Photo by Andrew Brown ’18 – Charlie Regester ’18 prepares to rope a bull at a local ranch. Regester has been roping since sixt grade and has had success in his competitions.

By Matthew Zacher ’18
THE ROUNDUP

Charlie Regester ’18 started riding and roping horses in sixth grade, and in December, he finished in second place out of 210 people in his team roping competition.

In this type of event, two ropers work together to take down a calf faster than their competitors.

Regester competes in National Team Roping competitions, but he does not just face off against other high schoolers.

“I compete against guys in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s,” he said.

Regester finished second in a pool of some ropers that have been competing for five times longer than he has.

Every summer, Regester said he practices everything he does in the rodeo arena on his ranch in Colorado.

Alex Fessler ’18 has known Regester since third grade, and has been to one of his roping events.

“It was amazing. I didn’t know how to use a lasso and it was impressive to see him work it so masterfully,” he said.

Fessler said he was surprised when he first learned of Regester’s rodeo career.

“When I first learned about it, yeah, I didn’t even know that happens in Arizona,” he said.

Fessler said Regester is more than a good roper.

“He is a good friend. If you are down, he will help you up. He’s very humble,” Fessler said.

“He’s very open to growth, and embodies the grad at grad very well.”

Mr. Andy Schmidbauer ’88 has known Charlie and his family for several years, and knows about his rodeo career as well.

“It’s interesting because rodeo is a huge part of Arizona, and it’s surprising to me how few people are involved with it.”

Mr. Schmidbauer said Regester embodies the characteristics of a roper in the classroom.  

“He’s awesome, he’s a great kid,” he said. “He is everything you would expect someone who does rodeo to be. He is hardworking, attentive to detail.”

Regester mainly competes in and around Arizona, but will have a chance to travel as far as Wyoming.

He said that his biggest accomplishment was finishing second place several weeks ago. With that achievement, he qualified to compete in a pool of 100 to win $100,000.

Regester said he looks forward to college opportunities for roping in Montana or Texas, but does not just want to go to college for team roping.

“I’m not just going to go somewhere just because they have a good rodeo team,” he said.

Regester said he has learned valuable life lessons through the teamwork aspect of team roping.

“You become dependent on your partner,” he said. “You can do your job, but he has to do his job too if you want to win and vice versa.”