texas on a rodeo scholarship.
His father Ronald was a Canadian champion in 2000 as a heeler and his grandfather Leonard is still active on the local rodeo scene, recently competing in the Barrhead Senior Rodeo.
Levi said it was a great honour to be able to represent his country and province at the NJHRF.
