By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Who says Crawford County residents don’t have what it takes to compete in a rodeo? Of course, this event didn’t require boots, a rope, or a horse but it had instead plastic bats, a cone, a plastic softball, and three willing participants.
Amie Caldwell, a rodeo fan, volunteered to take part in a game at the Buckeye Rodeo at the Crawford County fairgrounds Monday night. Caldwell and two other participants had to run around a bat during a countdown before running to hit a ball.
“It was fun,” Caldwell said about participating in the game in front of a hometown crowd, “nervous at the same time.”
Caldwell is a fan of the rodeo and had been looking forward to it.
“I’m so excited. I can remember when we first got back – my husband’s in the military – and when we first got back, I think it was about 2000-something, we went to a one,” said Caldwell. “We had so much fun and after that they never had one. So we was excited when they come back with it.”
Crawford County Junior Fair Queen attendant Morgan Wurm turned the rodeo into a chance to mingle with fellow royalty. She attended the event with Richland County 2014 Junior Fair King Dan Gregg and Junior Fair King First Runner-Up Luke Given.
“It’s something new at the fair so it’s really exciting,” Wurm said. “Everybody gets to come out and it’s a new event for the fair so there’s going to be a lot of people. I’m kind of excited to see what Crawford County is bringing back.”
“We had nothing to do because we have no lives,” joked Gregg, “so we’re just like let’s go to the fair and take in the rodeo. We’ll meet the queen, walk around this awesome fair of theirs and have a great time making cool friends.”
The Buckeye Rodeo featured bull riding, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, team steer roping, steer wrestling, and barrel racing.