The new school year is under way, and high school students are getting into fall sports and looking forward to homecoming.

But one local high school senior is looking forward to something entirely different: becoming a professional rodeo cowboy.

On Aug. 25 and 26, Tyler John (T.J.) McCauley, 17, won the Elks Youth Rodeo all-around in Sheridan, Wyo. The prizes included a one-year lease on a brand new Ford F-250 pickup truck and a three-stall horse trailer.

However, this, as they say, was not McCauley’s first rodeo. Nor was it his first big win.

Last year was McCauley’s most successful year yet. He and his former roping partner, Quinn Kessler, from Holden, Utah, and 18 at the time, took a $95,060 purse at the Bob Feist Invitational, a team roping competition in Reno, Nev. McCauley and Kessler also competed in the event in 2010 and were just shy of the big-money places in seventh place, but Boot Barn and Classic Ropes awarded them $2,000.

“If you don’t win for a couple weekends, it makes it pretty tough to get going,” McCauley says. “Fuel and horses alone are pretty tough to get.”

When he was just 12 years old, McCauley won $43,000 at the Donnie Waters Invitational, according to the United States Team Roping Championships website, and his first Dodge truck at the New Years Roping event in Mesquite, Nev.

But his success did not stop there. Over the next five years, McCauley won innumerable rodeos and jackpots, including dozens of saddles, scores of buckles, eight horse trailers and two trucks.

According to McCauley’s father, Chico McCauley, when T.J. won his first truck at 12, the rodeo would not award him the vehicle because he was too young, so the New Years Roping event organizers had to call Chico to pick it up.

“I couldn’t drive it for the longest time,” T.J. McCauley recalls, “but I fed a lot of horses with it.”

As a 17-year-old, McCauley cannot be considered a professional and compete in professional rodeos like the Sisters Rodeo. But he turns 18 on Oct. 1, and he will be able to purchase a $350 permit enabling him to compete in professional rodeo events. To receive a professional card, which means the competitor is a fully licensed professional, McCauley must earn $1,000 in winnings. He believes he can reach that mark within a couple of months of turning 18. His ultimate goal is to win 10 gold buckles (world championships) by the time he is 38, the age at which he will probably retire.

“It’s tough to start out with, because that level (of) jump is huge from high school to pro, so that’s where they separate them (the amateurs and professionals),” McCauley says. “If you’re running on a permit for a year, it’s not the best thing. You probably shouldn’t be there if you haven’t won a thousand dollars by then.”

McCauley’s main rodeo specialties are team roping and calf roping. He predicts that he should have no problem hitting that $1,000 mark when it comes to the team roping event, but calf roping has presented more of a challenge.

“I know I’ll be all right in team roping, but calf roping has been a little slow,” McCauley says. “I’ve won state (Oregon High School Rodeo Association state rodeo all-around champion) the last two years and placed at all the amateur rodeos around here, but that level is tough.”

McCauley’s incredible success has grabbed the attention of some big-name sponsors, which, according to McCauley’s father, helps him tremendously with the costs associated with traveling and competing. According to Barry Berg of Cactus Ropes, the company will continue sponsoring McCauley when he turns pro as long as he continues winning events.

“You don’t see a lot of kids sponsored up like the pros,” T.J. McCauley says. “(Sponsors) have been around the block and know that kids get big heads.”

Chico McCauley competed in numerous amateur rodeos while T.J. was growing up, inspiring the boy to follow in his roping father’s footsteps. McCauley began competing in pee-wee rodeos at 5, according to Chico, but he has been swinging a rope since he could walk.

The life of a rodeo competitor is a hard one, and McCauley faces his share of challenges. He spends four months out of the year at his permanent address in Reno, Nev., another four months at his Central Oregon home in Redmond, and the remaining four months traveling all over the United States in pursuit of his next major title. His dad and mom, Marie McCauley, and his brother Austin Jacob (A.J.), try to travel with McCauley to the majority of his events, but usually not all together. And many times he travels on his own, he says.

“I get to spend time with them,” Chico McCauley says. “T.J. is 17 and his brother is 16, and we only get so many years, and then after that they’ll be out there on their own. I love seeing them succeed and see their hard work pay off.”

A.J. McCauley has also begun regularly competing in the roping events and finishing in the top places alongside his brother. Over Labor Day weekend, A.J. and T.J. won the team roping event at an OHSRA event at the Gilliam County Fair in Condon.

“He wasn’t right off the bat into it, and lived it and breathed it like I have,” T.J. says of A.J., “but he’s starting to come around a little bit more, not just with me.”

Because he spends so much of his time traveling and competing, T.J. McCauley is not a good fit for traditional school. Since third grade he has been enrolled in a home-schooling program.

“I was doing junior rodeos, high school rodeos and amateur rodeos, so being in school Monday through Friday 9 (a.m.) to 3 (p.m.) isn’t possible,” McCauley says. “So being home-schooled kind of opens the door for you.”

His success in roping has given McCauley a chance to mentor up-and-coming rodeo competitors in the hope of translating his passion for rodeos to youngsters. He puts on free clinics in Reno, teaching the basics to young ropers and offering private lessons to those who want to go further in the sport.

“I like winning in rodeos,” he says. “In rodeos, a lot is on yourself and you rely more on yourself than a team (sport) like basketball or football. That’s what I like most about it.”