OLDS — An Olds-area resident won two go-around events and was named this year's Canadian champion junior all-around cowboy during the 2023 Canadian High School Finals, held Aug. 2-5 in Brandon, Manitoba.
Rance Coates, 14, became the 2023 Canadian junior champion team roper after winning the average in that event. He was named the champion tie-down roper after winning the average in that event as well.
As Canadian junior all-around champion, Coates received a prized saddle and breast collar. He also won $1,000 in scholarships.
The competition was pretty fierce.
The top five junior high and top six high school finalists were invited to compete in the Canadians.
Coates qualified via provincials organized by the Alberta High School Rodeo Association and held in May in Rimbey.
He was also a member of Team Alberta which competed in the U.S. during the 2023 National Junior High School Finals Rodeo, held in Georgia in June.
In an email, Rance’s mom Ashley said his horses are “very much a key to his success. None of this would be possible without them.”
His tie-down roping horse is named Shorty and his head horse is named Dakota.
Coates has been doing rodeo since he was about five years old.
He also played hockey for a while but found that rodeo is his passion.
"(I) got the itch again to rope, and now I think that’s all I’m going to do,” he said during an interview with the Albertan. “It’s pretty fun. I like the competition.”
This was Rance’s first year doing tie-down roping, so to win that event was pretty special.
It wasn’t a cheap venture.
“My friend did it one time at his house and it seemed pretty fun, so we had to go buy a horse for that," Coates said. “When you step off your horse and run down the rope, that’s a pretty good adrenaline rush.”
Many rodeo events are timed, so contestants are up against a lot of pressure not only to beat their competitors but also the clock.
Coates said he thrives in that atmosphere.
“There’s always pressure for every time you go and I feel like the more pressure you have, I feel like I do better, because my heart’s racing,” he said.
Coates’ days in junior high school rodeo are over. Now he has to compete at the high school level. He admitted that competition will likely be “pretty tough.”
In order to compete successfully in high school and higher levels of rodeo Coates said he had to improve in three areas: speed, horsemanship and compete level.
His mom added a fourth: mental toughness.
“It’s a lot of mental, more than physical, I would say, watching this,” she said.
Ashley said it’s exciting, but also stressful to watch her son compete in rodeo.
“You go through the highs and the lows. It’s very much that. It’s like zero to here and vice-versa, all the time. It’s riding the wave of emotions, 100 per cent,” she said.
Rance’s parents are very supportive of his desire to continue in the sport.
Ashley also likes the rules of high school rodeo.
“This pushes him, because with high school rodeo, you have to have good grades. So if he doesn’t have good grades, he’s not allowed to compete.
“And that’s not from me, that’s from the association. That’s a good incentive,” she said.
Eventually, Rance wants to pursue rodeo at the post-secondary level.
He said he practises six days a week – even in the winter.
“We have an indoor arena at my grandpa’s house, which is, like three minutes away, so it’s not that far to haul down,” he said.
