SI honors Utah County HS rodeo star


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SPANISH FORK — Wyatt Johnson didn’t know he was going to have a twin when he showed up on crutches to his home meet with the South Utah County Rodeo team.

Hobbling into the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds on crutches after suffering a small fracture to his leg following a bareback ride, he spotted another figure on crutches — a legend in the sport who was also there to see him.

It was Kaycee Feild, four-time world champion bareback rider who showed up to the fairgrounds Friday to help award Johnson the Sports Illustrated high school athlete of the month award, presented by the U.S. Marine Corps.

“It was really cool; it was awesome,” Johnson said, grinning ear-to-ear beneath his wide-brimmed hat. “He’s a four-time world champion standing next to me, and I want to work up to be a champion. He was just here to help out.”

Johnson, the Utah High School Rodeo Association state bareback champion last year, equally impressed Feild, who was hobbling following hip surgery to repair a torn labrum after a horse threw him during a ride.

“I heard about this little tiny kid who rides barebacks, and what he does. So coming here and meeting him in person is amazing,” Feild said of Johnson. “He’s an amazing young man — he’s just a step ahead of everybody else. He’s more mature, and he knows what he wants. It’s pretty neat.”

Feild gave Johnson, an aspiring professional bareback rider himself, his “six rules of success” during a pre-rodeo ceremony honoring the 5-foot-3, 130-pound native of Spring Lake. Feild’s rules included advice such as trust yourself, work your butt off, and don’t listen to naysayers — encouragement that Johnson hopes to follow on his own path to success in rodeo.

“I could relate to everything he said,” the high school rodeo star said. “I’m getting what he was putting down.”

Johnson didn’t know he was receiving the award until two weeks ago, when his stepfather Boedee Hopes told him Sports Illustrated was sending a video company to his home and would be presenting him an award at his club team’s final home rodeo of the season.

Photo credit: Sports Illustrated/YouTube capture

The junior at Payson High School couldn’t ride with his injury, but he was as excited as the seniors honored during a pre-rodeo ceremony at the fairgrounds.

“It means everything to me,” he said. “It’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Johnson also volunteers with organizations for special needs children in Utah County, helping those who can’t ride themselves experience dangerous rodeo events like bull riding and bareback.

His involvement with those children helps Johnson realize what he has, what he can accomplish, and give back to the community. It was also one of the main things that drew Sports Illustrated to the young man.

“What we’re trying to do is highlight kids who are special on and off the field, who go above and beyond the scoreboard,” said SI reporter Ali Fenwick, who writes the magazine’s weekly “Faces in the Crowd” column that highlights amateur and high school athletes. “With Wyatt, he had been nominated by his stepdad, and it was clear this was a kid who punched above his weight class. He’s 5-foot-nothing, the state’s bareback champion, and he did it after coming back from being toward the bottom of the standings. He doesn’t let anything deter him.”


It means everything to me. It's the coolest thing that's ever happened to me.

–Bareback rider Wyatt Johnson, SI high school athlete of the month


The magazine has never named a high school rodeo athlete as one of its recipients in the brief history of the award. But Johnson’s story merited special consideration, Fenwick said.

“You could tell he enjoyed it as much as those little kids,” she said. “He checked all the boxes of what we were looking for, and we think he’s a really great fit for the award.”

The award is nice — one of the biggest he’s ever received, Johnson said. But being able to help a special group of young children grow to love his sport is just as important, he added.

“It makes me appreciate everything, and that I can help with everybody,” Johnson said. “I can do it on my own, and I don’t need that help doing anything. I can go (ride bareback) on my own.”

Feild said the next generation of rodeo athletes, like Johnson, leaves him hopeful for the sport — especially bareback and bull riding.

“This is an exciting time for me to come to the high school rodeo and watch these young kids, see how tough of kids there are,” Feild said. “There are 10 bareback riders where there are usually only four or five. Coming here and seeing those numbers, and how tough the kids are, is a great feeling.”

Nomination forms for high school athlete of the month can be found at si.com/hsathlete, where Sports Illustrated staff members review every candidate and award the person being honored in partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps.

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