ProRodeo Sports News - October 5, 2018

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ... coal mining company near Kosse, Texas, about an hour north of College Station. “It was an unforgettable year,” Austin said. “God lined everything up and gave me the opportunity. I just had to step through the door.” Starkes agreed. “You can look at the rodeos he won – Cheyenne, the Xtreme Bulls – there’s nothing that young man couldn’t win,” Starkes said, adding that Austin remained humble through it all. “When he won the world, he’d stop and talk to you. If there was a young kid, Matt would go out of his way to talk to him.” Austin’s hot streak continued through the 2006 season, when he finished the regular season at the top of the world standings with $155,132. About one month before the Finals, he tore his groin, leaving him with two options – have surgery and miss the Finals or do rehab. “In 2006, I was riding at the top of my game,” Austin said. “The night I got hurt, I’d wished to myself that I was home. I think I was burned out. I worked to be the world champion, and then I kind of lost that fire.” Austin withdrew from theWrangler NFR after the second round when he re-injured torn muscles in his abdomen and groin. He underwent surgery that month. Austin missed the entire 2007 season due to injuries. He returned to competition in 2008 but did little, then made it to 71st in the 2009 world standings with $16,585.

2010, but a new chapter to his life was around the corner.

NEW GOALS Austin got married in 2015. With his wife, Christina, who teaches third grade, Austin has a 2-year-old daughter, River Rose, and a 1-year- old son, Matthew Katch. Austin also has a stepson, Kip. Austin works as a mechanic and welder for Vista Energy. “When I came here, everyone knew who I was,” Austin said. “They call me, ‘Bull Rider’ and ‘The Champ.’ It’s cool. I have a lot of great people I work with out here, and they all know what I used to do.” His job has changed, but he’s the same guy. “Matt’s still the same today as he was when he won the world in 2005,” Starkes said. “He’s just a good, all-around guy, as a person and a family man.” Austin has been on some bulls since, most recently while at a Bar None Cowboy Church event near Henderson, Texas. “I can still ride good, but I didn’t have a glove or spurs, I just climbed on and went,” Austin said. “I’ve done schools my whole life, and it’s more of an outreach thing. As long as I share the word of God with them, it makes it worth it. Having a family now is the greatest blessing – I love being a dad, and I love being a husband. “My little girl is just as crazy as I am, and she is so funny. Outside of being a Christian, the greatest accomplishment outside of being world champ is my wife and kids. I’m a very blessed man.”

Matt Austin got married in 2015 and is focused on his family now with wife, Christina, and their daughter River Rose, son Matthew Katch and stepson Kip. Photo courtesy Matt Austin

“It was devastating,” Austin said. “My career and my body went downhill after that. When I came back in 2008, body wise, I was only 40 percent healthy. Stuff still bothers me every day, but that’s life. You have to take the good with the bad. I think everything happens for a reason, and I think God’s got something greater. “I was still doing it because that was what everyone expected me to, and I said, ‘I don’t have to do that.’ I’d put my identity into something people expected me to do. God said to me, ‘When you put your identity in me, I polish you and make you shine.’ And I said, ‘You know what, I’m done.’” Austin’s final competition was Rodeo Austin (Texas) in “Every year I set a goal and the Lord blessed me to achieve my goal. ... I wake up every morning and think I need to go to a rodeo and tell myself I’m the best bull rider in the world, because that’s how I programmed my mind as a kid. Now, at 36, I think like that every day.” -– MATT AUSTIN

ProRodeo Sports News 10/5/2018

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