Calf Roping Schools

Returning rodeo champs have different attitudes about title defenses

Last year’s South Dakota High School Finals Rodeo all-around champions, Taylor Engesser of Spearfish and Newell’s Taygen Schuelke, have a fair amount in common: a passion for the sport and a 20-mile drive to this year’s rodeo, which began in Belle Fourche on Wednesday, are just a couple of links.

Their attitudes toward defending their 2010 titles, however, are strikingly different.

“It is very exciting, but it also very nerve-wracking,” said Engesser, a Spearfish High School junior-to-be who also captured rookie-of-the-year honors in 2010. “I will have to prove (myself) because looking at the points this year, there are a lot of people that have good points coming in. So it will be a really tough competition.”

Meanwhile, the slightly more experienced Schuelke, who will be a senior at Newell this fall, comes into this year’s event relaxed and healthy. He’s looking to have some good, old-fashioned rodeo fun. 

“Oh no, last year doesn’t put any pressure on me at all,” Schuelke said. “You do have to be confident, but you don’t want to be cocky, though I guess I probably have enough of both. But I just go to have fun, and whatever happens will happen for a reason. Just like everyone else, you go to win, and that’s my goal at every rodeo I go to.”

Engesser, who won the pole bending event last year on her way to the all-around title, perhaps has reason to worry when one considers a quality field that includes Spearfish teammates Kaitlin Peterson and Amy Deichert and Kristi Steffes of Sturgis, among others.

Engesser attributes the wealth of South Dakota rodeo talent to lots of practice and a greater commitment on the part of high school rodeo performers.

“A lot of people practice together. Amy, Kaitlin and I have practiced all winter together,” said Engesser, who will be competing in barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, breakaway roping and team roping. “We all help each other improve, and Kristi is good, her horses are goods, her sister (Nicki Steffes, a former University of Wyoming college all-around champion) rides her horses and they are both really good. So I think a lot of it has to do with people working harder in practice now, rather than just going with it.”

Schuelke will be competing in bull riding, his favorite event, as well as saddle bronc, team roping and calf roping. He’s recently added steer wrestling to his repertoire, though he will not be competing in the event at this year’s finals.

Public invited to third annual Rodeo School | invited, rodeo ...

Families and people of all ages are invited to attend Joe Serrata’s third annual Rodeo School on Saturday and try their hand being a rodeo cowboy.

“This is really ‘cowboy up’ for a day,” Serrata said.

The event will be at Wink’s Bar & Grill, 10700 FM 1421, where Serrata, a professional rodeo cowboy, will teach various rodeo skills, from saddling horses to calf roping. The school will run from noon to 5 p.m., and the fee is $10 per person.

“I’ll show people how to saddle a horse and what it takes to keep a horse,” Serrata said. “We doing roping, we’re doing barrel-racing, and we may give a demonstration of bull-riding.”

To help learn steer roping, he will have on hand a $5,000 metal “steer” that is pulled along at 1 mph, allowing would-be cowboys to follow on their horse at a walk or a trot and thus have a better chance at roping it.

“Some of these kids coming out have never seen a horse,” he said. “My hope is to target people that have never been on a ranch.”As a child, Serrata became interested in roping and caught on quickly. He is now a gold-card member of the Professional Cow-boys Rodeo Association.

Serrata, who is originally from Brownsville and now lives near Los Fresnos, says he’s happy to offer the rodeo school, which in previous years had no admission fee.

“I do this for Brownsville because I am from Brownsville,” he said. “I want kids to know where I came from. I tell them to dream big because no matter where you come from, you can do what you set your mind to.”

Serrata has also volunteered his time going to schools and career fairs to talk with students about animal rights and what it is like being a cowboy.

He noticed an increase in students interested in his work, so he began basing his Rodeo School program on questions the children asked. Serrata also likes to encourage the students to study and read, saying that was what helped him succeed as a child.

His son, Joe Serrata IV, who they call Cuatro, has discovered that he likes calf roping and would like to help his father teach the skill to other children.

“I have fun roping,” he said. “I really hope to help my dad out this weekend.”

Cuatro, who is 10, plans to follow in his father’s footsteps and some day be a cowboy.

At Saturday’s Rodeo School, each student will get hands-on experience and personal help and tips from Serrata.

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