Jaicee Williams at the 2018 SDHSRA State Finals - Cowboy Images

Meet the Member Jaicee Williams

story by Lily Weinacht

Jaicee Williams of Wall, South Dakota, won the breakaway roping at the Wall regional rodeo in early June. A recent graduate from Wall High School, the 18-year-old has her eye on a qualification to the NHSFR in the event to cap off her senior year. She qualified for the NJHFR in goat tying, and continues to tie goats and barrel race in high school as well. “Both my parents were involved in rodeo their whole lives, and it’s been my whole life,” says Jaicee. “The social aspect of it is the biggest part to me. I always get to meet new people, and go to new places and have new experiences, and that means a lot to me. My favorite rodeo is probably state finals because at region rodeos you only get to see friends from the region. But at state you get to see everyone and all your buddies.”
While she enjoys all three of her events equally, breakaway roping is particularly special to Jaicee. Her mom, Stephanie, passed away several years ago and was an avid team roper and breakaway roper. “My mom started me on breakaway and it means a lot to me that she did that,” says Jaicee. She also looks up to her grandpa Greg Anderson. “We’d go rope with him and he’d tune us up. He’s an awesome roper and super intense, so it’s more pressure in the practice pen than in the actual arena,” Jaicee says with a laugh. “He always knows exactly what we’re doing wrong and doing right, and he’s super supportive. He definitely helped put the love of roping in me.”
Jaicee travels to rodeos with her dad, Marty, and younger brother, Stran, who will start high school rodeo this fall. Marty roped and steer wrestled in college. He hauls Jaicee and Stran to all of their rodeos and even for practice in Wall when their own arena was under water this spring. “If Dad’s driving, we have a jam session,” says Jaicee. “Old rock hits are his favorites, so we know a lot of those.”
In tow are Jaicee’s two main horses, Turbo and Derby. “Turbo used to be an all-around horse, but I changed him over to my breakaway and goat horse. My brother started on him and then I took him over, and I’ve used him my whole high school career. Derby is my mom’s horse and I inherited her when she passed away. She was her barrel project, and she’s doing really awesome. She’s really smart and it’s been fun training her.”
Jaicee graduated from Wall High School in May as valedictorian of her class, and spoke at graduation along with two other students. “We talked about living in the moment, and we talked about a memory of each classmate—we had a class of 18,” Jaicee explains. She played basketball and volleyball all four years of high school and ran track for a year as well, while she’s attending Black Hills State University this August on an academic scholarship. She’s considering college rodeo in the future, but plans to compete in the SDRA and college jackpots for now and focus on her academics during the school year. One of her ideas is to major in accountancy so she can establish a tax firm in Wall, since the next closest firm is an hour away.
In between working two jobs cleaning and waitressing, Jaicee hopes to go boating with her dad and spend time with friends this summer before going to college. She’s also working hard toward qualifying for the NHSFR. “I’m feeling really confident that if I compete at state like I did in Wall, it will go well.”