Club hosting rodeo event at Neshoba Coliseum
The Central Mississippi Rodeo Club is hosting a high school and junior high rodeo at the Neshoba Coliseum to raise money for the upcoming National High School Final Rodeo in Wyoming.
The club is hosting the rodeo on Friday, Jan. 20 and Saturday, Jan. 21. Admission for each rodeo is $10, and is free for kids five and under.
The club consists of the Mississippi High School Rodeo Association and the Mississippi Junior High Rodeo, and is open to any students wanting to participate. Students from Neshoba Central, Leake Academy, and home school students make up some of the club.
Mecie and Kevin Beason, who both live in Neshoba County, are parent volunteers and part of a committee of parents who run the club.
“We formed this rodeo club recently this year because we noticed we didn’t have anything like this in central Mississippi,” Beason said. “Our kids usually have to travel at least three hours or so to rodeos on the weekends, so we wanted to make it easier for them and family members to come watch them at the coliseum.”
Beason said this rodeo at the Coliseum is also a way to raise money for the students in the case they win the state final rodeo in Hattiesburg next June and travel to Gillette, Wyoming, for the National High School Final Rodeo in July.
“If you’ve participated in at least five rodeos, you can go to the state finals in Hattiesburg,” Beason said. “Then, the top four finalists from each event in that rodeo advance to the National High School Final Rodeo.”
The high school rodeo will compete in two rodeos (Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.), and the junior high rodeo will compete in one rodeo on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
“We definitely see people in our club advancing all the way to the national finals,” Beason said. “Hopefully we can get more kids in the area involved in high school rodeo. It would give our local people more of a chance to see kids from all over Mississippi competing in rodeo and might one day see them competing for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.”
During the rodeo, high school students will take part in multiple events, such as saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, breakaway, tie-down, poles, barrels, team roping, goat tying, bull riding, and steer wrestling.
Beason noted the junior high students will compete in the same type of events, along with chute dogging and ribbon roping.
“We will also have a Reined Cow Horse Competition on Saturday, Jan. 21 after the junior high rodeo,” she said. “We’re excited to let our local kids take part in local rodeos, and we appreciate our local sponsors. This wouldn’t be possible without them."