story by Siri Stevens
Chad Cross is the Rodeo Coach at Ft. Scott Community College in Ft. Scott, Kansas. He has been a coach for 20 years now. “I am fortunate – I love what I do and seeing people get their next step in life with rodeo and their education makes me awfully lucky.” He has been a member of the ACRA on and off for 15 years as a pickup man for Wayne Barnes. “I enjoy being horseback and I’ve always enjoyed chasing something that wanted to get away.” he said. “My family gets to go along too and that’s been enjoyable.” His wife of 25 years, Jennifer, is a second grade teacher at Winfield Scott, and also times rodeos in the ACRA quite a bit.
They have three children, Jaice, 22, who graduated from Ft. Scott and will be Chad’s assistant coach beginning in July. “She’s got a well-rounded knowledge in rodeo and will help with recruiting and fund raising as well as coach the girls.” Chad thinks she will excel at it. “She’s competed in all three events and she’s a people person that can make people believe.” Chad has instilled in his program as well as his family that a positive attitude and moving forward equals success. “We’re just going to try to outwork everybody.”
Jake, 20, is a Marine. He joined two years and four months ago. “He is doing very well – he’s been promoted to Corporal – the same reasons the rodeo team does well – he keeps a positive attitude and is extremely hard working.” Seth is 18 and just graduated from Ft. Scott High School. He plans to go to college. Neither of the boys rodeoed, and Chad and Jennifer supported them in whatever they wanted to do.
Chad rode broncs and at one point in time worked everything but the steer wrestling. Raised on a ranch in south central Kansas, he was out of high school for three years before coming to FSCC. He graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Agriculture Economics and went on to Northeast Oklahoma State University, where he obtained his master’s degree in teaching. He teaches a class in horse shoeing and an economic class in addition to his duties as a coach.
“Our program is simple. The kids show up every day and outwork everybody. If you have a passion for what you do and do those things, the rest will come.” As technology advances, the 53 year old admits that is a challenge for him. “I don’t like to text or email and it’s a little harder there.” He also knows how competitive the rodeo world is. “These kids need to understand that they have to win a bunch and not place all the time. Having a great performance is what you are after. They think they have to be first, or they didn’t succeed.” The team practices daily, that’s not an option. “We’ve got all the stock there to practice on and we work hard at letting them win.
We have a gym and weight room in the same building our arena is in, on campus. It’s all within walking distance.” He has been coaching long enough that he sees his former students succeeding at their life. “We talk to people that tell us about other successes in life. It doesn’t matter what they do, they still use the same philosophy. I really enjoy seeing the kids that have gone through the program.” He has a team of six going to the 2017 CNFR. “We’ve been practicing. A couple of them have gone home, and they’ve all been rodeoing. We’ve been busy keeping them busy.”
Chad has no plans to change anything. He likes picking up and tries to keep that separate from his coaching. He is glad to be part of the ACRA. “The ACRA provides people a wonderful place to go rodeo and stay close to home. It’s a great organization. They do a good job.”
