Odessa College’s Brock Powell doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty at a rodeo.

Whether he’s tie down roping, team roping or competing in his favorite event, steer wrestling, he’s committed to getting the job done with his work ethic.

“He does three events and he’s a really strong kid, just works really hard,” Odessa College head coach CJ Aragon said. “He comes from a ranch over in New Mexico. He thinks a hard day at the practice pen is easy because if he’s not in the practice pen, he’s out digging fence post holes or building fence or doing stuff like that. Practice for him is pretty easy compared to what he has to do when he has to work.”

Powell, a 20-year-old Aragon, N.M. native, made the eight-hour move to Odessa College after winning two high school rodeo state championships.

He started steer wrestling when he was 17 and Powell said it took him a few years to get his technique to where it is today.

He’s been labeled as one of the strongest competitors in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s Southwest Conference.

Thursday night during the opening performance of the 34th annual Odessa College Wrangler Rodeo, Powell got to show off that strength, putting his steer on the ground in an unofficial time of 7.2 seconds.

“They’ve got to be willing to jump off a horse and wrestle a steer to the ground,” Aragon said. “A lot of people don’t want to do that because if things go wrong it hurts, things do go wrong and then you’ve got to get up and do it again. A lot of people after they miss a couple steers or have a wreck, they’re done with it and other people stick with it and keep going.”

While competitors before and after him missed their steers and made the 10-foot jump off of a horse onto a thin layer of dirt covering the Ector County Coliseum floor, Powell got his stubborn steer to go onto his side.

“A lot of those steers are 600 lbs. and you get a hold of something 600 lbs. and things don’t go right, you’re going to get your butt whipped and you’re going to get humbled,” Aragon said. “Brock is really strong and the biggest thing we’ve been working with Brock on is fine tuning his technique. He’s got the strength and size. His technique has come a long way. With the combination of the three, he could be a really good steer wrestler.”

Powell is studying business at Odessa College and hopes to continue to rodeo at a four-year university in the future.

Unlike some of the Odessa College roster, Powell isn’t on the road every weekend competing in rodeos for cash.

He does find events to compete in occasionally but is a little pickier when it comes to leaving Odessa. Powell chooses events based on which have the best payouts and will be best for his career.

During his college season however, Powell chooses to focus on himself — not only with his school work, but with his rodeo training as well.

He rides live animals several times a week and goes to the weight room as much as possible. Powell added that he doesn’t pay attention to rankings or where he stands compared to other competitors in the Southwest Conference. He just does as best as he can.

“I don’t really pay attention to that,” Powell said. “I try not to pay too much attention to the points. It’s just something to think about that you don’t really need to.”

{{tncms-inline account=”EricBlumOA” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">COLLEGE RODEO: Odessa College's Brock Powell records a time of 7.2 seconds in steer wrestling on Thursday night. <a href="https://t.co/l7e6eGMGFZ">pic.twitter.com/l7e6eGMGFZ</a></p>— Eric Blum (@EricBlumOA) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricBlumOA/status/967606393162301440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”967606393162301440″ type=”twitter”}}