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By Randy Squires, Associated Press
Tanya Higa, of Makawao, Hawaii, competes in the
breakaway roping competition at Springfield, Ill.

Big Isle youth
rides high in U.S.
prep rodeo contest

Hawaii youth is 10th in
All-Around Cowboy event

---

By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

WHEN a long-horned steer tried to run off with Herman Holland's arm on the end of a rope, the high school rodeo champion just ran along with it.

"I had a coil wrapped around my arm and it almost got ripped off," he said. "I just cowboyed up and finished the run."

Holland, 18, Hawaii state bull-riding champion, cutting champion and reserve all-around champion, has now proved his cowboy ability at his first national rodeo competition.

Yesterday, the Konawaena High School graduate from Kailua-Kona placed 10th in the week-long All-Around Cowboy competition at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Springfield, Ill. The competition is dubbed the world's largest rodeo, with 42 teams from the United States and Canada participating.

Holland also placed seventh with B.J. Delima of Keeau, Hawaii, in team roping.

One of the biggest obstacles to rodeo competition is not the danger, but the money, Holland said. He couldn't have attended the competition without a scholarship from J. Schilder, who donated $5,000 to the Big Island Boys Cutting team.

By Randy Squires, Associated Press
Melissa De Mattos, right, of Hilo, talks with Kerisa Baker, left,
holding her baby son, Nicholas. De Mattos competed in the goat-
tying event. Baker, formerly of Hawaii and now living in
Tennessee, traveled to Illinois to see the Hawaii group compete.

"I was able to win $2,500 and that made my trip possible right there," Holland said.

SINCE the competition was on the mainland, Hawaii's 20 team members had to rent horses rather than ride their own.

For Holland, that meant $400 for his team roping horse and $500 for a cutting horse he drove 15 hours from Texas, where he had been practicing his cutting for a month.

Holland said not having his own horse didn't affect him personally. "This whole year in the high school rodeo I've been using different horses," except in cutting, he said.

Other teammates found their rental horses were somewhat of a handicap. The team placed 31st overall.

Melissa De Mattos, 17, of Hilo, said earlier in the week, "We were scrambling around to get horses and stuff. I just found my horse two days before the rodeo started. I was stressing to find a horse," she said.

By Randy Squires, Associated Press
Herman Holland of Kailua-Kona
competes in bull riding yesterday.

But the unfamiliar horses actually helped the Hawaii team demonstrate their abilities, she said. "Our team is competitive and we don't have our own horses and we're going against people who have been riding their horses for years and years. It's cool that we have to go on horses that we don't know and we're doing decent."

De Mattos' event is goat tying, which she described as "basically you just run your horse down there as fast as you can, just knock (the goat) down," onto your lap, and tie him up. The fastest score wins.

While she originally had no interest in rodeo, she let a friend convince her to try it in the 5th grade.

"I fell in love with goat tying," she said. "I think it's because the horse is running fast and he just slides you forward. You go fast, you're like flying off the horse. If you screw up, it's your fault, not the horse. It's all on you."

De Mattos didn't place in the finals of her event, but she and the rest of the Hawaii team have a first place: National Volleyball Champions at the National High School Rodeo.

"We're the only state that has won the volleyball four times," she said. "We've won it three years in a row already."