“I got into sheep riding when my mom wasn’t there,” said Dawson Whitener. “She didn’t like it at all. Ever since I started riding sheep I loved it and I’ve always loved it and it was always what I wanted to do.”
The Republic senior really did love it. Mutton Bustin’ was fun until he was big enough for the real beasts: bull riding.
“Freshman year it was a hard year,” Dawson said. “I mean, I broke a bunch of bones and it tested my level and how good I was.”
One fall, no matter how bad, wasn’t going to stop him from another eight second ride.
“He lacerated his liver and he was back on in a week,” said Stephanie Whitener, Dawson’s mother. “He collapsed a lung and he was back within two or three weeks. So every benchmark that you would kind of think ‘oh, maybe this will be the hiccup or maybe this will be the deterrent’ like he’s back at it.”
And when he got right back to it, he reminded himself.
“Hold on tight and don’t open your hand.”
Dawson hasn’t let go of this passion since. Becoming the 2025 Missouri High School State Champion in bull riding. He is forgoing the trip to nationals to defend his title as world champion at the YBR World Finals.
“I mean, there were people from Mexico, Australia, Canada and a bunch of different other countries,” Dawson said. “We all came there from the top five. And I mean, it was hard.”
Missouri isn’t always your first thought for rodeo, but he’s putting RepMo on the map.
“People from Missouri, we got a chip on our shoulder to show who we are and why we love this sport,” Dawson said.
Dawson covers his own expenses for bull riding, earning his way to rodeos through sponsors and another kind of hard work: the local car wash.
“He works hard to be able to cover it,” Stephanie said. “I think that it makes him more grateful and more realistic on goals and what he is doing.”
It doesn’t matter how many bones he breaks (or cars he needs to wash), he will do whatever it takes for another eight second ride.
