Rural Missouri - November 2024 - 15

Above left: Boone Electric's Paul Karsten carefully maneuvers a bucket weighted with concrete around an obstacle course during the rodeo. This
event proved to be challenging for most of the linemen. Above right: Apprentice lineman Sam Luebbering from Three Rivers Electric Cooperative
competes in the Hurt-Man Rescue event. This is one skill the linemen hope they never have to use.
Another team will visit the remote mountain village in
December to wire homes in the village and turn on the
lights. Five of those linemen took part in the rodeo, while
several past international team members were also on
hand to support the effort. Thanks to those competing
and a host of sponsors, more than $30,000 was raised for
future international projects.
The competition has grown greatly since its launch
in 2017. That year saw 22 linemen compete and raise
$24,800. " Our goal was to make $10,000 that first year, "
says Craig Moeller, Missouri Electric Cooperatives' director
of field training services and also the leader of the Missouri
International Program. " It's grown into about $30,000 to
$35,000 each year. We've also added two teams and about
10 competitors each year. "
Safety trumps speed during the competition, Craig
adds. " It's really subliminal training, " he says. " The guys
come here and do the safety aspects of their jobs and have
fun doing it. Safety is paramount in how we set up the
events. They lose points if they don't follow the rules. Time
is only used as a tiebreaker. "
The two-day competition starts with a written
knowledge test for apprentice linemen. Once they answer
the 100 questions, they join the journeyman lineworkers
at the training school located at the association's Jefferson
City headquarters. Here the competition is fierce as they
climb poles, work from the ground using extendo sticks
or jockey a 5-gallon bucket filled with cement around an
obstacle course using a digger derrick truck.
" It's a little more relaxed when you are in the field, " says
Cuivre River Electric Cooperative journeyman lineman
Mike Hartley. " It isn't quite as big of a competition. You're
always giving someone a little bit of trouble to do it quicker
or something like that, but it's just friendly competition in
the real world. But here it gets kind of serious. You try to
do it as fast and as safe as you can. "
When the dust finally settled and the scores were
tallied, Ozark Electric Cooperative took home the team
trophy and the Governor's Cup - presented since 2019
at the request of Gov. Mike Parson - with their team
comprised of Jacob Ray, Isaac Spain and Seth Fortner.
Ozark's Clint Deatherage also won the journeyman division
with a remarkable score of 493 out of 500 possible points.
That was five points and 6 minutes better than second
place Mike Hartley.
" He had a clean sweep in every event, " Craig says.
" First place, best score, best time in all of the journeyman
events. He was unreal. "
Cuivre River Electric's John Sullivan won the apprentice
division, edging his teammate Enoch Brown.
" Our guys had heard about the excitement, and I
wanted them to come up here and see what it was all
about, " says Barton County Electric Cooperative Manager
Jeff Hull, whose linemen entered the rodeo for the first
time this year. " The excitement they anticipated was
definitely met and even exceeded in some areas. It's
just a good thing for everyone to come together and do
the things they otherwise wouldn't get to do together.
NOVEMBER 2024 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 15

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Rural Missouri - November 2024

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