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Mackenzie Johnson
BY MACKENZIE JOHNSON / Managing Editor
Tarleton's fall season of college rodeo has officially ended as of Nov. 9, 2024.
And how did the Texans fare in that first semester?
Well enough to be ranked number one in the Southwest Region for both the women’s and men’s team once all checks were cashed and all points accounted for.
The last two college rodeos of the semester, the Texas Tech College rodeo in Lubbock, Texas, Oct. 24-26 and the Vernon College rodeo in Vernon, Texas, Nov. 7-9, brought the curtain down on the fall season with a flourish.
The Texas Tech rodeo came with both a men’s and women’s team championship along with three event championships. The Vernon rodeo results shined just as brightly, with a women’s team championship and six event championships.
It seems the Texas Tech rodeo may have been the driving force behind ending the season with such a bang at Vernon considering several of Tech’s champions carried that momentum over to the following rodeo weekend.
Tarleton’s own Jordan Driver is one of these champions, winning the breakaway title at the Texas Tech College rodeo and the barrel racing title at the Vernon College rodeo.
“These rodeos are definitely a marathon and not a sprint, and that is super hard to understand sometimes, especially since these rodeos are back to back,” Driver said. “With these wins, I'm going to take in all the positive aspects from it and try to continue to build off of it. Keeping my routine at home the same and the same mindset is a big part for me. The main goal is (making) the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) and another big goal is to win the CNFR, but I have to make sure I do my job each week to ensure that I am going to be able to accomplish that.”
The last name Driver is a household name in the barrel racing pen. Driver comes from a family deeply rooted in rodeo and was raised by a mother with loads of barrel racing championship titles beneath her belt. Driver is no different.
In fact, a weekend prior to Texas Tech, Driver won a check of $100,000 as the winner of the 2024 Big Texan Barrel Race in Abilene, Texas. Driver is also a 3X CNFR qualifier and member of the 2024 CNFR women’s reserve national champion team.
However, Driver’s win in the breakaway at Texas Tech proves she can also win with a rope in her hand.
“The first couple of rodeos were not what I had intended in the breakaway,” Driver said. “Over the summer I had to make the decision to take a step back from the breakaway to accomplish a different set of goals, so being able to come back and win Tech was super rewarding. I have actually won the breakaway at Cooks Garage (Texas Tech’s arena) in 2022, so to come back and win it again in the same arena is really cool to do twice in my college rodeo career.”
Outside of that breakaway win at Texas Tech, Driver also brought home another win, a title completely new to the rodeo scene, as the first ever 2024 Cooks College Shootout All-Around Champion.
The Cooks College Shootout is a brand new annual rodeo that serves as a bookend of sorts to the Texas Tech College rodeo. Tech’s College rodeo ended Saturday, Oct. 26, and Cooks College Shootout took place Sunday, Oct. 27.
Put on by Behind The Chutes, a non-profit organization founded by Texas Tech University alumni, The Cooks College Shootout is strictly for the champions and reserve champions in each event from the fall rodeos and the top two Texas Tech rodeo standouts.
The shootout is not directly affiliated or linked to National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association [NIRA] points, but is rather its own rodeo that just bases its invited contestants off those NIRA event standings. The shootout is designed as a one-go (contestants make one run) performance that covers all of the events run in the college rodeo that weekend.
“I think what Cooks did with the College Shootout was a really cool deal,” Driver said. “Other than the 10 college rodeos, there isn’t much else to go to for other than ‘college-level’ rodeos. It was a great opportunity to get to run at some extra, good money, and thankfully, I came out with a reserve championship and an all-around trailer and rifle.”
The Cooks College Shootout paid out a total of $100,000 in cash and prizes to winners, and Driver got a good piece of the pie, bringing home a trailer, rifle and buckle.
“Winning in the Southwest region is an accomplishment in itself,” Driver said. “This is the toughest region hands down, so getting to come out of there with multiple wins Tech weekend was super rewarding. Putting on events like this (Cooks College Shootout) is definitely a key start for athletes to start to get their names out or even start to gain confidence going into the next rodeos. You don’t see this very much, so getting to run for that money, prizes and recognition is really the start to something bigger in the college rodeo world.”
Several Tarleton rodeo athletes qualified for the shootout, but the three who won their event in it were Tucker Carricto in the bareback riding, Bailey Small in the saddle bronc riding and Tori Brower in the goat tying.
At the Texas Tech college rodeo, the Tarleton Texans that won their event beyond Driver were Tori Brower in the goat tying and Landris White in the steer wrestling.
“Going into the short round, I knew if I could get a good start and do my job, everything should work out just fine,” White said of his winning short go run.
Although White got the Texas Tech win, his fall season hasn’t been all round wins and championship buckles.
“This semester at the college rodeos started off slow with some tough luck at the first two,” White said. “But just being able to draw well, ride a good horse and have a good haze (the second rider who keeps the steer running straight) all went into helping me get the win there. Tarleton's rodeo team also helped play a part in that by having an amazing facility for us to practice at during the week to help us be prepared.”
Tailing the weekend of Texas Tech, although White didn’t make the Vernon college rodeo short go, Driver and Brower did, along with some other new Tarleton championship faces.
Gina Cope won the breakaway, Roedy Farrell won the bareback, Travis Handley won the saddle bronc and Dodge Hare won the team roping at Vernon.
“It’s a privilege to get to be a part of the team and the program that Tarleton has built over the years, and there is very much a winning tradition here,” Handley said of Tarleton’s success. “As far as the saddle bronc riding goes as a team, we have been dominating, and it’s much more fun when you can look at the standings and you and all your teammates are sitting at the top.”
Cope has also been dominating in the event of breakaway and also thinks her teammates have a lot to do with that success; however, her most prominent one may just have a couple extra legs.
“My plan going into the short go was to have a clean run,” Cope said. “I know I didn’t have to be really fast to get the win because I was so fast in the long round… And I knew my horse would do her job and she did it beautifully. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in this event.”
Alongside her horse, Cope credits goal setting to many of her accomplishments.
“I set goals and work hard to achieve them, whether it’s little goals such as pinning the barrier, roping my calf clean or whether it's a bigger goal like winning the whole rodeo,” Cope said. “Each little goal I set helps me achieve bigger goals. I went through a little slump at the end of October and to be able to push through that is very rewarding.”
Slumps are easy to fall in when you’re competing in such a tough atmosphere, and Handley has a specific mental game in order to combat that.
“I try to keep the same mindset in every ride, no matter how the horse bucks, I still have to do my job and do the little things right,” Handley said. “When I saw the draw, I recognized the horse, and I knew he was pretty good and that definitely boosts your confidence. Being able to get the win at the last rodeo of the semester was huge and helped get me in a solid spot in the standing going into the spring.”
It seems something about winning at the last college rodeo of the fall season may just feel a little sweeter.
“It means so much to me to take home this championship because not only did I put in hard work, but my family also supported me all the way,” Cope said. “I particularly want to thank my mom, stepdad and my Aunt Ida for supplying me with the amazing horses and supporting me throughout my whole rodeo career.”
Although it’s now the off season for college rodeo, that hard work doesn't stop.
“I have a lot of horses that I’m able to rope calves off of every day,” Cope said. “I’m very blessed to live in Weatherford where I can go to a breakaway jackpot within an hour almost every night of the week, so I’ll just keep going to jackpots and rodeos.”
Handley also doesn’t pump the brakes on his progress just because the fall season has ended.
“I don’t change much in the off season of rodeo,” Handley said. “I am still pretty adamant on getting on my spurboard everyday and getting on good practice horses whenever I get the chance. I feel like when I am able to consistently get on horses, it keeps me in the best shape, riding sharp and ready to hit the ground running when rodeos kick back off.”
The spring season won’t kick back up until Feb. 27 at Odessa College in Odessa, Texas, and although the men and women Tarleton Texans sporting that current first place position in the region no doubt deserve that lengthy break, they won’t be using it.
For although champions are most recognized amidst the winning season, they’re both built and maintained in the off season.
And for Tarleton rodeo, there is no such thing as an off season when you have two first place spots to defend.
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