One Cowboy's Challenge

by Noble Sprayberry

Kory Koontz makes a living with a horse, a rope, and a passion for the cowboy life. But a professional rodeo career means pressure and a wearing schedule.

Only winning earns money to support his wife and three children, and winning means entering between 80 and 100 events annually that feature his specialty, team roping.

Koontz, 32, also faces a daily task familiar to millions of Americans. He must monitor his blood or risk the adverse affects of diabetes, a disease he’s coped with since he was 16 years old.

“It was never an option that I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted to do,” says Koontz, who wears a pump to provide the insulin his body doesn’t naturally produce.

And what he wanted to do was rodeo, earning a living in an event pitting him and a partner against the clock, a sprinting steer, and a pack of talented competitors.

In team roping, one cowboy slings the loop of a rope around a steer’s head and the other ropes the rear legs as the clock marks time. A successful run can take as little as four or five seconds.

It’s a career path that seemed destined for Koontz, born in Lubbock, Texas. His father, Dave, competed in rodeos, and early on Koontz learned team roping and its risks.

When he was 8 years old, Koontz lost most of his right thumb when the digit was wrapped between the rope and saddle after he lassoed a steer. By 17, he was earning money on the rodeo circuit and he hasn’t looked back.

He attended Vernon College outside Wichita Falls, Texas, which features a competitive rodeo squad. Koontz says college rules allowed him to compete for the school and cash prizes in college events while also earning money on the professional circuit. He never finished the degree in computer technology, choosing instead the life of a modern cowboy.

Earnings determine success on the rodeo circuit, with each competitor starting the year with zero, and rankings are determined by the amount of cash won. A competitor can count 50 rodeos toward the race for a world championship, which brings, credibility, sponsors, and other money-making opportunities.

In the money

Rodeo is a sport usually marked by more losses than wins, much like in baseball where a slugger hitting in just three of 10 opportunities is considered good. And a roping team must compete often to tally money-winning results.

“We probably enter in 60 to 75 rodeos, and that doesn’t count the jackpot events that are just for team roping,” Koontz says. “We probably go to 20 or 30 of those.”

Both the rodeos and jackpot events pay the top finishers, and a winning run at a rodeo can net as much as $7,000. “That’s a big win for us,” he says.

A very good year can earn each member of a top team as much as $100,000 or $150,000, says Koontz, who considers his two consecutive wins in the Bob Feist Invitational team roping event his high points.

Koontz’s winnings at that one specialty event in Reno, Nev., total $101,922 after 10 years of competition. Big paydays mean chasing rodeos and other events that often overlap, requiring competitors to crisscross the West.

In one early August week, Koontz and his partner, Daniel Green, made stops in Lovington, N.M., and Colorado Springs, Colo., before driving 600 miles overnight to arrive in the plains town of Lawton, Okla. They competed in preliminary rounds on Thursday morning and evening before returning to Lovington, a 360-mile drive.

Another week earlier in the summer included plane trips from Wyoming to California and the necessity of hiring a driver to haul two horses to the coastal competitions.

“You can be good at rodeo, but it takes a lot of time and work to learn the business and how to do all of the things that come with it,” says Koontz, who lives with his family in Sudan, Texas (pop. 986), about 50 miles west of Lubbock.

And while many people rope and ride, few can depend on rodeo to make ends meet. “If there are 80 teams competing in an event, there are probably eight or 10 teams making a good living with a rope,” Koontz says. “You’re not guaranteed anything, and the stress that puts on a family can be tough.”

And for Koontz, it’s more than just competition and earning a living. He also copes with diabetes and he knows the disease has hindered past performances.

“Every day I wake up I have to deal with it,” he says.

Not a disability

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy, according to the American Diabetes Association.

About 17 million people in the United States, or 6.2 percent of the population, have diabetes. Koontz has Type 1 diabetes and his body produces no insulin.

Of all those with diabetes, only 5 percent have Type 1, says Dr. Nathaniel Clark, the association’s vice president of clinical affairs.

“I think it’s a challenge to have diabetes and to have Type 1 is very challenging for people who are physically active,” Clark says. Physical activity causes insulin to work differently, and adding an athlete’s busy schedule only makes the care more painstaking, he says.

“The message we try to send out is that anything is possible and diabetes should not be seen as a disability,” Clark says. “If someone really wants to do something, they’ll do it and they deserve the credit.”

For years, Koontz used diet and insulin injections to keep his blood sugar at a very high level to prevent the strength-sapping dips he found hard to predict.

The type of insulin, stress of competition, and miles of travel often contributed to the bouts of fatigue. “There were times I believed it cost me money because I got weak,” he says.

Koontz started using an insulin pump about 18 months ago. Pumps are pager-sized devices containing doses of insulin. A small flexible tube is connected to a needle usually placed in the stomach, and the system provides a measured, controlled amount of insulin.

Koontz says the fast-acting system provides better control, allowing him the consistency to stop the swings that often left him weak. “With the pump, I feel better all of the time, and it makes me compete better.”

Koontz’s wife, Katherine, understands the risk of the disease. “Many people who do have it pretend they don’t have it and they don’t take care of it,” she says.

She doesn’t worry about her husband or his harried life. “When we started dating, he was giving himself insulin shots,” she says. “It was something new to me and I told my mom that if I worried about him getting sick or hurt it would eat me up. He’s so mature about taking care of it, and he’s always had such responsibility.”

Koontz meanwhile isn’t a single-minded athlete. Family and his Christian faith mean everything. Katherine, 33, as well as their children—son Jae, 12, and 9-year-old twins Harlee and Ashlee—often join him on the road.

“I’m not going to question why I have diabetes or why it hasn’t gone away yet,” he says. “There are a lot of blessings in my life, and diabetes doesn’t rule my life or slow me down.”

While competitive ropers can earn a living into their 40s, Koontz intends to end his hectic team-roping career in the next six to eight years.

He hopes eventually to own a business connected to the sport he loves, but a few more athletic achievements remain.

“I’ve won just about everything you can in team roping,” he says. “But I haven’t won the world championship . . . ”

Noble Sprayberry is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

first appeared: 11/2/2003