Lane York, who is 15, just finished his last rodeo with the 2025 California Junior High School Rodeo Association’s Junior Rodeo State Finals this past May in Red Bluff. It marked the end of a banner career, having won the Rookie Award in his first year, and All-Around Cowboy all three years. He won a saddle each year.
California Junior Rodeo Champion 2025
At the 2025 California Junior Rodeo State Finals, he competed in bull riding, bareback, tie-down, goat tying, team roping, chute dogging, light rifle and ribbon roping. Lane loves attending the state competitions for various reasons. “I like when we can go to state and get to meet new people and make new friends,” he shares. “I also really like having more competition, because in my district, there’s not a lot of competition.” District 8 for the California Junior Rodeo Association had just five boys competing in bull riding, as an example. Whereas at state, the top four from each of the nine states comes. Giving Lane more competition.
Ask him which event is his favorite, and Lane pauses….long, thinking hard. His mom laughs, saying he can’t choose even a top two favorite. He finally settles on his top four: bull riding, tie-down, team roping and bull dogging.
We all know bull riding is a dangerous sport, but don’t let that fool you, Lane is not the daredevil of the family. His sister went skydiving – I filmed from the ground, Sarah says. She tried to get Lane to go bungee jumping with her, Lane said no to both. “I mean, when you get on a bull, even if you cover it, yeah, when you get off it’s going to hurt,” shares Lane. “But you don’t know if that parachute is going to open or that bungee is going to bungee.”
A Bright Future in High School Rodeo and Beyond for Norco Youth
While Lane York is not super excited about starting high school this fall – after all, homework cuts into horse time – he will gladly rattle of rodeo events, stats and horse information for as long as you care to listen. And it’s a family trait. His mother, Sarah Stark, is a horsewoman herself and taught all her kids to ride. Both of her boys do rodeo, the eldest, David Stark, is a professional rodeo man, with 300 head of cattle and puts on team roping productions.
While homework may not be the work he is most happy doing, Sarah says he has good grades and has a pretty good GPA. What he is excited about, however, is moving up to high school rodeo because there is more competition even in his district, especially in bull riding.
And, when asked what he wants to do after high school, he answers without a pause: “Rodeo.” Awards at the high school level include college scholarships, so mom adds, “College first.” She points out to Lane that rodeo is a business, so learning business in college and how to manage money will help him out.
He just might follow in his brother’s footsteps, who received a full-ride scholarship to college through rodeo and competed at the college level before becoming a professional. “Scouts are already looking at him,” shares Sarah. In fact, the same college scout who picked up David has already marked Lane out as one to watch through his high school career. Two other schools have also called her to tell her they are watching him.
Lane also helps out his uncle, an equine dentist, sometimes and says he might do that as a career in addition to rodeo.
The family travels two or three weekends a month to various rodeo events. One of their “can’t miss” events is Buckles and Barrels for Bailey. Bailey, born July 8, 2010, had Batten disease, a rare degenerative terminal illness that primarily affects the nervous system. Her Family created the Buckles and Barrels for Bailey charity rodeo in 2016 to help other families facing childhood illness and to donate money toward researching cures. In fact, Bailey was the fifth person in the United States to receive a gene transfer for Battens disease. Bailey passed away on October 4, 2021, but her family continues to raise funds for other families and research as a way to honor her. “Lane and her were friends since they were like, five years old,” shares Sarah. “So it was really hard. She has helped a lot of kids and paved the way for new research.”
Whatever life may bring to this inspiring young man, you can believe that rodeo has given him the discipline, grit and determination to face it head on.
