Mikey James, a Becker eighth-grader, has earned a spot on the National Junior High Rodeo team and will be traveling with fellow teammates to Des Moines, IA June 21-27 to compete at the 11th annual rodeo finals. James will be competing in the bull riding and chute dogging (steer wrestling) competitions.

 

Featuring roughly 1,000 contestants from 42 states, five Canadian provinces and the continent of Australia — the National Junior High Finals Rodeo (NJHFR) is the world’s largest junior high rodeo.

 

Mikey James is the younger brother of Nikki James, who has been featured numerous times in the Citizen for her participation in local and national competitions. His parents are Nancy and Chris James of Becker.

 

Mikey has been riding horses “ever since he could walk”, he says and has been competing at rodeos since the sixth grade.

 

“My grandpa has like 40 horses so we as a family do a lot of riding,” Mikey says.

 

Mikey has his own horse and her name is Lena. He expects his entire family to come support him as he makes the trek of nearly 300 miles to the fairgrounds in the Hawkeye state in a couple weeks.

 

“I’m really excited,” Mikey said. James also likes to play football, baseball and participates in wrestling at Becker Middle School. His favorite class is wood tech.

 

In addition to competing for more than $75,000 in prizes, NJHFR contestants will also be vying for more than $100,000 in college scholarships and the chance to be named a National Junior High Finals Rodeo National Champion.

 

To earn this title, contestants must finish in the top 20 — based on their combined times/scores in the first two rounds — to advance to Saturday evening’s final round.

 

National champions will then be determined on their three-round combined times/scores.

 

The Saturday championship performances will be televised nationally as part of the Cinch High School Rodeo Tour telecast series on RFD-TV. Live broadcasts of each NJHFR performance will also air online at NHSRATV.com. Performance times are 7 p.m. June 21 and 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. each day thereafter.

 

For more information, go to www.nhsra.com or for ticket information and reservations, visit CatchDesMoines.com/rodeo.