As the lights dimmed inside Rudder Forum and the audience took to its seats, a story of two Texas A&M Rodeo team athletes was stage center. All eyes were locked on agricultural communications and journalism senior Madalyn Richards and animal science senior Gavin French.
Dressed in dark blue jeans and crisp white button-ups embroidered with a maroon A&M Rodeo emblem on the breast pocket, they took their seats. Their journey to the College National Finals Rodeo, or CNFR, unfolded through a powerful short limited video series that shared their stories of grit, dedication and achievement.
From June 9 through June 15, both athletes competed for A&M Rodeo at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Wyoming. Richards was the CNFR champion in breakaway roping and All-Around Cowgirl while French placed fifth in the nation for bareback riding.
“I just am excited for everyone here to see all of our hard work come to fruition and give other people that might not know our story some exposure,” Richards said.
The idea of a three-part series originated about two years ago when the rodeo team started campaigns to raise funds for a new coach. Multimedia project coordinator for the department of AgriLife Courtney Sacco learned about the team through the campaign and said he thought it would be interesting to do a feature on the team.
“I reached out to the rodeo team and asked for two kids to showcase and they gave me the names of Madalyn and Gavin,” Sacco said. “I didn’t even intend to make a long-form series, but Madalyn and Gavin were awesome.”
Sacco said one video on a competition led to another, and clip by clip, he found himself following the team on its journey to Casper. He said the biggest challenge was capturing the action within the brief window each event allowed. Both French and Richards would typically finish their events in under 10 seconds.
“We had two really awesome kids to film going up to Casper and their skills were so impressive because of how fast they would finish competitions,” Sacco said. “I’m hoping people can take away how hard these kids work from this video.”
The limited video series, drawn from hours and hours of raw footage, was meticulously crafted to become something captivating, something people would want to watch. Shot by shot, the labor of love came to life, as each frame was underscored by a raw violin melody. As the music swelled, French put on his maroon-clad A&M Rodeo vest, a feeling he likened to putting on a superhero cape.
“It feels really cool to finally be at this event and this film has been a long time coming,” French said. “In the third episode, there is this point I get to describe what being a bareback rider was like, and I looked forward to seeing the crowd’s reactions to that.”
As the violin intensified, Part 3 of the series seamlessly transitioned from French to Richards, culminating in the words “This was their road to Casper.” As the lights rose, the spotlight was on the two champions, Sacco, their coach Roger Hanagriff and videographer Katie Perkins as they sat front stage for a panel discussion about their journey.
“We had an idea of what each episode should’ve been, and at the end of the day, we let the video speak for itself,” Sacco said.
For Richards and French, rodeo has been an incredible journey, but they’re also looking ahead to future ambitions. Richards said she will start her master’s degree in agricultural economics in January 2025, and French has his sights set on dental school. A&M Rodeo taught them resilience, discipline and the value of hard work — qualities they hope to carry forward into their career.
“These are kids that are really dedicated to rodeo, but also extremely dedicated in school,” Sacco said. “It’s not just a rodeo story, it’s a story of these kids and their hard-earned work.”
