By Ruth Nicolaus
Marcus Banister is a team roper in the Colorado Pro Rodeo Association.
The Brighton, Colo. cowboy grew up showing paint horses with his parents, but when he went to a Colorado Junior Rodeo as a youngster, he was hooked.
Marcus grew up on a paint horse ranch with a mother who trains and shows jumpers and a dad who does paint horse shows as well. His dad roped while riding paints, and Marcus was interested in the roping through that.
In the paint horse world, he competed in jumping, English riding, and roping, breakaway, heading, heeling and steer stopping. He has roped at the Paint Horse World Finals every year from about age six till he was eighteen. He has also showed in the youth division, and in the past two years, has shown in the open. Marcus has won ten youth division World Finals titles in several classes, including several in the breakaway, steer stopping, and heading, but only one in the heeling.
It’s ironic that he is now heeling in the CPRA for Brit Ellerman, having won fewer heeling youth division titles than any other event. He and Brit rope in the open and he and Brit’s sister Taya Ellerman McAdow rope in the mixed team roping. He calls Taya his second sister. “I wasn’t big into the rodeo world until the beginning of high school. That’s when Brit and I became really good friends. The Ellerman family has taught me so much over the years. They’re like a second family to me.”
He and Brit competed in high school rodeo together, qualifying for the National High School Finals in 2009-2011, and winning the year-end championship in 2011.
Marcus is a student at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. He will graduate in the spring of 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduation, he’d like to take a year off to team rope in the PRCA and try to make the Wrangler National Finals. He realizes that the responsible thing would be to get a job, but he’d like to take the chance. “I think it would be fun,” he said, “to see if I could make it. I know I’d always regret it if I didn’t take a shot at it. It’s always been a dream of mine.”
Marcus has an older sister, Beth, who competes in the jumping. His parents are Marc and Karen Banister.
