A competitive cowgirl

WAIMEA — Kayla Ann Kalauli enjoyed her time as Hawaii’s High School Rodeo Queen, but she’s also excited that her reign officially ended on June 15.

Now, the recent graduate of Honokaa High School can concentrate on what she loves: competing in the rodeo arena.

Kalauli will be among 13 Big Island residents competing in the National High School Rodeo Association finals in Rock Springs, Wyoming, July 13-19.

“Last year I went up and could only go as a queen,” she said just hours after Kauai’s Cheyenne Andrade succeeded her as queen. “You take on so many roles. There are so many components to being queen.”

Kalauli is scheduled to compete in breakaway and goat tying in Wyoming.

“This year, we’re kind of happy that she doesn’t have to wear her crown and sash and that she can go out there to try and win, to compete,” said Toni Kalauli, Kayla Ann’s mother. “We’re not going up there for a vacation. We’re going up there to say that Hawaii can be just as fierce as everybody else.”

Toni Kalauli knows of what she speaks. She was on the first rodeo team from Hawaii to compete in the national event, when it was held in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1988. For some on the team, it was the first time they had ever been to the mainland. It certainly was the first they had experienced such competition.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” said Toni, who attended St. Joseph School in Hilo. “Competition was tough then. Competition is even tougher now. You really have to work hard and practice if you want to win and compete.”

Kayla Ann Kalauli has grown accustomed to doing both. Not only is she a competitor in the arena, but also in the classroom. She had a 4.2 grade-point average her senior year at Honokaa after taking advanced-placement classes. She plans to use the scholarship money that she won as Hawaii High School Rodeo Association’s Senior Scholar-Athlete to enroll at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, but her long-term plan takes her much farther from home.

“I’m thinking about transferring to Wyoming to do rodeo college (in 2015),” she said.

For now, Toni Kalauli is just excited for the opportunity to see her daughter compete one more time.

“I’m so proud,” she said. “She works hard in the arena, out of the arena. She does a great job. She’s a fierce competitor, but if things don’t work out, it doesn’t set her back at all. It’s just nice to know that she’s experienced some of what I got to feel.”

Rodeo is a family affair for most competitors, and that certainly is the case with the Kalaulis — although Toni says that her husband, John Jr., has no cowboy skills to speak of, so the rodeo genes come from her.

“You can’t do it alone,” Toni Kalauli said. “We practice two or three times a week. She can’t practice by herself. She needs somebody to open the gates, somebody to strip the ropes, somebody to put the cattle back in. It takes at least two or three of us three times a week. It’s not an easy feat, but you need a lot of support. It makes it easier when your kids want to do it. They want to get better.”

Mostly, Kayla Ann Kalauli just wants to get back on her horse.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “Last year it was really stressful because you have to uphold the title as Miss Rodeo. This year I’m ready to just be a rodeo contestant and ride.”