Marble’s Boatright finishes third in team roping at National Rodeo Finals.
Guthrie, Okla. – After a successful first two rounds in the team-roping competition at the National High School Finals rodeo, Marble resident Trevor Boatright knew that he and his partner had a good chance of placing high overall.
“It was pretty nerve-racking but exciting at the same time,” Boatright said with a laugh. “That’s what you work for and when you get to that spot, it should be the easier steer of the week, but it’s not.”
Despite the nerves, Boatright and his partner Jackson Green of Roanoke, Al., who have been roping together more than five years for the Georgia High School Rodeo Association, managed to turn in a good time in the final round, finishing third overall out of the 93 teams from across the world at the competition.
Boatright, who has been roping at junior rodeos since he was around 3 years old, said that seeing all of his hard work pay off with a top-three finish was a rewarding feeling.
“It was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Boatright said of the duo’s top-three finish. “I’ve competed at the National High School Finals for six years, and to finally get that end result that we’ve been working for our entire life is pretty amazing.”
But putting together a third-place finish at one of the largest competitions in the country isn’t just a two-man effort, as Boatright said the duo wouldn’t have been able to get to this point with the help and support of their families.
“It’s not emotional just for us, but for our families too,” Boatright said. “They put a lot of time into this just as we do, traveling with us, turning steers and calfs out for us. They have just as much invested as we do.”
Boatright, who finished as the Champion Calf Roper, Reserve Champion Steer Wrestler and All-Around Cowboy at the Georgia High School Rodeo Association State Finals at Chatsworth, Ga., in June, also competed in the tie-down roping competition at the championships as an individual, finishing in 78th place out of the 108 overall contestants.
But the National High School Finals rodeo wasn’t the only competition that Boatright participated in over the past few weeks.
During the two-week trip from Marble to Guthrie, Okla., and back, Boatright and his traveling party made stops to compete in various other amateur rodeos along the way.
“It was very exciting for me because I had never gotten to go across the Mississippi and go to any amateur rodeos,” Boatright said. “I’ve always rodeoed around here in Georgia and Alabama. Just to go out there and get to see what it was like was a great experience. It was a pretty successful two weeks.”