story by Ruth Nicolaus
Nicole Dahl is a big help to the Utah High School Rodeo
Association.
The eighteen-year-old cowgirl, a barrel racer, breakaway roper, pole bender and team roper, is the daughter of the state high school rodeo secretary, so she can often be found helping her mother with the bookwork and running judges’ and timers’ sheets to the office.
Dahl, who lives in South Weber, Utah, rides two horses for her events. For the barrels and poles, her mount is an eight-year-old buckskin named Jake, who is quirky. “He is very energetic and very peppy, and he loves to run,” she said. For the breakaway and heeling, she rides another eight-year-old buckskin named Delilah, who is the opposite of Jake. “She’s mellow, but she gets the job done. She does whatever I ask her to do.”
Nicole is a senior at Northridge High School in Layton, where the best part of the day is being with her friends. She is part of the REAL Team, a group of students that works with the Layton Fire Department in educating elementary students about fire safety. The Real Team visits two schools each week, doing skits for seatbelt safety, and teaching kids other safety tips like not running into the road or overloading electrical outlets. Group members are considered fire department volunteers, putting in over forty hours a year in service.
She is president of her school’s chapter of Health Occupations Students of America, and in her spare time, she plays adult league basketball and loves to golf. She is on her school’s high honor roll.
This fall, she plans on finishing her associate’s degree (she will have half of it done by the time she graduates from high school.) She will serve an LDS mission, then she’d like to go to medical school, possibly to be a cardiologist. She loves studying the human body, especially the heart. “It really interests me. It intrigues me, and I like learning about it.”
Nicole has competed at state finals every year since sixth grade, and at Silver State last summer, in the barrels and breakaway. She really enjoyed Silver State, in part because there is less pressure there than at state. “It’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” she said. “You hang out with a bunch of fun people, and there are so many fun activities.” She especially enjoyed the water parade and cheering for her teammates.
Nicole has an older brother, Nathan, who is married to Tamra; they have two daughters, Laynee (age four) and Charlee (age two), and an older sister, Kayla, who is married to Cade Visser. She is the daughter of Doug and Wendy Dahl.
