Kelton Adair
If Kelton Adair had his way, the family’s outdoor arena just south of Kearney, Neb. would have lights, and he and his step-dad would be roping till midnight every night.
“Dad wants lights, too,” Kelton says, “but Mom says, definitely not. We’d be out there all night. We’re already out there all day.”
As it is, every Thursday night he ropes at a local arena, “and we don’t get home till 11 or 12 on school nights, and Mom doesn’t like that.”
The 18 year old, a member of the Nebraska High School Rodeo Association, is a former heeler-turned header who heads for Clay Bauer of Arcadia, Neb. He sold his good head horse two years ago, and is now riding his sister’s breakaway horse. He’d like to turn the nine-year-old palomino named Girl into a tie-down horse, but his sister isn’t crazy about the idea.
He is a senior at Kearney High School, where he has taken a lot of advanced placement and honors classes. His schedule last fall included AP Chemistry, AP Statistics, AP English 4, and a Construction Tech Class, in which students actually build a house. The students do nearly all the work in the house except for the masonry. They pour the foundation, frame, sheet rock, insulate, and even do the electric work, under the supervision of a certified electrician.
Kelton has never completed an entire year of high school rodeo, due to three knee surgeries in three years. As a freshman, he completely severed his anterior meniscus and shattered a section of his kneecap and femur. The surgery fixed the problem for about a year. He reinjured it again at a high school rodeo, and this time a scope took care of it, but it ended his rodeo year again.
Then, late in the summer of 2013, while hiking in Colorado, it swelled up again, and he had another scope. After his freshman year, “that was the end of football,” he says, “but it’s better to quit football than rodeo.” His doctor, a former rodeo contestant, understood the strain the events would put on Kelton’s knees. “My doctor gave me an ultimatum. He said, maybe we’ll let you team rope, but no steer wrestling or (tie-down) roping.”
After high school, he plans on attending college to become an engineer. He’s spent two summers doing manual labor, and he knows it’s not for him. “I don’t want to be a grunt all my life,” he says. His summer jobs “have inspired me to get a degree.” He’s not sure what branch of engineering, but he doesn’t want an office job.
Kelton has two older sisters, Bailey and Macey. He is the son of Sid and Kristi Adair-Mignery.
