ProRodeo Sports News - June 10, 2022

PRORODEO PERSONNEL

Photo courtesy Katelyn Scates

Katelyn Scates, the Director of Sports and Event Presentations for RodeoHouston, makes some notes during the rodeo. Women in Charge

Scates, Owens, Lukens are leaders of three of PRCA’s top rodeos

BY JOLEE JORDAN Special to ProRodeo Sports News F or Katelyn Scates, it was annual trips to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with her dad. For Darci Owens, it was growing up with a grandpa who was president of the San Angelo (Texas) Stock Show and Rodeo. Caroline Lukens had cousins who had horses, which led to a competitive career in youth and college rodeo. Humble beginnings which drove all three women into the industry where today they helm three of ProRodeos most prestigious events: RodeoHouston, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo and the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, Colo. “I grew up in Eureka, Kansas,” Scates said. “When I was six years old, we moved to Houston, which I thought was the worst idea, coming from a small town. But dad promised he would take me to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every year.”

Despite an oilfield career that kept him away from home much of the year, Randy Scates always made good on his promise, getting home each March in time for the rodeo. “He never broke his promise, not even

when I was at K-State (University in Manhattan, Kan.). Instead of spring break, I went home to go to the rodeo with my dad,” she laughed. “That’s where the love came from.” Today, Scates is the Director of Sports and Event Presentations for RodeoHouston, a position she stepped into in November 2021 after moving over from the Education Department, where she’d been for nearly nine years, and a brief stint as interimDirector of Membership. “I’m the floor producer—everything from the grand entry to the nightly concerts I oversee the timing and safety,” Scates said. With just four months on the job, Scates tackled the first RodeoHouston to occur since the partial event that was shut down by COVID in March 2020. “I have to commend my co-workers. I was new to this role and none

ProRodeo Sports News 6/10/2022

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