Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo brings community together

SIKESTON, Mo. (KFVS) - The 70th annual Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo starts Wednesday.

De Bizzell, the chairman of the event said its one of the top 40 rodeos in the country.

People come back year after year for this rodeo in Sikeston and when I asked why, they told me they just can’t stay away

Everyone has a story about how they ended up at this rodeo. Some people only live three minutes away.

“I’ve been coming here since I was born,” Emily Riley, one of the Rodeo Queens said.

Others, travel over five hundred miles for the event.

“When they wanted to hire me back I was like I’ll be back in a heartbeat,” Justin Rumford, a rodeo clown said.

Most everyone agrees, that this event in Sikeston is more than a rodeo.

“It’s one of those rodeos, that it’s kinda like family you know, we show up it’s kinda the big family reunion,” Chuck Swisher, a professional bullfighter, said.

Another professional bull fighter, Cody Webster, said almost the exact same thing.

“It’s almost like a family reunion, so to say, it’s not family but it is family,” Webster said.

Webster is a pro bull fighter from Oklahoma. He’s been competing in Sikeston for 9 years and he said he wishes he would’ve found it sooner.

“You know I was a kid at one time that loved rodeo and wanted to be a part of rodeo and to be able to have something like this,” Webster said. “If I could have something like this in my hometown, man it would’ve been unreal.”

And even though this year is the 70th annual for the event, he said even though it’s a milestone, he doesn’t think it could be any more exciting than usual.

“The amount of hype we have every year,” Webster said. “It’s gonna be hard to beat that.”

Swisher said fans can expect the best of the best inside of the arena.

“You’re gonna see all the top contestants,” Swisher said.

Rodeo clown Rumford promised the same outside of the arena.

“We got different concerts for everybody, different events during the rodeo, if you’re not really a rodeo fan, you can still come out and enjoy it,” Rumford said.

The event runs Wednesday to Saturday night.

You can find a full schedule of events and purchase tickets here.

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