Extreme Dancer
The Source
By Ken Bradbury
Phil McGinnis may be the only Triopia student ever stopped by the principal for wearing his spurs to class. He’s definitely the only former Trojan who now owns two Illinois High School Rodeo Saddle Bronc awards. On June 20th the six-foot-four-inch 190 pound Arenzville boy traveled to Altamont, Illinois, to earn his second consecutive state championship and has qualified to represent Illinois in the national competition held in New Mexico on July. The quiet, rangy young man has also qualified to compete in the events of team roping, small bore rifle shooting, and trap shooting. “It was quite an honor,” said Phillip. “I guess not too many kids get to do that.” And for what it’s worth, he continued wearing his spurs to his Triopia classes. Said Phil, “I guess I sort of forgot and I guess the principal did too.” “Phil’s a gentleman,” said Connie Walls, one of McGinnis’s Triopia teachers. “Quiet, polite…but with that ‘what’s-he-going-to-do-next look behind his eyes. I love the kid.” Phillip was on a horse before he entered kindergarten and has been riding bucking broncs for the past three years. “Riding a bronc is almost an addiction,” he adds. “Like when you kissed a girl for the first time. You just want more.” He says that sitting on the back of a half ton of horse intent on getting rid of him is a feeling like no other. “It’s that feeling you get right before you something nobody else would do.” This unpredictable sport has left him relatively unscathed listing only “lots of bruises, some stubbed toes and a few concussions” as his only bronc riding injuries. “But when your pride gets hurt, that heals slower,” he grinned. In fact, when interviewed for this article, Phil limped into the room sporting a hole in the right hip of his Wrangler jeans. “It was a steer this morning,” he said. “I was trying to back him where he didn’t want to go. I guess his horns got a little close.” At Triopia he was always known as the quiet boy who liked to skip lunch and go sit under a tree for the entire period. One of his lunch room supervisors said, “I’d look out there and it’d be pouring down rain and Phil would be sitting under the tree reading his western novel.” According to McGinnis he began school as a non-reader, then “Mrs. Potts got me this book about a guy who rode bulls. I read it backward and forward..had it memorized. She showed me anybody could read if they liked what they were reading.” McGinnis has spent his high school career employed by Webb Parlier of rural Arenzville. “He’s a real cowboy,” said Phil. “I owe a lot to that guy and I guess I’m part of their family.” He’ll also be missing Mrs. Parlier’s ranch-style cooking as he heads for a four-year commitment to the U.S. Marine Corps in August. McGinnis says that he picked the Marines because of their devotion to loyalty and tradition. “I guess I’m kind of old school. I’m into pride and tradition.” Which leaves the question…why would an otherwise intelligent and talented young man and the winner of several awards in speech climb onto the back of a bucking bronco? McGinnis, an unusually eloquent young man, said “There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you climb onto the back of a thousand-pound animal and saying ‘Let’s Dance!’ That’s what it is. The horse isn’t fighting you, he likes it. He’s dancing with you..the cowboy and the horse..the most extreme sort of dancing.”