Miles & Mountains
Join Nick, a social worker and coach by day, as he unravels the inspiring stories of athletes and the public, uncovering the motivations behind their actions, from conquering mountains to participating in ultra-endurance races and competing in rodeos. Get ready for heartwarming tales of community support, acts of kindness, and the revelation that everyone has a deeper story to tell. Whether it's running, climbing, or participating in rodeos, these stories will inspire and uplift. #Running, #Climbing, #EverydayAthletes, #Rodeo
Miles & Mountains
The Cowboy and the Classroom: Steer Wrestling and Studying Business Management
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We venture into the world of rodeo with our all-around cowboy guest, Steele Shumway. Hear about his life as a steer wrestler, team roper, and calf roper and how the influence of his father and family shaped his approach to the sport. Steele spills the beans about being a multi-sports athlete in high school and lets us know how he got it done. He shares his passion in the classroom and plans to continue to conquer the ring with his dad this winter and summer.
Steele Shumway
Instagram:
@steele_shumway
https://instagram.com/steele_shumway?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Shoutout to:
Steele Shumway
Dad Shumway
The Shumway Family
Eric Johnson
Tyler Waguespack
Jesse Brown
Dalton Massey
Wiley Karas
J.W. & J.C. Merriott
College Athlete Discusses Rodeo and Sports
Speaker 1Still some way . How are you , man ? I'm doing good . How about yourself ? I'm doing all right . Man , you're probably what ? 80 , 90 degrees down there .
Speaker 2Oh , we're getting closer to that . I think it was 102 today .
Speaker 1Goodness , gracious it's like 50s and cloudy up here and rain Got better weather than we do , but I like this weather up here just because it's not as hot as down there .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1And you're on not because of your name , because you're an all around cowboy and very well known athlete in high school , yes , and I'm pretty sure . Well , we changed this time so you can play basketball , and I'm pretty sure you're still hooping it up crossovers and everything else in college , right ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm playing for the club basketball team here at GCU and figured it'd be a good way to keep me in shape for the row to use season . I love playing sports , I like watching sports and got the opportunity to join the club team so I took advantage and , yep , I would get here with at six o'clock .
Speaker 1Yeah , is Dan Marley still the coach for ?
Speaker 2basketball . I think so . Yes , he is , yeah , yeah , that's awesome man .
Speaker 1I grew up watching him . I mean , that's how old I am , so that's cool man . He's a legend .
Speaker 2That's awesome yeah .
Speaker 1Do they have a football team ?
Speaker 2We do not have a football team . I wish we did . There's nothing like Friday night lights or watching college football .
Speaker 1Exactly , but hey , that basketball team has made a name for themselves as well . So , yeah , I'm pretty sure you're going to have season tickets .
Speaker 2Yes , there's like an early pass and I'm all aboard . I'm ready to go watch our basketball team .
Speaker 1Awesome , awesome , all around cowboy Outside of the basketball and football Right .
Speaker 2Yes , yes .
Speaker 1Steer wrestled , and then you're a team roper .
Speaker 2Now I got to ask you a header or a healer .
Speaker 1I had . Had . Yeah , why don't you heal ?
Speaker 2My dad makes it look easier , so I just let him go ahead and heal the feet and I'll just go ahead and turn around , turn around and form . So you guys are a team , yes , me and my dad are yes .
Speaker 1Oh , that's awesome , and I haven't met a father's son team .
Speaker 2So this is the first man .
Speaker 1That's cool .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1So your dad makes it easy . That's why he does the healing .
Speaker 2Yes , yes , a lot easier than I make it look , so I just leave it to him .
Speaker 1All right , so steer wrestling . Yes , what got you into steer wrestling ?
Speaker 2So I was actually first year high school rodeo . I didn't rodeo my freshman or sophomore year , I started junior year and I was watching the bulldog and I was like man , I could do that . I think I could do that , like let's do it . So I talked to some people and , sure enough , I met . I end up at Eric Johnson's house . You probably know him from Trevor Johnson .
Speaker 2Let's just say I got hooked ever since , even though he put me through the ringer once or twice and I was like why am I doing this ? But no , I love bulldogging and I've only done it for two years and I progressed super fast over the two years . So you're going to stick with it . I think , yes , I want to amp your bulldog this summer or this upcoming summer . I did for about five rodeos last year because I finally me and my friend finally agreed hey , I can ride this horse and bulldog does are like that . They are a community and all help each other out . So I did that and rodeo the last five rodeos for the NPRA , almost like the NPRA finals just off five rodeos .
Speaker 1Well , the more I'm around this for and interviewing the bulldoggers , it's all about the Hazer , so , yes , yes , yes , it is .
Speaker 2Yes . The good Hazer is key to your success .
Speaker 1Yes , yes . So before Steer Wrestling you were just team roping with your dad .
Speaker 2Yes , I team roped and then also my junior year . I wish I would have gone into calf rope a little bit sooner . I did calf rope my junior and senior year . It was good . I mean , I wasn't as good as Steer Wrestling or team roping , but had some success in it .
Speaker 1Okay , what keeps you going into the rodeo world ? Yes , you're in college right now . You're enjoying the college life , but you said prior to us recording , you said you're going to enter some jackpots in the winter and rodeo in the summer . Yes , what keeps you going and into the rodeo scene ?
Speaker 2As far as staying in college and not college rodeo in or just in general , just in general , just in general I've always been . I've always been around it my whole life . My Parents would take me to junior rodeos and I was little they would enter me up in every event shoot . I did barrel racing in full but in go time when I was a junior higher so I did all of that and my whole family is always ropes . So it's always kind of been there and I . That's what keeps me driven . And then Watching these professional guys are like man , I want to get better , to be like them , and so it's just kind of always driven me to get better and be better .
Rodeo Passion and Future Plans
Speaker 1Yeah , did you have an option at first ? Or or did your parents say , hey , you're gonna do rodeo I ?
Speaker 2Would say I had an option , like my brother he does . He doesn't really he'll come ride with this , but he always had an option if you want to do sports and go , do sports and go , do that . So yeah , he plays baseball year around and doesn't really ride , he'll come right with us . But I would say I was like , oh hey , you got to do rodeo . I just Once I was riding a horse or swinging a rope . I was like , man , I love this . So that's what I ended up doing .
Speaker 1All right . What keeps you going into the rodeo scene ? Is it the ? The family is the . You know family orientation . Besides , your family is at the camaraderie of the brotherhood . You know steer , wrestling , roping , I mean , dad is your . You know the healer , he's your teammate . So what is it about rodeo that you know you're just gonna hit jackpots in the winter and You're gonna spend majority of your time in the summer rodeo on the road man .
Speaker 2I would say the friends . I've made so many friends through rodeo , like Some of my best friends . They rodeo and I still talk to them . They're back home right now , so we're high school rodeo and and so I talked to them . I talked to them every weekend like , hey , how'd you do this weekend ? We talk all the time and so it's just kind of the family and the . The family environment in rodeo is so huge to me as it feels like a family and all the friends you make Like family to you .
Speaker 1Yeah , okay , and you said you're gonna In in PR a .
Speaker 2NPR rodeo the summer . I'm trying to get maybe get the data of retirement and go pro this summer and hit some of the pro rodeos .
Speaker 1Like .
Speaker 2Culey City and those in the this ring time and just kind of see what up where we're at , how we do , and then kind of judge our summer off there . I'll face off that .
Speaker 1Okay , and how does it look so far right now ? I know it's we're in the fall , it's early . How does it look , man ? Yeah ?
Speaker 2right now it looks good , it looks promising . I think we're she's kind of warming up to the idea of going out and trying it and see . But this past year was kind of us Getting used to the full-time rodeo all summer because we went to rodeos every weekend and so kind of getting used to that environment and how to prepare yourself .
Speaker 1How do you , how did you do what you did when you were in high school ? Because , I mean , I don't know how you guys do what you do , right ? So I asked each and every one of you guys because if you're , if you're athletes of another sport and then rodeo , that's a lot of time . You don't have that much time to sleep how did you manage a full-time schedule in school , full-time schedule at practice , football or basketball , you know and then how do you have time to have be part of the rodeo scene ?
Speaker 2It was pretty tough . But I told my parents I want the high school idea because we always jackpot on the week . We'd always before junior senior year . We just jackpot it and it was pretty easy to keep doing that . But when we added high school rodeo to it was You'd go to practice from three to five and my dad would have the horse of salad ready to go and we'd go rope and steer Essel or capro for whatever event . We're practicing that they , it was right . After practice , and then Going to the rodeo is on the weekend . It'd be alright , you're gonna go play your Friday night football game and we're leaving at five o'clock the next morning for a rodeo four hours away which takes a beating on a guy , I'll tell you what . But get gassed man . Yes , yes , luckily in the , luckily in the summer , or not summer spring , I didn't play any spring sports , so I had a chance to kind of take a breather . So that's when the season starts , though .
Speaker 2Uh rodeo for high school rodeo . It was in the fall and spring , and then you had the high school finals in July .
Speaker 1So yeah , you don't get that much of a break though .
Speaker 2No , no , you don't . I'll tell you a funny story . So I actually show pigs and we sold , we sold my pig . It was very first time for rodeo I'd ever been to sold my pig at 12 o'clock . We had to be the rodeo at five with a four and a half hour drive . We made it there right before my calf broke , but then they were just about to turn me out and I got a calf horse and did my calf rope and run . See , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1See , that's why I ask what I ask man . I it's just like I don't know how you guys do what you do , yeah .
Speaker 2It's all A lot of these drinks . I guess yeah , what's your go to energy drink ? I'm a monster type of guy . I've been kind of the white monsters have been my go to drink so far .
Speaker 1Yeah , I do , I get the orange ones .
Speaker 2Orange ones yes , they're pretty good too .
Speaker 1When do you think you're going to go all in steer wrestling ?
Speaker 2Or all in steer wrestling . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , probably when I'm out of college . That way I can kind of hone in on it and focus on it more . I mean , during the summer I practice a lot because I have a guy that lives , eric Johnson . He lives 30 minutes away from me so I go to his house at least once or twice a week and go practice . But I say that after college , when I have more time and maybe could get my own horse and really hone in on steer wrestling .
Speaker 1What brought you to steer wrestling man ? Seriously , you're throwing , throwing a steer over like it's a pillow , I mean they are a pillow . I mean , they are a few hundred pounds .
Speaker 2Yes , yeah , no , Um , I definitely would say , just because everybody is like man , you look like a bulldog , you should be a bulldogger . And I was kind of after no people saying that I was kind of like man , I could do this . So let's go try it . And , yes , you have your balls and definitely your hard times with steer wrestling or some bad racks or whatnot , but definitely turn it into a sport that I love to do .
Favorite Steer Wrestlers and College Plans
Speaker 1Your favorite steer wrestler right now .
Speaker 2Right now I'm a huge Tyler Wagesback fan .
Speaker 1Love him .
Speaker 2He's a step I mean I guess you can't really say he's on the smaller end but his technique . I watch him a lot . I watch him and , uh , real story watch , I watch . I watch Jesse Brown a lot too , just because he's kind of a local guy around here .
Speaker 1Louisiana . They got , they got some . They got some fighters down there man , some restaurants down there man . They definitely it's either Pacific Northwest lately and Louisiana boys and Wagesback man that he's he's bad , he's bad , they're all bad . He is a beast .
Speaker 2I mean he's top five in the world right now . We can never count him out .
Speaker 1He's he's always going to be there . Yep , yep , yep . That's awesome man .
Speaker 2Yeah , all right ?
Speaker 1No , you're in college . So your ultimate goal man in life . Ultimate goal I visually want to start my own business .
Speaker 2I'm not sure in what I think in this rodeo side of things , rodeo sports side of things , here in the next five , 10 years , kind of find , save up some money and start my own business and watch that grow . It'd be pretty cool to do that , obviously , besides rodeo . I mean , I want a rodeo , it'd be cool to do that , but you've got to also have money to rodeo too .
Speaker 1So yeah , well , I saw that you were friends with a J Dubb Merritt . Yes , I am yes .
Speaker 2Yep , his , his brother has his own business .
Speaker 1JC and he's only 16 . He a lot , of a lot of kids these days . Man , they're smarter than I am , obviously , yes , but they . You agreed . No , I'm good , but uh , no , they . He has his own contracting business man , yeah , this is the first time .
Speaker 2I've heard about this , I didn't know about that . Yeah , I'm not happy to reach out to him .
Speaker 1Have you thought about ?
Speaker 2doing that ? Oh , the own contracting business ? Yeah , I have not at all . I'd have to reach out and kind of see what's about I've never heard of , I'd never , I'd first time I heard of them doing it . All right , We'll talk to JC man , but J Dubb you know what I mean , that guy he's a workhorse , literally man , he , just he gets out of it . He gets at it man . Yes , all right , so college rodeo .
Speaker 1Gcu does not have a college rodeo . They .
Speaker 2So you can call a Gio at DCU , but they don't have a college radio team , so you'd have to like they'd be your assigned college , that you're a college really for , but they wouldn't pay , like they don't have scholarships for it . You just be on your own college . There's one person that does it right now . She's called a Gio for GCU or like affiliated with GCU as a college radio person . But you can call a Gio here and how's she doing ? She's doing pretty good right now . I believe I haven't talked to her in a little bit , but I'm assuming she's doing pretty good , okay .
Speaker 1So you're strictly going to get your education down there . You ain't going to go rodeo , yes , yeah .
Speaker 2I've had a couple of people reach out to me wanting , wanting me to head for them at the college radio . But I told them , I said , hey , I at least for the first year . Probably the first couple , I don't know , but I definitely parents have always driven education first and you can , you can always rodeo . You can't get your education , so Gotcha what ?
Speaker 1what ? What if you have you thought about being a walk on a basketball ?
Speaker 2Yes , but I'm also not six , five condom I got you yeah .
Speaker 1Instead of I know we're doing in winter and summer . I know I keep bringing that up , Bringing that up five to 10 months from now . What ? What's your plan , man ?
Speaker 2My plan in five to 10 months ? Be out of call or be out of my fresh mirror college , hopefully , rodeo and and uh , working , working and rodeo is kind of my goal , I mean , and by the 10 months I've seen what I'd be doing . And then back back here at ECU and then hopefully I want it next year or this summer . I want to enter Kenwood and build them .
Speaker 1All right .
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1Well , when you do that , let me know , let me know .
Speaker 2I will . I will . Yes , I told my dad that that's the ultimate goal would be son father , do entering and filming and be super cool to do so . Hopefully I can accomplish that .
Speaker 1Yeah , that would be awesome . How was , uh ? How are your grades right now ?
Speaker 2Always right now . So we're going to keep it up and keep working at it . Favorite subject ? Favorite subject ? Oh , right now . Right now I say math . I'm pretty good at math .
Speaker 1Okay , math . Were you good in math in high school ?
Speaker 2I was so so , but I like my , I like my uh teacher here a lot . He really helps me , so it kind of makes it more fun . Listen , listen to history class and all that . It's kind of like , oh , some of the stuff they teach , I'm like I don't know what was your favorite subject in high school ? Favorite subject in high school , I would say my psychology class . It was super fun .
Speaker 1Okay , yeah All right , what do you think you're gonna major ? Do you know what you're gonna major ?
Speaker 2Right now I'm gonna . My major is business management . I'm trying to think if I want to minor or something . I'm not sure yet , so just kind of exploring my options .
Speaker 1All right , nice yeah , that could come later . All right , you just started your college career , but I know you don't have mom's cooking in front of you , so my question to you are you eating dorm food , cafeteria food ? You're making yourself Even PBJ sandwiches . What is it man ? All the above , what is it man ?
Speaker 2Okay . So at ECU there's actually a cool . That's why I kind of just chose GCU . There's actually like a Chick-fil-A , a Subway , a Panda Express . There's like these whole food options . You have a , you have meal plan , so you choose your meal plan and you can buy food , but that eventually runs out . So I've actually been no , you say Pee-Vee and day . I've been making Pee-Vee and days I bought bread and peanut butter and jelly and I've been eating all Pee-Vee and day for the last three days .
Speaker 1So gets old , but man , it just . You can't eat it , it does there , it does the job . So my question to you is how do you build a PBJ sandwich and your ratio Go for it , my ratio .
Speaker 2I've never been asked that before . I Would say Got your bread , obviously .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2I do have jelly happen , but I never go . Just one of each , that's so you go 50 , 50 split .
Speaker 1You don't do a 60 , 40 or 70 50 , 50 split yeah okay , that's okay . Weak or white wheat .
Speaker 2I'll take that back . I I Do more paint art , I do more jelly , just because a lot of peanut butter is kind of like it gets stuck in your mouth and you're kind of like , where jelly this ? It just goes down and you'll have to worry about Sticking it to your mouth . So you got a sweet tooth as well .
Speaker 1Yeah , all right , favorite Adam Sandler movie waterboy .
Speaker 2Waterboy hard boy .
Speaker 1When you were rodeoing and Free game football , basketball how did you get ready for the event ? Did you ? Do you hype yourself up or do you get in a full Zen and and just relax and just try to get these slides in your head ? What ?
Speaker 2I I'll put on my AirPods , listen to music . I like to kind of be by myself before the rodeo starts and go , depending on the vent , team rope and cap rope , and I'll go rope the dummy for about an hour before Then go , get on my horse and loop around and put them in the box , kind of get mentally ready for that . So I'm kind of more of a An hour before and I don't have to pull the rodeo . You you probably won't see me . I'll be Preparing to go rope or steer a vessel and kind of get in the mindset and then I'll pray before .
Speaker 2I go , and then I go and do my event .
Speaker 1You know when , when you go alone , especially roping , do you tell dad I need my space , or does he already know you got game face going ? You're , you know doing your thing , he's doing his thing , what .
Speaker 2You kind of knows , usually when he hears the dummy start getting rope , that's when he knows , hey , he's in his , he's in his mindset , he's getting ready to rope and Usually you don't have , he doesn't have to tell me , hey , you need to go get ready and go get your mindset of , hey , we're gonna go when they're open today or rodeo , and so I usually he knows like we're kind of in our own worlds and then before you run will get kind of get a game plan of what we're gonna do . That for that steer .
Speaker 1Now does dad do the same thing ? Do you guys leave each other alone ? You guys go in separate areas . He gets his game face on what .
Speaker 2We , he does the same thing .
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 2Yeah , he kind of gets in his game face and we don't really talk much until about 15 minutes before they're up , before team opens gonna start , and we kind of see our steer and get a game plan of what we're gonna do for that run .
Speaker 1Yep , what's next for you , man ? Let's say , this weekend we got plans this weekend this weekend .
Speaker 2My parents are actually coming in town this weekend and we're gonna . That GCU has some like it's called parent weekend and there's some family activities , so we'll probably Do that . They fly in Friday and then we will go to dinner , kind of hang out . I haven't seen them since I left college , so it's be the first time since I've seen them . So we'll kind of just hang out and show them around the campus and go to them .
Speaker 1When did you leave for college ?
Speaker 2I left the 29th so I'd be the Monday after Kenley Wow .
Speaker 1August okay .
Speaker 2Yes , august , all right , so it's been a minute .
Speaker 1So , hey , have fun , have fun , yes , enjoy your time . Man and dude , just continue on your education . It's great to hear the youth like yourself . Just be all about education , you know , and have fun . When it's time to have fun , there's a time and place and definitely you understand . Your parents raised you , right man . So my question to you is do you want to add anything ? Did we forget anything ? What ?
Speaker 2I don't think we forgot . They kind of covered everything I mean that's about it for me . I mean yeah .
Speaker 1You played ball on a couple hours . How many hours do you play for man ?
Speaker 2I think we played it's between an hour and a half and two hours , just depending on how long the game is .
Speaker 1All right , are you the shortest ? Are you what ?
Speaker 2I play shooting guards to definitely one of the shortest I actually used to . I played post in high school , which is kind of crazy . I told my coach that here and he was like well , you're not yeah , you're not a post Our tallest guy's like six , eight , and I'm like , uh , yep , I'm not that tall , so I'll just go ahead and play she's garden , learn how to shoot .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah . So what is it to be high school right .
Speaker 2Yes , to be , to be , to be .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yep . Okay , well , man , keep in touch . I'll let you know when this comes out , but I definitely want to shout your parents out , especially them agreeing to have you on , man .
Speaker 2Yes , yes , shout out to your parents . Thanks for having me on . This was a fun opportunity to do and hopefully made with the do again soon here .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , hey , when you come I don't know if you're going to stay in Arizona , but when you come back , hit me up you can meet in the studio and we'll have a good old time , because a the ones that come in the studio , they rock it , dude .
Speaker 2Yeah , so hit me up yeah .
Speaker 1So let me know when you do some NPR events . I went to the John Day one last year or this past summer . I go to the smaller ones , just because the crowds .
Speaker 2But no man .
Speaker 1I live in South Richland .
Speaker 2Okay , okay , yeah .
Speaker 1So I think my daughter knows you . But anyways , man , until next time , yes .
Speaker 2Thank you , thanks so much . All right , bye mom .