story by Siri Stevens
Bo Yaussi, 18, has claimed the title of the first-ever Junior Ironman Champion in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The team roper, tie-down roper and steer wrestler from Udall, Kansas, competes in the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Association.Team roping is his favorite – it always has been. The heeler ropes in the USTRC and just got his permit as well. The senior has been home schooled since fourth grade. “I like it – I’ve had an almost full time job all the way through high school and I’m learning things that I could never learn in school. Bo works in shipping and receiving at Galaxy Technology, where his dad works. “It’s a big machine shop. I’m a deck hand and material handler.”
He’s gotten some of his general eds out of the way for the junior college and plans to start at Gainesville, Texas this fall. “There is a lot of support for the rodeo team at North Central Texas College (NCTC). It’s in a prime team roping area,” he says of his decision. “Plus the kid I rope with in high school, Garrett “Hotshot” Emore lives 20 minutes away.” He plans to study business marketing. “It covers a lot and I’ve always thought I could do anything with it afterwards – work at NRS, sell trailers, just about anything.”
Bo remembers his first rodeo that he entered on his ninth birthday. “I was team roping and steer stopping by sixth grade at a little junior rodeo association and had a friend ask me to ribbon rope and I’d never roped a calf before. I roped off my heel horses. That was my sixth grade year and we went to some more junior rodeos, where they had breakaway, I got reserve All Around my sixth grade year and that’s when I really started adding to it.” The spring of his sophomore year he started bulldogging. He had a really good spring, won the average at the state finals, and an all around title. “I haven’t always been an all around cowboy but I got hooked on it.”
His dad (Rick) is a #5 header. “He bought his first horse when he was 23,” said Bo. “He is an accountant that team ropes, but now that me and my little brothers (twins Klay and Kash; 12) rope so much, we steal horses from him. Like any other dad, he competes through us. My dad works a lot as the CFO of Galaxy Technology so he and mom tag-team. He keeps the place running at home hauls the little boys to their rodeos and mom hauls me to mine.” Paula has never competed, but her job is to haul the big boy.
When he grows up he wants to be a professional cowboy. “That’s everyone’s dream. I want to rope my whole life and make the NFR, then I want to win a world title, but I definitely want to win the CINCH Timed Event. So, I want to make a living as a cowboy, or make a good enough living that my kids have a shot at it.”
Bo certainly made some money at the Junior Ironman. The $10,000 that he won will go towards his helpers – they had expenses to help him out, and his future. “It’s awesome – it’s like it’s been a long time coming – and it finally happened. When I got home, I couldn’t figure out what to do next – I’d been practicing for so long,” he said. What’s next is Oklahoma High School rodeo’s spring schedule which has begun.
