High school rodeo: Roper qualifies for title round

HEBER CITY — With her 25-year-old horse Janie feeling her age, Ashlee Peterson decided to spend her senior year focused only on the event she and Janie do best — breakaway roping.

The Salem Hills graduate is this year's event director after finishing second in breakaway roping at the National High School Finals Rodeo last summer. She and Janie qualified for Saturday's Championship Round after earning the day's fastest time Friday despite constant, cold rain.

The top 10 high school rodeo athletes will compete in the championship round Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Wasatch County Fairgrounds in Heber City. After that performance, the top four from each event will be honored with a berth on the team that will represent Utah at the National High School Finals Rodeo in July.

Peterson is coached by her father, Scott, who is a team roper himself.

"It's the one thing I love to do," Ashlee Peterson said of breakaway roping. She said learning the sport from her father is both a challenge and a blessing.

"It brings you closer together," she said. "And then there's the disagreements where we butt heads."

Peterson made things tougher on herself when she decided to take up a new sport her senior year.

"It was just a senior year thing," said Peterson, "I wanted to do something different. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be."

Peterson's mom, Tami, was shocked when her daughter expressed interest in trying out for the drill team.

"I said, 'Well, OK,' but she'd never danced in her life," said Tami Peterson, as she huddled under an umbrella with her only daughter Friday night. "But then she made it."

While some doubted her ability to pick up the technically difficult steps, the team's coach told her mother at the end of the season, she never doubted Ashlee was capable.

"She said, 'I saw something in her,' " Tami Peterson said. She ended up being good enough to dance in every single number the team performed.

But drill did take her away from the sport that has become the family's favorite way to bond.

"She missed all but three rodeos in the fall," said Tami Peterson. "That hurt."

While the sport can be time-consuming and expensive, Tami Peterson said she wouldn't trade her time on the road with her family for anything. For most athletes, parental involvement isn't just helpful, it's an absolute necessity.