{"id":25447,"date":"2021-06-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-breakaway-roper-gears-up-for-college-national-finals-rodeo\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:43:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:43:59","slug":"tarleton-breakaway-roper-gears-up-for-college-national-finals-rodeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-breakaway-roper-gears-up-for-college-national-finals-rodeo\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Breakaway Roper Gears up for College National Finals Rodeo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Deerman\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Deerman<\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n

Tuesday, June 8, 2021<\/p>\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014\u00a0Maddy Deerman realized she was a pretty good roper around the sixth grade<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to do roping when you\u2019re really young,\u201d she said. \u201cYou need to be a little bigger. When I got to junior high, I was able to up my game a little, to take shots from farther away, to take stronger swings and reach out a little farther.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior geoscience major from Hope, N.M., will represent Tarleton State University at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo., next week as the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Southwest Region breakaway roping reserve champion.<\/p>\n

Although she recognized her talent heading into junior high, she had already been exposed to rodeo for several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much my whole life. I\u2019ve been riding since I could climb on the back of a horse. I grew up on a ranch and my parents rodeoed, as well. I\u2019ve probably been rodeoing since I was 6.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her father, a roper himself until a shoulder injury sidelined him, taught young Maddy the finer points of the skill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter he got hurt, he kind of channeled his knowledge into making me better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She did get better.<\/p>\n

At 16 Maddy attended Artesia High School, where she claimed New Mexico state championships in both team roping, as a header, and in breakaway roping. She also won the Best of the Best breakaway competition and placed in the top five in both the National High School Finals and the International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Okla.<\/p>\n

After high school she headed to Texas, enrolling in Sam Houston State University and competing for the school\u2019s rodeo team. However, it just wasn\u2019t a good fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had heard a lot about Tarleton\u2019s rodeo tradition, and that kind of pushed me to go there,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is an honor to get to go there. It makes you much more competitive, much sharper to be around all the ropers in Stephenville.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year away from graduating with her bachelor\u2019s degree in geoscience, she\u2019s already thinking about career options.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually going to stay at Tarleton because I love it so much I don\u2019t want to leave,\u201d she said with a chuckle. \u201cI\u2019m going to work on my master\u2019s in environmental science. After that I\u2019m probably going to end up in either Stephenville or my hometown, depending on if I want to go into the oilfield or stay more on the environmental side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before that, though, she\u2019d like to spend a bit more time roping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just started branching out to the pro rodeos this year. I try to rodeo as much as I can, so I would say that is how I make my living. I would like to try out rodeo for a year or so to see if I can sustain myself.<\/p>\n

The first-time CNFR qualifier is practicing for her shot at a collegiate national title, spending time on the mental aspect of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time I back into the box I tell myself, \u2018This is my first calf at Casper. This is my second calf at Casper, my third, my fourth.\u2019 I try to set myself up to make exactly the same run I\u2019d make there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That should work.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a pretty good roper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maddy Deerman realized she was a pretty good roper around the sixth grade.<\/p>\n

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“It’s hard to do roping when you’re really young,” she said. “You need to be a little bigger. When I got to junior high, I was able to up my game a little, to take shots from farther away, to take stronger swings and reach out a little farther.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-109-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Campus & Community<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 7 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 8, 2021","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 8, 2021 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025 4:43 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Woman in a cowboy hat smiling at a rodeo event.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53805,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25447\/revisions\/53805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}