Season-opening rodeo to honor Micheel

| Thursday, December 28, 2006

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The area's first rodeo of the new season starts with three days of action at Seven Down Arena, honoring the late Bernie Micheel of Newell, one of the area's better-known promoters of the sport.

Micheel was killed in a ranch accident earlier this fall.

Barb Micheel said she will be at Seven Down but figures she will mostly be working in the same support role she has taken on for years when Micheel was with Johnny Holloway and Ron Wilson handling the livestock.

Two performances of the Bernie Micheel Memorial Rodeo will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 29, and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec., 30. Slack will be at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The slack division is to allow cowboys to compete even if they aren't scheduled for performances timed for spectators at Seven Down.

The event is sanctioned both by the Northwest Ranch Cowboys Association and South Dakota Rodeo Association.

The rodeo is the beginning of a membership drive to promote the sport in South Dakota and throughout the Northern Plains region.

Events include bareback, saddle bronc, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, breakaway roping and ladies' barrel racing and goat tying.

If that's not enough, on Sunday, Dec. 31, there will be bull riding at Seven Down starting at 2 p.m.

It's limited to 30 riders, and six will return for a short go. Junior bull riding is for competitors ages 14-18. There's a junior-junior division and mutton busting for the younger set.

The junior division also reflects Micheel's emphasis on youth rodeo training and participation in the sport, rodeo officials said.

According to Jacquie McInerney, secretary of the NRCA at Sundance, "It's always been our first rodeo of the year, and Bernie has put this on as a rodeo producer and stock contractor."

Dan Pirrung, president of the SDRA, said that it's also the first SDRA event of the year as the two rodeo associations use this rodeo as the highlight of a push to help get more contestants in the region's rodeos.

Micheel's Ram N Jam Rodeo Company is still involved, and there's also stock from Holloway and Wilson's rodeos.

NRCA and SDRA officials alike noted that Micheel has played a major role in helping to promote rodeo as a sport in the entire region.

He had bull riding schools and promoted the Newell Bull Bash.

The Mustang Rodeo in Nisland was one of his promotions and friends noted, "He was always helping kids."

He died Oct. 31 while working with power equipment on his ranch northwest of Newell.