Congratulations to our Apprentice Lineworkers Anthony Anaya, Colby Brown, Conor Garcia, Tyler Hornung, Martin Mares, Troy Mead and Matt Ward for their effort at the Arizona Lineworkers Rodeo hosted by Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) November 7–8 in Benson.

The competition put 43 lineworkers through a series of challenges, beginning with a written test assessing their knowledge before heading outdoors. The hurt-man rescue drill is designed to emulate an on-site emergency where a lineworker lowers a fellow lineworker, a victim played by a life-size dummy.

There’s a technical obstacle course, a mystery event, and two team events, to install an overhead secondary, and cross‑arm change‑out. All events are designed to reinforce fundamental skills, safety, and challenge the resourcefulness of each apprentice.

Tyler finished third overall in individual events. Colby had the fastest time in the Mystery Event and placed fourth in the Obstacle Course. Conor and Colby finished third and fourth respectively in the Hurt-Man Rescue. Team Trico also placed well in the team events.

“The State Rodeo this year was great,” Martin said. “Having all seven apprentices there was a huge help, from helping each other out on events, letting each other know what to look for on the mystery event and having them there cheering each other on was a great experience.”

Martin’s favorite event was hurt-man rescue. “Having this event in the rodeo makes us work on our climbing and perfecting our rescue also,” he said. 

We are proud to see our Apprentice Lineworkers’ commitment to safety, learning and serving our Members. Great work, team Trico!

Hector Acuna of The Herald Review contributed to this story.

Apprentice linemen Tyler Hornung, Martin Mares and Shem Scott had a great time learning and competing against apprentices from other state electric cooperatives and utilities at the Arizona Lineman Rodeo in November.

The Lineman Rodeo is an event created to offer lineworkers a way to showcase their pride in their profession. The event is composed of volunteers devoted to the promotion of educational and electrical safety activities, including, but not limited to, the continued education of lineworkers, building relationships of trust, teaching teamwork techniques, sharing of ideas to bring innovation to the industry, and networking that will foster better working relationships between utilities. Martin said the Lineman Rodeo was a great experience. “I met a lot of apprentices at different steps of the apprenticeship. It was great camaraderie.”

Martin said his favorite events were the Hurtman Rescue and the Obstacle Course. He said both events make you a better climber. “The Hurtman Rescue makes you practice over and over on what needs to be done if you ever need to rescue someone hurt on the pole. The obstacle course helps you find what works better for you on installing or replacing material on the pole.”

Crew leader Jeremy Konski, who volunteered as a judge for the rodeo, said Tyler, Martin and Shem did well for their first rodeo. “Overall, it was a great experience, and we look forward to next year,” he said.

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