![\"Jacob](\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/05\/Jacob-Perkey-683x1024.jpg\")
\u201cThat vest carried me through college and has been training wheels for me,\u201d he said. \u201cAs I was sometimes wondering about my next steps, I always had that purple vest with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ll always have my experiences with my teammates at Tarleton and that purple vest. It helped take me from what I was when I got here to what I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jacob will graduate Saturday with a master\u2019s in agriculture and consumer resources with a concentration in leadership. He already holds a bachelor\u2019s degree, also from Tarleton, in agriculture industries and agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s the latest in a line of Tarleton grads in his family. His father, two cousins, even his godfather \u2014 they all studied here. Though he\u2019d always wanted to go to Texas A&M, a family trip to Stephenville to work on his roping led him to pick Tarleton instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said, \u2018This is where I want to go.\u2019 I fell in love with the area, the rodeo team, the history and what Tarleton had to offer for somebody in my shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now after being on campus for six years, he has developed a love for Tarleton that makes him emotional about graduating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited, but I\u2019m sad, too. At our last rodeo, the Tarleton Stampede, I had a moment realizing that I was finished with school and with the rodeo team. I cried. It was surreal at that moment that I\u2019m done at Tarleton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jacob grew up in Burleson and attended the private Nazarene Christian Academy where he was on the National Honor Society and a standout baseball player \u2014 all-state catcher. He played a little basketball and football, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe rodeo thing stated when I was in the eighth or ninth grade,\u201d he said. \u201cI helped start a rodeo team at the school. My dad, who was the baseball coach, volunteered to be the rodeo coach, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was a turning point. Rodeo became his passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though his time as a collegiate team roper and tie-down roper are behind him, Jacob still anticipates plenty of days in the arena. After graduation, he\u2019ll gather all he learned at Tarleton and head to Dodge City Community College in Kansas, where he will be the new assistant rodeo coach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gained experience working alongside Tarleton coaches tutoring ropers as a graduate assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing a college rodeo coach is my dream job. I got that from being here at Tarleton,\u201d he said. \u201cYou come to college thinking, \u2018I have no idea what I want to do.\u2019 That was me, freshman year. With the guidance of (rodeo) coach Mark Eakin and all the other leaders on the rodeo team, I realized that\u2019s what I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eakin gives his graduating students a handwritten letter at the end of their Tarleton career. Jacob\u2019s said, \u201cYou\u2019re going to be an amazing coach. Good luck in Dodge. Send us all your good ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is what I\u2019m supposed to be doing,\u201d Jacob said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to hit it head on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 As a member of the Tarleton State University rodeo team, Jacob Perkey was issued a purple vest to wear when the team was competing. It meant the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":48950,"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":[382,423,425],"tags":[436,455],"class_list":["post-48948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","category-campus-community","tag-college-of-agriculture-natural-resources","tag-rodeo"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"priddle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/priddle-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/05\/Jacob-Perkey-8254.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["College of Agriculture & Natural Resources<\/a>","Rodeo<\/a>"],"unlinked":["College of Agriculture & Natural Resources<\/span>","Rodeo<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 11, 2023","modified":"Updated on May 5, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 11, 2023 8:00 am","modified":"Updated on May 5, 2023 1:38 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Man in Tarleton State University attire, standing indoors with a logo on the wall behind him.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48948","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\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}