Excitement returns with PEC internal lineman’s rodeo
Watch a short video with event highlights
For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the lineman’s rodeo competition returned to PEC on August 5, at the Dripping Springs facility. The return of the rodeo is exciting, not just for the lineworker participants, but for the entire cooperative and its members. Participating in the rodeo is an important tradition at PEC that gives employees and members something to cheer for.
“The rodeo is a showcase, and a gigantic morale builder for the entire cooperative,” said Brian Magott, chairman of the PEC rodeo committee. “We’ve trained and grown the participants internally, especially with the Safety and Technical Training Center now, and this is an opportunity for them to show off their skills in a public setting.”
But the rodeo isn’t just about the spirit of competition and showing off. Brian says that the program helps build better lineworkers. “What we see is that competitors build their skill set, which benefits all our members, and many of them go on to leadership roles here at the cooperative,” he said.
The internal rodeo included a host of events for journeyworker teams and apprentices. Journeyworker events included tool inspection, hurtman (injured worker) rescue, pole climb, transformer change, and insulator change. Apprentice events were tool inspection, a written test, hurtman rescue, pole climb, rope tie, and obstacle course.
The following were the top performers at the PEC internal rodeo:
Journeyworker Team 1 – Kyle
- Charley Goines
- Dustin Ortiz
- Jayce Johnson
Journeyworker Team 2 – Canyon Lake
- Darren Donhauser
- David Hernandez
- Jason Dean
Journeyworker Team 3 – Canyon Lake
- Caleb Brodock
- Garrit Afman
- Thomas Logan
Apprentices
- Trevor Jones (Cedar Park)
- James Hunter (Kyle)
- Daniel Wilson (Cedar Park)
- Bradley Campos (Bertram)
This year, there wasn’t a Texas Lineman’s Rodeo, but the International Lineman’s Rodeo is currently scheduled to be in Overland Park, Kansas in October, where PEC’s top apprentices and journeyworker teams are slated to represent the cooperative.