State high school rodeo events conclude today

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

June 29, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

About 150 Minnesota high school students will finish ridin', ropin' and broncin' at the State High School Rodeo Finals at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds today, a contest that has been running throughout the weekend.

Today marks the culmination of the nine-event, Minnesota High School Rodeo season, and the top 10 contestants in 13 events will compete to move on to the nationals which will be held at Pueblo, Colo., in July. Four students from each event will qualify for the nationals, each earning a belt buckle as a prize, and the first place finisher in each event will win a saddle.

Several local participants from Region I, which includes Bemidji, will be competing today in events such as pole-bending, bull riding, team roping and barrel racing. A few of the contestants even have good opportunities to move on to nationals, state finals Chairman Donnie Strandlein said.

The Minnesota High School Rodeo season begins annually in August and finishes in June with the state meet which is held in a new city every three years. Bemidji has been host for the last three, and the Bemidji Visitors and Convention Bureau is this year's sponsor.

The first Minnesota State High School Rodeo was held in 1956 at Plum Creek Ranch in Walnut Grove, and was later held in Granite Falls for 32 years. Following that, it was held at St. Cloud, Fergus Falls and then Bemidji. Next year's location will be determined in August.

In the early days of the state rodeo contest, Strandlein said there were few contestants and fewer fans, but in recent years the sport has grown tremendously.

In 1993, his son competed in the bull riding event with nine other people, and this year there are about 40 contestants in that event.

"In a lot of schools, students can even letter in rodeo now," he said.

Nationwide, 38 states and four Canadian provinces send students to the national meet, resulting in about 1,600 participants annually. It is the largest rodeo competition in the world, according to Strandlein.

"Yeah, it's a big deal now," he said. "It's getting bigger all the time."

The Bemidji community has supported the event well over the last three years, Strandlein said, and another banner 1,200-person crowd attended Friday night's performance. However, Saturday's crowds were down because of inclement weather, and today's crowd will depend much upon the weather as well.

"I'm hoping for good weather," he said.