Determination breeds success for high school rodeo athletes

School really didn't interest Dalton Dumas at all.

He frequently missed classes and was essentially flunking out of high school. He was, however, interested in riding bulls.

Sometimes sports can do what nothing else can.

In order to participate in high school rodeo (which is a club sport, not sanctioned by the Utah High School Activities Association), he had to achieve and maintain a 2.0 grade point average.

The lure of an eight-second ride on the back of a 2,000-pound bull was enough to keep Dumas in school and motivate him to study. He applied the same stubborn determination to school that he'd given to bull riding.

That effort paid off this year as the junior, who rides for the Lehi Club, will compete in the Utah High School Rodeo State Finals this week at the Wasatch County Fair Grounds. Hundreds of the best high school rodeo athletes will compete in two different performances beginning Wednesday at 10 a.m. hoping for a spot on the team that will represent Utah at Nationals in July.

The top 10 athletes will compete in Saturday's Championship round at 5 p.m. and the Nationals Team will be announced after the final competition. Utah has had tremendous success at Nationals, finishing second last year, and winning six of the last nine state titles.

Some of those vying for a spot on the national team are like Tim Bingham, veterans with a history of success and a college scholarship in rodeo. But many are like Dumas hoping for that first shot at competing for a national title.

One of those is Fremont sophomore Whitney Wayment.

Watching Wayment maneuver a horse through poles, it is hard to believe doctors once told her parents she would probably never walk or talk.

She began defying odds on the day she was born. A premature baby, she weighed just one pound, 14 ounces. She was abandoned at birth and spent the first few months of her life in a Russian orphanage.

The Wayment family fell in love with her when she was seven months old, and didn't worry about doctors' dire predictions.

Whitney was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder that causes difficulties in social interaction.

One way to meet people and find friends is join a team. Whitney joined the Spikers Rodeo Club last year and qualified for state in her second year of competition.