story by Lily Weinacht
Payson Crouch is a two-time KHSRA Reserve Team Roping Champion Heeler, punching his ticket to the NHSFR three times with hopes of a fourth this summer. The 18-year-old from Dodge City, Kansas, followed in his family’s bootprints when he started rodeoing in elementary. His aunts and uncles compete, and his dad, Kent Crouch, rodeoed in the PRCA on both ends of the arena. “It’s just the love of it,” says Payson. “Rodeo is really all I’ve ever done, and I enjoy the fellowship you experience with all the people. I’ve met some of my best friends through rodeo, and it’s cool to travel around.”
One of those friends is Trevor Meier, whom Payson met when he first started rodeoing. “We’re around each other a lot and we have similar goals. It’s neat because we’re pretty good friends and we’re using Trevor’s horse, Berry, in the steer wrestling. It’s worked out pretty good.” Payson added steer wrestling to his résumé this season to liven up his routine, and his dad hazes for him. In the team roping, Payson and Cadon Remington are entering together for the first time, while Payson roped with Taylor Lagasse for two years. “I didn’t start high school rodeoing right at the beginning of my freshman year, but Taylor Lagasse asked me to rope with her halfway through the year and we ended up almost winning state and making it to the National High School Finals. I’d like to thank her for asking me to rope and taking a chance on me. She helped me out a lot.”
Payson’s mom, Danielle Crouch, runs the Western State Bank Expo Center in Dodge City, and he has the opportunity to rope there often and compete. He also enjoys practicing with his dad and riding young horses together. “We run about 100 head of Corriente cows and try to keep some young horses around to start roping on and use on the ranch. I do a little bit of everything. That’s what really got me started in rodeo is doing stuff out on the ranch. My uncle has a lot of cows too, so we help him get his cows worked and we help our friends, so we trade work around.” Scoots, Payson’s main rope horse, started out as one of the Crouch’s ranch horses until Payson took him over for roping his freshman year. The gelding has taken him to the NHSFR three times so far. “I like riding young horses a lot,” Payson adds. “I like going through the whole process with them and seeing the end product. I’m working on a heel horse that me and my dad started heeling on. In the next year or two, he’ll probably end up taking over the spot of my good horse.”
A senior, Payson does school through Manhattan Virtual Academy. “There’s a bunch of us kids from Kansas High School Rodeo that do it, so it’s pretty handy having a bunch of us doing the same thing and helping each other out. I had a vet science class that was really fun, and a lot of what we went over I’ll probably use down the road.” Payson also enjoys spending time with friends, and he’s recently visited several colleges. “I’m thinking of going to Oklahoma or Texas,” he says. “My closest goal is to make the (National) High School Finals four times, so I want to do that this year, and do the same and make the College Finals all four years. Down the road, I want to make the NFR.”
