{"id":105850,"date":"2016-04-06T20:36:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T02:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gregory-heading-to-larger-arena\/"},"modified":"2016-04-06T20:36:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T02:36:21","slug":"gregory-heading-to-larger-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gregory-heading-to-larger-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"Gregory heading to larger arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kody
Kody Gregory will compete for the New Mexico State Aggies rodeo team on a scholarship.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dolores senior Kody Gregory dreamed of competing in rodeos at the college and professional level.<\/p>\n

Now he has his chance, thanks to a full-ride rodeo scholarship to attend New Mexico State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coach came to watch me compete and liked what he saw,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cThe Aggies are a top-ranked rodeo team, so it\u2019s really exciting to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregory grew up participating at rodeos in Montezuma County and regionally, competing in calf roping and team roping.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom and sisters really encouraged me,\u201d he said. \u201cI used to think, \u2018Maybe I could do this professionally one day,\u2019 but thought that\u2019s too far-fetched. Then this happened, so it\u2019s a big surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last September, he took up bare-back riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the itch, and my mom said give it a try,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big adrenaline rush, extremely physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits veteran bareback rider Dax Koskie for coaching him in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cDax taught me the fundamentals and helped with technique,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cHe was really patient, and taught me everything I needed to know to not get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregory apparently has a knack for holding onto to a bucking horse, and has earned the most points, 69, for high school bareback riding in Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Aggies, I will compete in calf roping, team roping, and bareback,\u201d he said. \u201cCompeting in all three events racks up points for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregory plans to study agriculture education, with career options in science research, education, and as an agricultural extension agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to be an agriculture teacher,\u201d he said. \u201cI could not have afforded college without this scholarship, so I\u2019m very thankful and very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a student athlete classes come first, Gregory said, but the rodeo team is a close second. The teaching job may have to wait until after graduation though.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Aggie, my goal is to improve, get stronger and bring a National Rodeo Championship to NMSU. Then I\u2019d like to give professional rodeo a try,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The rodeo team at NMSU, located in Las Cruces, usually qualifies for the college finals. They compete in 11 rodeos per year.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

rodeo scholarship to New Mexico State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6328,6313],"tags":[281,992,44],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2-more-sports","category-sports-2","tag-agriculture","tag-college-sports","tag-dolores"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105850"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}