Glenwood middle schooler competing in rodeo nationals

You might say Houston Stephens was born to be a rodeo star.

First, there’s the 12-year-old’s name, Houston.

“I don’t really remember thinking anything that particular on his name, but yeah, it is a cowboy name,” said Brad Stephen’s, Houston’s dad.

Then there’s 2 – the age this Glenwood Middle School sixth grader first got on a horse – and 5 – the first time he competed in a rodeo.

“He did the stick horse races and dummy roping in the kids rodeo in Leon, Iowa,” Brad said.

Seven years and a handful of rodeo belt buckle trophies later, Houston is competing this week at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo National Championship in Des Moines.

The NJHFR is the world’s largest junior high rodeo and features more than 1,000 competitors from 42 states, five Canadian provinces and Australia. Contestants vie for more than $75,000 in prizes and more than $100,000 in college scholarships while competing to be named a national champion.

Saturday’s championship round will be broadcast as part of the Cinch High School Rodeo Tour on RFD-TV and online at NHSRATV.com.

Houston will be competing in the team roping and breakaway roping competition. He qualified for the two events by scoring among the top four competitors in 20 rodeos around Iowa over the last year is believed to Mills County’s lone competitor at nationals.

“I practice pretty much every day,” said Houston, who also plays basketball for Glenwood but calls rodeo his favorite sport. “I’ve always roped. I’ve never had much interest in bull riding or anything like that. I just really like roping.”

Houston is actually a third-generation rodeo rider. Both Brad and mom, Jamie, who live on 50 acres south of Glenwood, competed in rodeo in high school and carried on the rodeo and roping tradition throughout the family.

“They taught me how and I started just roping at home,” he said. “They roped too and I compete in the same events they did.”

Houston isn’t the only Stephens competing in area rodeos – younger brothers, Hyatt, 9, and Haze, 5, have both joined the rodeo ranks.

“Hayes just started but they like it too,” Houston said.

As one of four top qualifiers in team roping and breakaway roping, Houston will have a shot at winning his first national title.

Team roping has Houston and partner on horseback competing as a team. The first roper, the “header,” ropes the front of the steer. Once the steer is caught, the header must wrap the rope around the saddle horn and use his horse to turn the steer to the left. The second rider is the “heeler,” who then ropes the steer by its hind feet after the “header” has turned the steer.

“I mostly rope the head,” he said. “My dad taught me that but I’m not as good as him at it.”

Breakaway roping is a variation of calf roping where a calf is roped, but not thrown and tied. During competition, Houston ropes the calf’s neck, stops his horse suddenly and the rope, which is tied to the saddle horn with a string, is pulled tight breaking the string. The breaking of the string marks the end of the run.

“The person with the fastest time wins,” Houston said.

Houston, who doesn’t have a preference of one event over the other, admits he might be a few butterflies heading into the biggest rodeo he’s ever competed in.

“There’s 42 states, five Canadian provinces and Australia all competing in one rodeo,” he said. “I’m a little nervous but I’m more excited than nervous.”

Houston hopes to continue on in rodeo through middle school and high school and on into college.

“We competed in rodeo when we were in high school, they didn’t have middle school rodeo when we were coming up,” Brad said. “It’s something he’s always liked.”

So the real question is: how does young Houston compare to Dad at the same age?

“He’s doing extremely well,” Brad said.