Foremost School bull riders ride their way into Nationals

Successful rides at the Alberta High School Rodeo Provincials earlier this month in Ponoka have propelled two Foremost School bull riders into to Nationals next month in Wyoming.
Both William Barrows and Quade Hughson finished first and second respectively in the bullriding category, with only a combined 11 points separating the two riders.
For Barrows, he was able to stay on the bull all three rounds and won the second round.
“It was good,” said Barrows.
“It was a different group of people (and) different contestants from last year, but still the same riders.”
This is will be the Grade 12 student’s second consecutive appearance at Nationals where he finished just outside the top 20 in the short go in 2018.
“It will be nothing new to me. I guess it won’t be so nerve wracking going down this year because I went last year,” he said.
“Now I can just go and do better. I just go ride the way I ride and there is a lot of good riders. It’s pretty cool to compete against the best in the world and hang out behind the chutes with them all.”
His goal this year is to make the top 20 out of the 200 riders.
While Hughson made his second straight appearance at provincials, this will be the Grade 11 student’s first trip to Nationals.
“I had a good week there. I rode all three bulls just like Willy, but he beat me in the season standings and he had more points going into the finals,” said Hughson.
Hughson says it will be nerve wracking but
“I’m pretty excited,” he said.
It’s always good to go down to the states and have your name brought up around staff and ride against top guys down south.”
What may be an impressive feat for Hughson is it’s his second year riding bulls after starting out as a steer rider
“Changing from two hands to one hand was tricky but I’m starting to get the hang of it ,” he said.
Both riders should not be rusty heading into the grand rodeo as they will be both competing on the local area circuits for the next month before heading down south.
The National High School Finals Rodeo will be from July 14-20 in Rock Springs, Wyo.