Saturday, May 22, 2004

High school rodeo champ looking for more

Joe Warren El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

All-Around Champion for the New Mexico High School Rodeo Association.

Last year it was Jared Green. The same Jared Green that is currently completing his senior year at Socorro High School.

In 2002, the all-around winner was also Jared Green.

The then sophomore at Socorro High School was in his first year of competition in the association and, consequently, he was also the Rookie-of-the-Year.

With one rodeo left in the regular season in 2004, the leader in the race for the all-around title again is Jared Green.

The same person who won his first belt buckle at the age of 4 while riding sheep.

The theme here is that Green has taken the association by storm.

He was the first ever to win rookie and all-around honors in the same year when he accomplished the feat in 2002.

Now he has a chance to do something that only one other high school cowboy has done — win the state all-around title for the third time.

Tim Muncy, another local cowboy, was the first to do it back in 1982-1984.

Green could be the second person ever to three-peat.

Yet another cowboy that is well known, but was unable to win the award three times, was Tuff Hedeman.

Hedeman was a repeat winner, but Green has an opportunity to outdo the superstar who now has a Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association championship under his belt.

Green said that to have his name along side Hedeman's is special.

"It feels pretty good," he said. "Hopefully I can go a little higher."

By going higher Green means that he wants to get the third championship.

With about a 70-point lead, Green is certainly in the driver's seat.

Today the association stops in Grants for the final competition of the regular season. Then it is off to Gallup on June 10-13 for the state finals.

Green competes in four different events.

The 18-year-old Escondida resident competes in all three rough-stock events (bull riding, bareback and saddle bronc) and also team ropes.

But his best event is bulls. It is also the one he is most passionate about.

"My dad started us (preparing for bull riding) before we really knew what we were doing," Green said referring to him and his older brother James.

The Green boys started by riding sheep. Jared showed a knack for hanging on from the beginning.

As a 4-year-old, Jared won his first belt-buckle riding sheep at the county fair.

At the age of 5 Jared won his first saddle.

He went up through the proper channels.

Green rode calves, steers, baby bulls and at age 10 started getting on bulls in practice.

His dad, Jimmy, was a bull rider.

Jimmy Green rode bulls in high school and participated in some amateur events.

James still does ride bulls.

The 21-year-old who is Jared's only sibling, is recovering from a shoulder injury and is preparing to go back on the PRCA circuit.

It is what Jared hopes to do as soon as he is done with school.

"I want to get my PRCA permit and go with my brother to some pro shows," Green said.

But Green is first going to attend Eastern New Mexico University on a rodeo scholarship.

Green hopes to get at least an associate's degree in Ranch Management or Animal Science before making rodeo his career.

Then it will be off to the tough life of the rodeo cowboy.

The long road trips, the weekly abuse on the body and the consistent mental battle that takes place between a 150-pound guy trying to stay on the back of a 2000-pound animal that wants nothing more than to get him off.

"It's got to be better than sitting behind a desk," Green says wincing about that temporary thought.

"I don't know anything else," Green said contemplating what he would do if rodeo were no longer an option.

"I'd probably be stock contractor. I'd have to be around livestock and the outdoors."

When he is not attending school or battling animals in the arena, Green likes to fish, hunt and do ranch work.

As a hobby he likes breaking colts.

"When he was little he got bucked off a horse and got up and said he was a real cowboy," Green's mother Sidney said. "He said that's what real cowboys do."

Sidney travels with her son to all the rodeos. Her job is to videotape Jared's rides so the family can study his technique afterwards to see if any adjustments need to be made.

"A lot of times it's the only thing that keeps me civil," Sidney Green said. Like any mother, she feels vulnerable when her son is strapped to the back of a rank bull or a crazy horse. "I have to hold that camera steady."

Green, who has scored as high as 89 on a bull during competition, works on all three riding events.

While bareback and saddle bronc give him something else to do during the rodeo, it is the bulls that get his heart pumping the most.

"It's an adrenaline rush," he said. "Everything is fast. It's all reaction. You don't really have time to think, you've got to react."

The videotapes that Sidney records are used to study the rides after the fact, but Green has other tools that he uses to help get him prepared throughout the week.

The family has a mechanical bull in their backyard that Green rides at least twice a week.

They also have a few bulls in an arena outside the house. Green rides them for practice.

Couple that with a trampoline to work on flexibility, a stationary spur board to help with scoring and riding horses bareback to build strength in the thighs and Green has a complete regimen.

"I also lift weights in school," he said.

While all the preparation helps put Green in the proper physical condition for riding, the mental is a little tougher.

What most people do not realize about riding bulls is that they are each different. No two animals are exactly the same.

Green said that when the gate flies open there is a constant challenge.

"Most of the time you know what they're supposed to do, but you can't expect them to do it every time," he said.

All of this preparation is with the next rodeo in mind.

After the state finals, Jared will compete in the National High School Finals in Gillette, Wyo. That takes place July 19-25.

The best Green has done in two trips to the National High School Finals is a seventh place in bull riding his sophomore year.

Last year the best he did was 14th in the bareback.

It is something that Green says drives him to do better this year.

"I could be happy with it, but I want more," he said. "I hope to do better this year."

That would not be out of the question since long-term Green has even higher aspirations than that.

"I want to be a world champion," he said.

Then he could be mentioned nationally in the same sentences as Tuff Hedeman. Just like he is here in New Mexico.

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