Page 25 - New Mexico Horse Breeder Summer 2018

“My dad has a bad knee, my grandparents aren’t in the best of health and I’ve got a handicapped sister,’’ says Jarrett. “It was time for me to come back and help.’’
Back to familiar surroundings, old friends and the memories of his days at Clint High School, where Jarrett was a highly talented, multi-sport athlete who especially excelled at rodeo and football.
Jarrett (6’1”, 175 pounds) was the star quarterback on the Lions football team. By the time he was a junior, he had caught the attention of major college football coaches.
Former LSU coach Les Miles’ recruiting effort went a little further than just sending a letter. Miles, says Jarrett, called his mom, Lisa, on Mother’s Day.
Jarrett has kept the letters he received from LSU and countless other football programs like Georgia Tech, Arkansas, SMU and UTEP. The letters in an old Nike shoe box attest to the probability that Jarrett would end up playing major college football.
And if he could get to LSU, why not the NFL?
Coach Martinez says “I think so,’’ when asked if Jarrett could have played major college football.
“He’s probably the best I’ve seen,’’ said Martinez. “He had an arm on him. He was a very tough kid.’’
Apparently tough enough to play through the bruises, sprains and concussions that are part of the game.
“He had a few injuries, a few concussions,’’ says Martinez. “We didn’t have the (concussion) protocal back then that we do now. He’s one
of the few kids we’ve had that never missed practice. He dedicated himself to what he was going to do. He wasn’t going to cheat the team, his teammates or himself.’’
When Jarrett wasn’t throwing touchdown passes on Friday nights, he was deep into team roping.
Ironic to think that one sport put an end to his dreams in the other.
Jarrett broke his hip near the end of his junior year when he was bucked off a horse. The doctors advised him to give up football, but Jarrett went ahead and played his senior year in 2006.
“Nobody really knew about (the injury),’’ he says. “We kept it hush, hush. We put some extra padding on my butt. It looked a little abnormal and I probably had my best year. We barely missed the playoffs. I think I threw for about 1,500 yards and had over 500 yards rushing. And I had only one interception.’’
“He wasn’t as mobile after the hip break,’’ says Martinez. “But he was still Jarrett Rogers and that was pretty good.’’
Apparently word of Jarrett’s hip injury got out and his stock with college recruiters took a hit.
“I still had offers,’’ says Jarrett. “They started out as full rides and then it got to less and less. So I went a different route. I took a rodeo scholarship.’’ First for a year at Levelland Junior College, then to Tarleton State.’’
Jarrett competed in pro rodeos while at
Tarleton, worked for a veterinarian and started his own company selling hay. In rodeo, he was named Rookie of The Year in the Turquoise Circuit, which includes southwest Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
He admits school wasn’t always a priority.
“I’m not sure I went to school all that much, but I did go,’’ he says.
It’s been 12 years since he played high school football and still finds it hard to talk about how it all ended.
“That’s how passionate I was about it,’’ he says. “Looking back it was neat and I think ability wise I could have played in the NFL.’’
So that summer after high school, Jarrett was a young man in need of a change of direction and scenery.
“I wanted to get away and start over,’’ he says. “Football, that was the plan and the plan got completely turned around.’’
But fate, like a river, charts its own course.
Soon after returning
home, Jarrett and Ana, a longtime friend, reconnected and within a year were married. They now have a precocious nine-month-old daughter named Layton.
Jarrett says that following their marriage, he was offered a job with a large horse and cattle company that would have included a six-figure salary. He turned it down, choosing instead to stay on the family farm.
“I love what I do,’’ says Jarrett. “It’s fun going to work each day and not knowing what you’re gonna do. The farm entails so much. You get what you put into it. I want people to drive by our place and say, gosh their stuff looks good. It’s always clean. “That’s what we’re known for and I want to keep it alive. I enjoy what I do.’
“The way I look at it, it doesn’t matter what kind of (money) figure somebody puts on it, if you don’t enjoy it, you’re going to have money but you’re going to be miserable. It’s not the life I wanted to live.’’
Being home also means Jarrett can spend more time with his younger sister Jenna. She was born with physical disabilities that left her unable to speak, blind in one eye and with limited physical mobility.
Doctors told her parents, Lisa and Casey, that Jenna would likely not live past the age of
10. They celebrated her 25th birthday in June. Jarrett says that’s a testament to the round-the- clock care his sister receives from her parents.
She spends each morning with Casey out on the farm. Jenna has trouble sleeping at night, so Lisa stays up with her all night.
“My son takes her out in the pickup at 4 o’clock in the morning,’’ says Jerry. “They drive around and she’ll go to sleep in the pickup. That’s when her mother sleeps. They have never left her overnight. She’s alive because of her mother.’’
“She’s just as happy go lucky as she can be,’’ says Jarrett.
It’s human nature to play the “what if ’’ game. What if Jarrett hadn’t broken his hip? What if he had gone on to play college football? Would his grandfather have sold the horses? Would he and Ana have reunited?
In the end, Jarrett followed the Rogers tradition—family always comes first.
“I’ve lived a very blessed life because of them,’’ said Jarrett. “Those two (Jerry and Casey) and my mom and sister, they put everything in perspective for my life. This farm is why I got to live my life.’’
“When I was 18, I was a typical, stupid kid.’’ I was gone and I was never coming back. Now, you couldn’t get me to leave here.’’
SUMMER 2018 23
J
et
J
a
rr
tw
ar
re
th Yearling Sale
na
tt
t
wi
i
hw
A
a at the 2015 Ruidoso
wi
e
i
f
f
n
e
A