Cody Anthony of Monahans wasn’t even worried about the rodeo during his high school years.
Being part of the Loboes football team took precedent over broncs and throwing ropes.
“I was a quarterback on the JV when we ran the spread offense,” Anthony said. “And I could run pretty well so when Coach (Mickey) Owens came in during my senior year (2005), I moved to running back.
“We went 13-0 and then lost to Sweetwater in the regional final. I wanted to play college football but I weighed about 140 pounds and I’m not very big; it wasn’t until after I left high school that I got back into rodeo.”
Anthony’s father, Cary, and brother, Clay, both rode bareback horses, but Cody was working out of the timed-event end of the arena.
It wasn’t until Cody Anthony went to Western Texas College in Snyder that he moved over to the bucking chutes.
And things didn’t go very well at the beginning.
“I wasn’t very good when I started riding broncs,” Anthony said with a smile before riding Memory Maker for a 75-point marking during the fourth performance of the SandHills Stock Show and Rodeo on Thursday at Ector County Coliseum.
“I was still roping, but I really started to like riding broncs. It wasn’t until I moved to Tarleton State that things really started to click and I thought that I could do this.”
So Anthony got his rookie card in 2012 and went down the road with his brother, staying close to home in the Texas Circuit, along with traveling through the central part of the country trying to make enough to reach the Wrangler National Finals rodeo.
Now, five years later, Anthony is out on the road alone as Clay now is running a ranch in the Permian Basin and father Cary runs a family business.
Cody Anthony is involved in the family business, which includes cattle, fencing and just about anything to do with ranching — when he’s around.
Which, during the winter months, is rare as he goes to Denver, Fort Worth, San Antonio, San Angelo and all the spots he can in the Lone Star and neighboring states.
Then, when the winter rodeos are dying out and the first signs of spring are in the air, Anthony returns home to help out until it’s time to go back on the road in July and August.
“I’m trying to set things up now for when I’ll be back in May,” Anthony said. “There is always something to do like running cattle or putting up fences, so we keep busy.”
When Anthony goes back out around the Fourth of July for “Cowboy Christmas” he stays busy as well, competing through Colorado, Utah and Arizona before heading toward the Midwest and Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Yes, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
“I love it up there,” Anthony said. “The rodeos have been very good to me up there and the people up there love watching them.
“Those places are packed everywhere we go and it makes you want to ride better. I’ll keep going up there as long as I can.”
A rodeo that Anthony still has yet to experience is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
A berth in that 10-day event is reserved for the top 15 in the world standings, with the cutoff coming on September 30 of each year.
Anthony still has the dream of competing in the desert.
“I need to be more consistent,” said Anthony, who finished 47th in the standings last season.
“I want to be inside the Top 40 this year and then keeping moving up. I love what I’m doing and it would be great to make it to the NFR.”
Article written by Lee Scheide. Originally published in Odessa American. Reprinted with Permission.
Link to original article: http://www.oaoa.com/sports/article_02a5ca18-d94f-11e6-8484-779280cd64af.html
