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Topeka brothers, cousin competing in national rodeo

Sure, Collin, Ryan and Reagan Domer could have participated in other sports growing up. But when rodeo runs this thick in your veins, who would want to?

"Our grandpa started us out rodeoing," said Collin, "and we didn't have anything else to do."

Starting Sunday, Grandpa Domer's hard work will pay off, when Ryan, Collin and Reagan vie for national titles at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Farmington, N.M.

Collin and Ryan, brothers ages 18 and 16, respectively, will compete in team roping. Collin also will compete in calf roping individually. Reagan, an 18-year-old cousin of Collin and Ryan, will compete in goat tying.

While Ryan and Reagan are newcomers to the national finals, Collin is a veteran.

Collin, along with partner Dawson McMasters, won two belt buckles and placed fourth in team roping at last year's National High School Finals Rodeo. While Collin said he would like to have won the event, placing fourth out of about 50 helped eased his mind.

"It's a little extra pressure, because I was the first (from the family) since my dad at Nationals," Collin said.

In the Domer family, rodeo is a way of life, literally.

"We get home from school about 3 or 3:30 and practice," Ryan said. "We go to rodeos pretty much every weekend."

"We've grown up around it."

While the belt buckles extend for generations of Domers, Ryan and Collin only have to look to their older sister, Lindsay, who competes as a senior for K-State's rodeo team.

This spring, Reagan will join Lindsay at K-State, while Collin, a fellow 2008 Seaman graduate, will head to Garden City Community College to compete.

Earning scholarships to compete in college isn't easy. With rodeos almost every weekend, Collin said life on the road becomes like a second home.

But competing in the sport your family loves has it's rewards.

"It's really different because you get to break away from basketball or softball," Reagan said. "It's special because not everybody gets to do it."

And for Reagan, competing in the national finals rodeo is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"It'll be something I'll be able to tell people when I'm older."

Read more at the www.cjonline.com