Ella Kay stormed onto the high school rodeo scene last year and won the goat tying state championship as a freshman, and she is back to defend her title.

Kay, a multi-sport athlete at Barbe High School, is the favorite to win next week at the Louisiana High School Finals Rodeo at Burton Coliseum.

“I’m very excited,” Kay said. “I’ve been working on staying mentally tough.

“I feel like sometimes I let other people get into my head and kind of mess with my brain a little bit, but I just worked on being consistent and playing my own game.”

She won seven of the 10 high school rodeos she competed in this season, plus she was one of the semifinal winners at the Hooey Jr. Patriot rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas, in March.

The LHSFR starts Monday with reined cow horse and cutting. All other events start Thursday with the first-go round split between two performances at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The second-go will follow the same schedule on Friday. The top 15 in each event advance to the short-go at 5 p.m. Saturday. The top four in each event qualify for the National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming, July 13-19.

Kay owns a commanding lead in the standings with 102 points, followed by Briarfield Academy’s Sage Raymond (75) and Abbie Savant (73.5).

“She is very consistent, and she’ll come up on your heels,” Kay said of Raymond. “I just got to watch her.

“I think that I need to be optimistic even if I don’t draw exactly what I need and just go do my job, play my game and let them beat me.”

Kay got her start in the sport at 6 years old despite what she said were reservations from her father, a former tiedown roper. She won three consecutive junior high state goat tying championships and a national before moving up to the high school ranks.

“At first, he told me I was too young to actually rodeo at the time, and I finally just convinced him,” Kay said. “I was like, ‘Dad, let me try,’ and so we tried, and then I just took off with it.

“It came kind of easy, like just like natural athleticism, but it took me a hard time to get to where I am today, like lots of ups and downs and hard work.”

Kay said she practices between eight and 10 hours a week while balancing school and playing for the Barbe softball team.

“I think staying healthy is a main thing, and your time, just because it’s such a physical sport,” Kay said.

Kay said she and her horse have to work together to be successful.

“Me and my horse are a team, kind of, so teamwork and understanding my horse and just hard work in general,” she said. “I mean, rodeo is not a very easy sport.”