Rough stock fun challenge for Martin

As the announcer’s voice gets louder, so does the rumble of the crowd and the music piping through the sound system.

Austin Martin, 16, secures his protective vest, made of Styrofoam and hard plastic, and swings his leg over the 1,500-pound animal. His father Mike helps secure his son’s left hand to the bull. Then Martin raises his hand to signal he is ready.

Martin, a junior at Southern Boone County High School in Ashland, has been competing in rodeos since he was 3. Last week he joined the best high school competitors in the state at the Missouri State High School Rodeo at the Boone County Fairgrounds. Although he has progressed from riding calves, to steers and now bulls, the feeling he gets when he competes has stayed the same.

“The first calf I got on, I got drilled into the ground,” Martin said. “I was just so small, that calf could pretty much toss me around like a rag doll. My head has hit the ground quite a bit, but I love it so much and it’s just so much fun I haven’t given up. I plan to keep doing it.”

A long list of Martin’s family members have competed in rodeos. His grandfather and his uncle were bull riders who competed on the national level. His brother Toby competed in college in the team-roping event. His parents met while rodeoing at State Fair Community College in Sedalia.

Although she grew up around rodeos, Martin’s mother, Connie, said it can be difficult to watch her youngest sons compete in the rough-stock events like bull riding.

“I videotape him so I don’t really have to watch him,” Connie Martin said. “He has so much natural ability and talent for it, how can I squelch that talent and stop him and tell him he can’t do it?”

She said that she did not really let the dangerous sport affect her until her son was injured in a competition in Springfield, Mo., in 2004. A bull stepped on Austin Martin and he suffered two broken ribs, a punctured right lung and a lacerated liver. He was forced to sit out his freshman year of eligibility.

Martin, competing in his first full year for the Missouri High School Rodeo Association was ranked third heading into the state finals.

Martin has two years left of high school eligibility and hopes to attend college to rodeo.

“Its something I plan on doing for as long as I can,” Martin said. “After college I want to go pro rodeoing. I can go out there and win enough money and get a name for myself.”