‘It’s our heritage’: With football and basketball off the table, teen turns to rodeo

CAMP VERDE, Ariz.

Like most cowboys who want to excel at their craft, Tyler Jim is putting in the time and effort in the practice pen.

The Shiprock cowboy works almost daily with his parents, Jeff and Kim R. Jim, and that extra practice has paid off.

At the recent Camp Verde rodeo last month, Tyler had one of his best showings in the Arizona Junior High School Rodeo Association by amassing 57 points in four events.

Tyler, aka “Twister,” won the boys breakaway title. He was also the reserve champion in both the boys goat tying and chute dogging events during the two-day rodeo Nov. 21-22.

“I was real focused on this rodeo and I ended up doing really well,” Tyler said. “It was amazing. I just had a lot of fun.”

Entering the Camp Verde junior high rodeo, Kim said her son was coming off four rodeos having earned 17 total points.

“He didn’t have (four) good rodeos in Buckeye and Wilcox,” Kim said. “Those were the rodeos that we were expecting him to do good at.”

But that didn’t panned out, so in the days leading up to the rodeo in Camp Verde, Kim said they worked on the little things with Tyler.

“We just worked on the basics with him,” she said. “It was more of getting him back to the practice pen, getting him focused on what he needed to do.”

That was evident in the boys breakaway, as Tyler took second on the first day of the competition with a 3.54 run and on the second day he roped his draw in 3.58 seconds for a 7.12 aggregate.

With those two runs he narrowly won the average title over Phoenix cowboy Ryker Sarchett (7.35) and San Tan Valley cowboy Sean Bastin (7.65).

“I was surprised because I wasn’t sure if I could win it,” Tyler said of the aggregate race.

With his triumph, the Shiprock cowboy was awarded a trophy buckle, his first one of the young season.

“I’m just happy that I won it,” Tyler said.

In another close race, Tyler battled event winner Travis McBride of Kayenta in the chute dogging.

McBride won the title with a two-run total of 8.45 seconds while Jim finished a close second with a 9.89 aggregate.

McBride place second (3.51) on the first day and he later added a third-place finish (4.94) on the final day of the rodeo.

Jim, meanwhile, took fifth (5.25) and second (4.64), respectively.

“He’s my roping partner,” Tyler said of McBride.

Even though he’s earned a few points in the chute dogging all season long, Tyler was real surprised with his results.

“Travis really pushed me and I only lost the title by (one) second,” he said.

The Tsé Bit A’í Middle School eighth grader also fared well in the boys goat-tying event, placing second on the first day with an 11.180 effort before adding a seventh-place effort of 13.61 for a two-run total of 24.79 seconds.

Tyler earned another 11 points in the ribbon roping, teaming up with Tuba City cowgirl Shilah Williams as the pair took fifth (11.710) and sixth (12.450), respectively.

“He just bought into everything that he learned from the practice arena to Camp Verde,” Kim said of her son’s achievements. “He did what his dad coached him and he did what I coached him. We’re just happy that he made some good runs.”

“Sometimes you can have your ups and downs with rodeo,” Jeff said. “You just have to shake those bad days off, and for him to accomplish what he did is good.”

The Jims said they’re going to continue to work with Tyler as he’s looking to make nationals this coming summer, as the association will send the top four finishers.

“This is Tyler’s eighth-grade year so he’s striving to earn points to move up there,” Kim said.

Tyler is currently in a two-way tie for sixth place in the boys breakaway with Casa Grande cowboy John Boyd IV as both cowboys have earned 26 points each.

In his other events, Tyler is sitting 10th in the chute dogging, 11th in the boys goat tying and 14th in the ribbon roping.

“It’s a pretty big goal of mine to make nationals,” Tyler said, while adding that his older brothers Tee O’Brien and Trevor were national qualifiers.

Kim said Tee O’Brien was the state boys breakaway champion and Trevor was the reserve champion in the boys goat tying with her two eldest kids competing for New Mexico.

“This is Tyler’s second season with Arizona,” Kim said. “We as a family decided to come and rodeo in Arizona.”

With the move, Jeff said the family is spending a lot of time on the road getting Tyler to his rodeos.

“We go at least 200 miles one way to each rodeo so we’re spending about seven hours on the road,” he said.

Nevertheless, the Jim family said it’s well worth it as the pandemic has axed some of Tyler’s other interests: football and basketball.

“He’s an athletic kid and he didn’t get a chance to do junior high football,” Kim said. “Now, he’s feeling bad because they might not have basketball this year so he’s pretty bummed about that.”

“Rodeo is what we’re falling back on,” Jeff said. “With the pandemic we’re still able to do rodeo as a family. We’re bonding and we’ve built a culture around rodeo. It’s out heritage.”

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