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Johnson City home schooled seniors Sierra & Sheridan Hodge have been recruited by Vernon College to become members of their collegiate rodeo program this fall. Vernon College is a junior college located in Vernon, Texas which is fifty miles west of Wichita Falls.

The twin sisters had many scholarship offers to choose from including: Western Texas College in Snyder, Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, Wharton County Junior College in Wharton and Weatherford College in Weatherford, but chose Vernon College because of its history of winning National Intercollegiate Rodeo Championships. Vernon College is the only junior college to have it’s men’s and women’s rodeo team win a National Championship in the same year. This feat has only been accomplished five times in the history of the NIRA (National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association).

The girls were invited to try out for the Tarleton State University rodeo team but wanted to start at the junior college level. Freshmen have a lot more support and opportunity at a two-year school than a four year university because they aren’t competing against the upper classmen for placement on the team. College rodeo teams are made up of six men and four women. Tarleton has over 120 kids in their rodeo program, so the odds of a freshmen making the team and receiving travel money isn’t very good.

The girls want to gain valuable academic and rodeo experience at the junior college level before they transfer to a major university. Sierra & Sheridan plan on earning an Associates Degree at VC and then a Bachelors Degree in Marketing and Business Management so they can pursue careers in rodeo related fields in order to give back to the sport that gave so much to them.