Miller qualifies for national junior high rodeo championships

Published 12:52 pm Saturday, June 18, 2022

By Daniel Green | BWS Sports

SIMPSON — It has been quite the season for Simpson’s Kodi Miller.

Miller was crowned the champion in the girls’ Class C cross country state meet in Natchitoches early in the school year. She followed that up with stellar seasons on both the basketball court and the softball diamond.

And finally, she claimed the Class C state championship in the girls’ 1,600-meter run at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s State Track and Field Championships in Baton Rouge back in early May.

Now, Miller is heading to a national championship, this time in the sport of rodeo.

Miller, an eighth-grader, has earned a position on Louisiana’s National Junior High Rodeo Team and will be traveling with her teammates to Perry, Ga., from June 19-25 to compete in the 17th annual National Junior High Rodeo Finals in the pole bending competition.

Miller will be one of over 1,200 competitors from 43 states in the United States, five Canadian provinces, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand in the world’s largest junior high rodeo. In addition to competing for more than $80,000 in prizes, Miller and the rest of the contestants will compete for over $200,000 in college scholarships, along with the chance of being crowned a national junior high rodeo world champion.

In order to have an opportunity at competing for the prizes and title of world champion, a competitor must finish in the top 20, based on scores from the first two go-rounds. World champions will be crowned on Saturday as a result of the combined scores from three go-rounds.

The Saturday championships will be televised nationally as a part of the Cinch High School Rodeo Tour, a telecast series on RFD-TV. There will be a 7 p.m. performance on the first day, along with performances at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. each day thereafter.

Live broadcasts of all performances can be seen on www.cowboychannaelplus.com/.