BROUSSARD, La. — Jaden Broussard is 16-years old. He hunts, he fishes, he's a good student and he's a champion calf roper.
"You just have to make a smooth run, no mistakes, and if you can do that on every calf, you win pretty much everywhere you go."
A junior at Teurlings Catholic High, Jaden Broussard has been roping calves since he was 13. His father had dabbled in the ways of the rodeo, so Jaden followed suit.
"My dad had always rodeoed whenever he was younger, and he had always run some around the practice pen near the house," recalls Broussard. "Just watching him when I grew up, and I just kinda fell into it."
His first rodeo didn't go so well, but the next one did; and so Jayden began working the junior rodeo circuit from Louisiana to Texas to Oklahoma, even to South Dakota.
Trophies in the shape of belt buckles have begun to add up, with his most recent bit of acclaim coming two weeks ago in Lincoln Nebraska at the National High School Rodeo finals.
"On my first one (attempt), I didn't draw very good; my second went better and I did 10; and on the third one, I finished 7th in the world."
He finished 7th on that day, and was one of a handful of calf ropers to get the job done in only eight seconds. Let's get specific: 170 ropers from around the country took part, and Jaden Broussard beat 163 of them.
"It feels good," Broussard said. "But it would have been better though to beat 169 of them."
Next up for Broussard is another national event in Decembe in Las Vegas.
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