Boots, chaps, cowboy hats: The rodeo has its own life cycle, as teens idolize the greats in the sport

For 13-year-old Trell Amoss, opening night of the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo was a homecoming of sorts. After traveling around the country with the rodeo, which his family helped put on, the Malden native said it was nice to be at a rodeo in Missouri for a change. Sitting on an empty chute platform with fellow 13-year-old Cade Smith, the pair seemed happy to bask in the evening air and watch as the dozen or so cowboys and organizers prepared for the show.

Their proximity to the show's stars, Smith said, was tough to beat, especially considering he and Amoss both harbored rodeo ambitions of their own.

"You get to just hang out with 'em. That guy over there is Tim O'Connell," Smith said, pointing to a lanky cowboy stretching a roll of tape around his bicep. "He's a three-time world champ in bareback and he's one of my best friends."

"Six thirty-five," a voice called over the public-address system. Twenty-five minutes and counting until the action started in the arena.

"I mean, these are guys I have looked up to since I started riding bulls myself," Smith said.

Kash Wilson rides a bronco during the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Wednesday in Sikeston.

Like many of the people milling around behind the chutes, rodeo is a family affair for Smith and Amoss.

Amoss explained that he'd been hanging around the rodeo scene ever since he could remember, watching his dad compete.

"You get to see people like Fred Whitfield," he said. "He was an eight-time [PRCA] world champion calf-roper and my dad did rodeo with him."

"You met Fred?" Smith said, obviously impressed. "Lucky."

By the time the announcer called the time again, the cowboys were taped up and limber; some squatted in silent meditation while others rocked their saddles in the dust, testing their stirrups one last time.

Travis Smith, of Thayer, Missouri, uses a knife to rough up the rosin on a strap while preparing to ride a bronco during the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, in Sikeston.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

One was bullrider Travis Smith, who was, like Amoss, a Missouri native. And like the 13-year-old Smith, Travis said he too got an early start riding bulls at only 8 years old.

Travis's brother got into it first, he explained, but it only took a few weeks of watching before he climbed on a bull of his own.

The memory of that first ride, he admits, is fuzzy.

"I don't really remember it," he said. "But I know it didn't go very well."

In the 18-year interim, he said, he's gotten much better at hanging on.

From left, Wyatt Denny, Tim O'Connell and Briar Dittmer tape their arms in preparation for riding in competition during the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, in Sikeston.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

"It's one of the things I like to think I'm pretty good at now," he said.

And after so long on the circuit, he said it's hard to imagine getting any kind of similar thrill working outside of rodeo.

"There's nothin' like it really," he said. "I can do $4,500, $5,000 for 8 seconds' work..."

He shrugged, grinning beneath his handlebar moustache.

For many in the crowd, too, the rodeo represented a family tradition.

Wyatt Denny's tattoo is seen while he tapes up his arms in preparation for the bareback horse riding competition during the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, in Sikeston.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

Mike McReynolds, a Sikeston grandpa with a broad handlebar moustache of his own, said he'd been to almost every Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo of the last half-century.

"Years ago," McReynolds said he took part in rodeo team roping, but now said he's too old to rodeo. Instead, his focus was on his 18-month-old granddaughter Rebekah Deane perched on his shoulders.

"We own horses and we ride and we participate. Our kids grew up doing 4-H rodeo," McReynolds said. "This is what we enjoy."

"It's a hometown rodeo, but it's a great rodeo," McReynolds said. "Some of these guys are the best of the best."

Photo editor Jacob Wiegand contributed to this story.

Chance Masters, right, tests his saddle during the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, in Sikeston.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com