Ryan Bozer:
Here to bring Your Morning in Play, I'm SDPB's Ryan Bozer. In our sports saddle this morning is our very own Nate Wek, to help provide a preview of high school rodeo events happening this week. Nate, my first question for you, are you dressed for the occasion?
Nate Wek:
I am. I think it's one of those weeks where you can wear a little bit different attire. If you're not dressed like a rodeo person, you're going to stand out at state rodeo. So it's a big week. I don't know if I'm going to have the hat. That's still yet to be decided. But absolutely going to be a little bit more dressed for the occasion for this one.
Ryan Bozer:
I'll own up to my own novice-ness in what rodeo is. I was not a rodeo kid. I grew up in a part of Iowa that was more urban, not big in the outdoor, more rural events. So just as a preview, can you tell us a little bit about the events that occur during state rodeo?
Nate Wek:
Yeah, so you've got certain events that are a little bit more that you can plan for. You have goat tying, reined cow horse. There's certain events like that. Plus, then there's the roughstock with bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback riding and stuff like that. So you get a little bit of a flavor of everything with rodeo. Some of the events are really intense. Some of them are maybe a little bit slower, but it's still fascinating to watch. Because it's not like football, where everybody's got the main mission of just getting the ball across the goal line and scoring touchdowns and stuff like that. These different events, they all have their own strategy to them, their own techniques.
And the fun part, I think, for me, is when you see kids that are in three, four different events. Because they have to approach each one of those events a little bit differently. So I think that's what makes rodeo unique. I know we always talk about basketball and football being really big time sports in the State of South Dakota. But I think if you really look at how many kids participate in rodeo, and especially per capita with kids participating in rodeo, it's pretty clear that rodeo is the number one sport in South Dakota.
Ryan Bozer:
Nice. So rodeo kicked off yesterday with a couple of events, and then it continues today through Saturday. Can you give us a rundown of what events we're seeing each day?
Nate Wek:
Yeah, so what we had take place yesterday, on Wednesday, was we had girls and boys cutting the short go rounds for those, as well as reined cow horse. Now, the first go and second go are taking place here today, so Thursday. And then, Friday will be the second go. And then the short go, the big pomp and circumstance short go finals round, will take place on Saturday night, here in Fort Pierre. So we're going to get a little bit of everything. We've already had a few short go rounds. And, now, we back up here today and tomorrow with the first go, second go.
And then we'll conclude it on Saturday with... The Saturday night session, with the short go for most of the events, is really a lot of fun, just because there's so many people that come out for it. You can feel the energy. The only thing I can compare it to is like championship night for a basketball tournament or a volleyball tournament, or wrestling, something like that, where there's just so many different people from across the state, not even just cheering on the local people that they have specific ties to, but rodeo people, they want everybody to do well. It's not like they're cheering against anybody. So I think that's the part that really makes it fun is, it's just a lot of people that love the sport that are out supporting the sport and supporting the youth that are involved in it.
Ryan Bozer:
That's, again, a wonderful way to celebrate community in our big, old community that is South Dakota. And for folks like myself, who might not be able to come out and see the events in person, I understand, this year, we're live-streaming everything, right? All four days.
Nate Wek:
Yep, everything is being live-streamed on YouTube. It's being live-streamed on our website at sdpb.org/rodeo. And it's also being streamed on sd.net. So we've got live stream that's going to be on everything. And then that short go round that's going to be taking place on Saturday night, that's also going to be on SDPB2 TV. So we're going to get live television coverage as well for the short go round here on Saturday night.
As far as the full schedule, because there's the queen thing has taken place on Friday, where they crown the new Rodeo Queen. I believe that's at 4:30 here tomorrow night, on Friday. So you're going to have... There's a lot of different events. And the full schedule is also available at sdpb.org/rodeo. We also have a link there as well that will push people to the results as they become available. So if you want to see what's happened already, want to see what's going to be taking place, and all that type of stuff, sdpb.org/rodeo is really your home to find all of the information that you'd want to find, including that live stream player.
But, yeah, YouTube, if you have a smart TV, just search for SDPB on YouTube. You can go to our channel, and you'll find the live streams throughout the state rodeo finals on there. You can watch it right from home, right from your smart TV. It's the best way to do it. And we're excited. We think that this... We haven't done this before, that we've live-streamed all four days of the state rodeo finals here in South Dakota. So this is a big year for us at SDPB as well. And we're hoping that this gets more eyes on the product because it really, really is, Ryan, a special event.
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah, and, again, it's one of those, so many different varied events. Some of them very fast, some of them a little bit slower, a little bit more nuanced. Yeah, a lot of fun to watch. And last week, Nate, I know we talked about a different set of championships between softball and golf. Any of those stories that you're still mulling on? I know we left golf a little short last time, just because there was so much to talk about with softball as well.
Nate Wek:
Right. Right, well, a couple of the things that we really didn't touch too much on was, a week ago Tuesday, so the final round of the state golf championships in the spring. There was a couple hole-in-ones. Brooke Helland of Harrisburg, she's a sophomore, she hit a hole-in-one at the AA tournament. And then Carly Guthmiller of Groton area, a senior, hit a hole-in-one at the Class A tournament at Bakker's Crossing in Sioux Falls. So we got a couple hole-in-ones, which I've been doing this for a while, and there's years where nobody's hitting hole-in-ones. And to have two on the same day, I thought was absolutely tremendous.
I actually even had a chance to speak with Carly Guthmiller about it. Because, as a senior, it was her final golf event as a senior. She's not going to college to play golf. And not only did she get into the top 10, she finished eighth in the Class A girls tournament. But to get a hole-in-one on your final high school round of golf, I thought was really, really cool for Carly. She talked about, "The practice round that I had coming into it, it was really windy, so I had to use a 6-iron. Well, then the wind..." Or, "I had to use a 5-iron. Well, then the wind died down during the tournament, so I whipped out the 6-iron, and that's how I got the hole-in-one for that."
And I've played at Bakker's in South Sioux Falls in that Harrisburg area, and it is a tough, tough course. If I could just get it to land on a green, on a green, I would consider that a win. So for her to go through the process with me that, "Yeah, I was drawing all of my shots, so I knew if I hit it just a little bit right and a little bit short, it would roll. And sure enough, it rolled up on the green. I didn't even know it went in." It was just one of those really cool things.
And we actually did a write-up on her too. All of our golf stories, softball stories, all of the stories that we tell, just visit our SDPB Sports Facebook page. You can find all of those. And share some of these fascinating memories with some of our student athletes in South Dakota. Because there truly is, on a weekly basis, sometimes it's hard to keep up, but there truly is just a lot of really good memories and a lot of really good heartfelt stories to share. So we try to do our best that we can to do that at SDPB. And, again, our SDPB Sports Facebook page is the best way to go about finding all of our sports content and all the stories and stuff like that from these events.
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah, and, Nate, you're there seeing almost all of them every time.
Nate Wek:
Almost. I wasn't at the A tournament or the AA, so, of course, I was at the one community, I was in Brookings, where none of the hole-in-ones happened. We still got to see some really good golf taking place in Brookings, with the B girls and the B boys tournaments. So I got to see a couple of state champions being crowned, which I thought was still really cool. But then, yeah, getting the opportunity to speak to Carly, even though I wasn't there, and having her explain that moment, yeah, it's just... You can hear the emotion in her voice when she's telling it to you. And it's really fascinating to hear what a 17, 18-year-old kid goes through with the process. And I realize, boy, I have not figured out the game of golf. This is what process is going on in a 17, 18-year-old's head. And mine is just get up there and don't make a fool of myself.
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah, you're doing better than I. I think I've hit a driving range exactly once. And went, "Oh, none of those went where I wanted it to go. This is it for me." Well, Nate, you're a busy guy. We won't blame you not being for those hole-in-ones. It's hard to be in three places at once, right?
Nate Wek:
Right, exactly.
Ryan Bozer:
But you are in Fort Pierre this week for those rodeo championships, having a good, old time with that. So I'll let you mosey off and get back to all the excitement happening today and the next couple of days. And we'll talk again next week.
Nate Wek:
All right, I appreciate it, Ryan.
