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From football manager to livestock judge

BHS grad scores unique NJCAA scholarship

Bayfield football boss Gary Heide knows he'll have to replace many special players before the 2016 season starts.

Many of these athletes, documented in the Times, received collegiate scholarships for one sport or another. But when the Wolverines start their defense of the Class 2A state championship, he'll also have to patch the squad's support structure and replace someone not only tough enough to help hydrate and herd his beasts, but someone who, shortly after graduation, was on a job gripping the administrative cold end of a red-hot branding iron.

That would be team manager Keanna Smith.

Able to work with BHS' most bruising student-athletes (she'd also helped manage the wrestling team) as well as she works cattle, Lee and Pattie's only child started her senior year carting water coolers, drill cones and equipment out to the practice field, and ended it with probably the most unique chance of all, as unique as herself:

A scholarship offer to join Redlands Community College's Livestock Judging team.

"It's a partial-ride.covering half of my out-of-state tuition and half my book fees," she clarified, at a ceremony-like those the gridiron greats enjoyed-saluting her commitment to the El Reno, Oklahoma, school.

"I originally went to look at the school because.their beef team shows across the country at all major shows.underneath the school's name. And I started talking to their judging coach, Brandon Callis, about coming and judging for them. He made me an offer, and that's how I'm signing with them!"

Under Callis, one of the Cougars' highlights this past year was a fourth-place overall showing in the Junior College division at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. There was also a fifth-place finish at The American Royal in Kansas City, Mo., but both were on the 2015 side of New Year's.

"You know, we're trying to slowly build the Ag program here," said Bayfield Athletics/Activities Director Rob Dean. "I think the biggest thing is.these people do invest a lot of time and resources. And to be able to then go to college, where less than five or ten percent of kids go on a scholarship.we do want to recognize everyone who goes to the next level in competition!"

"And usually that is athletics, but as you can see with this.. it's another area where kids can excel and get their college paid for, different than athletics. And we want to recognize those kids."

"Mr. Dean's never had a letter-of-intent for a livestock judging kid before," proud mom Pattie Smith said with a laugh. "So it's kind of unique Redlands required that! So he asked if Keanna would be interested, and she said 'Yes!' It helps promote the agricultural community that helps support La Plata County."

Distance from home was never a deterrent in Smith's decision, and the drive time to Canadian County looks moderately tame compared to some of her show destinations such as Des Moines, Iowa (17 hours, one way), College Station, Texas (17, one way), and Lovington, N.M. (eight, one way)-from which she returned at midnight on a Monday morning and was promptly in class a few hours later like any other non-descript Monday.

Heck, there was "only" a six-hour jaunt up to Denver in the mix as well this past winter. Smith-having seen Kelton McCoy, Zane Phelps, Brody McGhehey, Wyatt Freier, Taed Heydinger and Noah Loutherback (all recruited in either football, baseball or both) help battle Platte Valley for the title up in Kersey-knew her own game also had to be at its very best.

For she was at the National Western Stock Show, and her knack for not only helping develop bulls, steers and heifers but also knowing what to look for and maximize in order to raise the best animal(s) possible would be seen, overtly or indirectly.

"I started raising cattle-when I was three years old my grandfather gave me two commercial cows-and when I turned nine I started showing through 4-H," Keanna said.

"My judging career never really took off through the 4-H levels, but I've competitively shown cattle for about nine years now. I met Brandon because he was one of my judges at the Stock Show!" she recalled. "We started talking on a personal basis, and at the National this year is when he made me my offer to judge for him."

"My bull won his Summer Division, and then I got my offer for Redlands!"

Which indeed was saying something; the Cougars would pace the Junior College division at the NWSS, with their best co-ed quintet credited with 4,680 points-only two more than runner-up Blinn College of Brenham, Tex., and just 18 more than third-place Butler Community College of El Dorado, Kan.

RCC's 2015-16 roster showed eight sophomores including Mclaine Shults of Meeker, Colo., but with 11 freshmen-now-sophs already in the fold, the vacancies should smoothly be filled. Callis' personnel came from as far west as California, and from as far east as West Virginia and southern Florida.

And livestock judging? It's what it sounds like: Evaluating, selecting, placing, and learning various livestock species (beef cattle, sheep, swine) and pitting an animal's merits against those of others like it, while also learning the processes' real-world applications. Producers, breeders, feeders, buyers and packers evaluate livestock for their potential as either breeding or market animals-relating 'form' with function, as it were.

"We have different classes," Smith explained. "There'll be bulls and heifers, yearling heifers or older cows, there'll be a steer class.. And depending on what level you are-like 4-H, there's Juniors and Seniors, and Seniors usually give two sets of reasons and Juniors give one-and you're graded on the sets of reasons you're giving."

"How correct they are, and how they match the official's, and.however many classes you have-typically there's four-you mark a card and place 'em one through four, one being the best.out of all the animals in the pen. If they match the officials' scoring, you get all the points."

"I've used managing football as a way to manage my time better.outside of school," Smith continued. "Because whenever I'm preparing a set of reasons I do have a time limit! And I have to be able to gather my thoughts, put them on paper, and be able to prepare them to talk in front of a judge."

"I just want to thank my parents and the lady to my left, Aimee Wood," Smith added, speaking at the ceremony. "They've really pushed me to do my best, take my cattle career.to the absolute best that I can."

Indeed not only has that meant scholarship dollars for Keanna, but also some cattle-baron bucks.

"Denver this year wasn't just a division championship for a Summer Bull, or a scholarship offer from Brandon Callis," said Pattie Smith. "(Keanna) also sold that bull privately.for an undisclosed amount of money."

And more recently, Mrs. Smith proudly said the bull-exhibited by Keanna for Ignacio-based KRMS Simmentals-in question has become quite a breeding-stock commodity, meaning whoever paid whatever the amount saw the young lady from BHS (and her 'team') had done the homework rearing a Grade-A animal.

"If you really are passionate.you're in it to make those connections and have those long-term 'extended family' members.people you can count on," said Wood, Smith's mentor/coach, travel partner and family friend. "It's not about the shiny awards at the end of the day; it's about the memories you take with you."

"You can't get into showing.just because you want banners and buckles and titles. These long trips, you have to make connections and meet people along the way; you can't just haul cattle from Bayfield, Colorado, to College Station-they will fall apart on you!"

Keanna Smith, who attended St. Columba School in Durango before enrolling in the Bayfield School District as a seventh-grader, said that for such a lengthy drive she usually takes two or three head, but for a shorter drive-to the La Plata County Fair, for example-anywhere from two to six.

"What's special about the stock industry, the way we have it today.. The people that we've been fortunate to come across, they've opened their homes and their barns-to her animals," Wood said, "to let them.make sure that they have the best possibility for being in good condition to show up to those major shows."

"We not only load up cattle on a trailer, but we have to pack a grooming chute, have to pack a fan cage-our fans are, at least, a good 40 pounds.put out airflow that is out of this world-and generators.." Pattie Smith said. "There's so much that goes into it, and some people might think it's kind of ridiculous to go through all of that.we pack the trailer 'house,' and we pack the 'house' house!"

"Some people don't think that showing livestock is a sport. But it is; we just don't pack up our clothes or our food to go on a trip," she added. "It's just as much hard work-we get a workout too! A big workout!"

Keanna Smith will also hope to get her mind such exercise during her fast-approaching time as a Cougar.

"Academically I'm going to double-major, get a bachelor's in nursing-I want to become an ER trauma nurse-and a bachelor's in animal science," she said. "If my judging career takes off, become a cattle judge!"

"Anything to help build our agricultural community and the kids who are a part of it," said Pattie Smith, "is something that we hope this will showcase."