Matt Sherwood of the Pima Arizona Stake of the LDS Church clinched a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world championship Dec. 13 in Las Vegas. It was his second world title in the past three years for Team Roping.
Along with his Team Roping partner Randon Adams and Saddle Bronc Riding champ Cody Wright, he helped make it three Mormons among the eight pro rodeo World Champions for 2008.
Father of seven and a returned missionary, Sherwood knows what it means to be a full-time ambassador for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"I try real hard to represent the church well," he said. "And yeah, everyone does know I'm LDS. I guess in one regard, knowing that everyone knows I'm LDS makes it easier for me to really try and do what's right because I know people do look at me and expect me to keep the standards that I profess to believe in."
Sherwood, who didn't compete full-time on the professional circuit until he was 36 years old, took the road less travelled to becoming a rodeo king. That long journey began when, at the age of 5, he entered a father-and-son roping competition in his hometown of Snowflake, Ariz., with his father, Bill Sherwood.
"(Roping) is what I grew up doing," Sherwood said. "By the time I was old enough to make a decision, it's what I already knew how to do."
After serving in the Melbourne Australia Mission, Sherwood married Kim Carpenter after she came home from the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. They attended school together in Florida, while he competed intermittently in rodeos. But once children started coming, then financial concerns dictated he put his rodeo dreams on the back burner.
"Professional rodeo is a unique sport because there are no (guaranteed) contracts," Sherwood said. "The only money you make is through sponsorships you get or the money you win. I didn't have a lot of sponsorships behind me and so I never wanted to take a chance and put my family in a financial situation that I didn't know that I was going to be making money."
Sherwood provided for his seven children, who now fall in the age range of 4 to 15 years old, by operating his own flooring business. He also persevered in his pursuit of rodeo by continuing to rope in his spare time.
"For years and years I was always wishing that I could rope at the National Finals rodeo," Sherwood said.
See the rest of this story on ldschurchnews.com.
This story is provided by the LDS Church News, an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is produced weekly by the Deseret News.