story by Ruth Nicolaus
Rylee Naprstek competes in every girls event there is in the Nebraska Junior High Rodeo Association: barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, breakaway roping, ribbon roping (as a runner for Zane Kreikemeier) and team roping (as a heeler for Tehya From.)
For the barrels and poles, the Gothenburg, Nebraska cowgirl rides a seventeen-year-old bay mare named Cherry. For the breakaway roping and goat tying, she rides a nine-year-old roan named Sketch, and for the team roping, her mount is an eighteen-year-old roan named Clyde. Of all her horses, Sketch is her favorite “because he’s just really lovable, he likes people, and he cooperates really good most of the time.”
Rylee is an eighth grade student at Gothenburg Public School, where the best part of the day is seeing her friends, and sports. She loves algebra class, because “I like learning new things and working out the problems.”
She is involved in basketball, cross-country, track, is a member of the Quiz Bowl team, and is on the honor roll. She is also a member of the Tail Twisters 4-H Club, where she shows Clyde, her team roping horse.
For fun, Rylee loves to play basketball, run, watch movies, and eat. Her favorite food is nachos with everything on them, and if she was at a buffet, the first thing she’d put on her plate would be hamburger pizza. In her opinion, Casey’s General Store has the best pizza.
Her favorite place to go is South Dakota, when the family takes their annual spring break trip to ski. She’s a pretty good skier, even though they’ve only gone three times.
When she grows up, she’d like to be a dental hygienist. She had considered being a dentist, but “I cannot deal with pulling teeth, because I cannot do blood,” she said. “I’m fine if I bleed. I just don’t like looking at other people’s blood.”
She has competed at the state finals the past two years, finishing in the top ten in the breakaway last year.
She has a younger sister Jacie, who is ten years old. Rylee is the daughter of Chad and Renee Naprstek.
