Local rodeoers ready for prep national finals

Every lasso they’ve swirled, every calf or goat they’ve roped, every bull they’ve managed to stay atop have all been in preparation for moments like this.

Eight local teens have qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo, to be held July 15-21 in Rock Springs, Wyoming. That talented octet will head to the Equality State, each with their own chance at glory.

Clovis’ Shad Mayfield (tie-down); Portales’ Bryce Derrer (tie-down); Dora’s Kyler Bell (team roping with Tarren Washburn of Corona), Frank Florez (saddle bronc), Hayden Powell (tie-down, team roping), McKenzie Watkins (trap shooting) and Trent Wood (team roping with Powell); and House’s Dylan Reed (saddle bronc) are venturing northwest, trying to parlay their various talents into championships.

They’re all dedicated to their sport, perfect examples being Mayfield and Derrer. When reached by telephone Friday night, Mayfield was with his family in Decatur, Texas — near Dallas/Fort Worth — on some down time after competing in Roy Cooper’s 34th Annual World Junior Calf Roping Championship, named for the rodeo hall-of-famer.

A bit later Friday night, Derrer had barely climbed off his horse for his own telephone interview after a tie-down practice.

Both were single-digit ages when they began in rodeo. Derrer was around nine, according to his father Richard’s best recollections. Mayfield was just seven when he started in the High Plains Rodeo Association.

“My dad always rodeoed,” Mayfield recalled, “so I wanted to do it. When I was seven I wanted to be a bull-rider, but I got out of that. I got scared. I just wasn’t built for bull-riding. You really have to be tough for it, as physical as it is. My dad was a calf-roper, so he knew how to teach me roping calves. I just picked it up.”

Mayfield’s father Sylvester, in fact, twice reached the National Finals Rodeo in calf-roping. “It’s kind of like the Super Bowl of rodeo,” the younger Mayfield said. “It’s not easy to make.”

Derrer’s father roped a little bit, too, but was mostly involved with showing and training draft horses, even won the world championships at doing so. He is originally from Indiana, relocating to Portales because his wife Victoria’s roots are there.

Finding himself a child in rodeo country, Bryce Derrer took to it naturally.

“It was fun interacting with kids I hadn’t been around,” he said. “I wasn’t really scared, I was just ready to compete.”

For Derrer — who recently completed his sophomore year at Portales High School and will turn 17 this month — daytime is for shoeing horses, after-hours are for practicing his calf-tying.

“I work with my dad in the daytime,” Derrer said, “and come back home when it cools off about 5, 6 (p.m.) and rope until it gets dark. I generally rope on two or three (different) horses to keep ’em fresh, and don’t make as many runs on any of ’em.”

Bryce isn’t the only Derrer who caught the rodeo bug. His younger brother Jacob is quite the roper, too, having finished sixth in the world for tie-down and 15th in the world for chute-dogging at Huron, South Dakota. He also won All-Around Cowboy from the state of New Mexico, was a state champion tie-down roper, a state-champion goat-tyer and a reserve state champion ribbon-roper along with his partner Shayden Marr of Tularosa.

Bryce has been a New Mexico state champion tie-down roper, placed fifth in the world at the junior high finals as an eighth-grader, and went to last year’s nationals as a freshman. So both brothers are quite skilled.

“It’s just something they started doing and just kind of carried on with,” Richard Derrer said. “They’re both blessed.”

Mayfield — a 17-year-old who is home-schooled — actually earned his spot in the high school finals by coming up through the Texas ranks.

“Because of the proximity we are to Texas, you can rodeo in Texas,” Mayfield’s mother Joellen said. “For some of the New Mexico kids, the Texas rodeos are closer than some of the New Mexico rodeos.”

So Abilene, Texas it was for Mayfield.

“We’ve always done (rodeos in) New Mexico,” Joellen Mayfield said, “but we went to Texas this year just because of the schedule and the dates. He went to 10 rodeos, then they have a final, a regional final.”

Each region has hundreds of rodeoers, partaking in the tie-down, barrel roping and so forth. Battling through that field of competitors isn’t easy, so making it to Rock Springs is no small achievement for any of the eight locals.

It should be challenging for all.

“I’m pretty confident I’ll do well, do my best, have fun and do what I’m supposed to, make my runs,” Derrer said.

“I’m real excited, I’m ready for it,” Mayfield said. “I think the toughest part was the Texas High School state finals. That’s the toughest part, to get to the nationals. ... I’ll just try to rope the same.”