Champion Roper Turned Tech Student

by Valerie Kimble

SOCORRO, NM, Sept. 8, 1998 -- Randy Sena used to chase steers with a lasso and a horse. Now he's aiming to rope himself a degree in electrical engineering at New Mexico Tech.

"I was thinking about environmental engineering," said Sena, a 17-year-old Albuquerque South Valley native and a champion team roper. "But electrical engineering seems more interesting, more hands-on with electrical applications," he said. He turned down offers from bigger colleges north and south of Socorro to attend New Mexico Tech -- even if he had to leave his 11-year-old gelding, Blackie, behind.

"No one in my family has ever gone to college," said Sena, a member of Tech's 1998-99 freshman class. "That includes my grandparents, aunts and uncles, everyone," he said. "But this is something I've always wanted to do . . . I'll go wherever my education takes me."

His roping skills have taken him to quite a few competitions, and Sena has returned with his share of prizes and money. His biggest win was the $20,000 he split with his partner at the United States Team Roping Championship finals in Oklahoma City, Okla. last October.

"I won that in one night in two hours," said Sena, who learned to ride horses at the age of 13. He called the competition "the Super Bowl of team roping," and the highlight of his roping career.
Sena and a buddy became rodeo fans about four years ago and started practicing roping techniques after school. "We got hooked on it," he said. "After a while, we were always practicing, and started competing two years later."

He had a great practice arena: 10 acres, mostly in permanent pasture bordering the Rio Grande, where he lived with his parents, Tony and Ruby Sena, an older brother and younger sister.
As Sena explained it, in team roping, two rope-wielding partners on horseback chase a steer released from a chute. One roper, called the header, is responsible for roping the steer by the horns and "dallying" the animal, or turning him to the left. The second roper, called the heeler, then catches the two back feet.

When the steer is "stretched" between the two riders, "that's when you get your time," said Sena, who competes as a header.

A year ago he won a horse trailer by being the high-money winner at a "Lights of Albuquerque" independent roping event. His cash earnings from that competition totaled $2,400, minus entry fees of $25 for the dozen or so events he entered. Other entry fees run higher, up to $150 per event at the national finals. His earnings, meanwhile, are in savings.

While it was great to come home with pockets full of cash, Sena said roping always took second place to school. "I would do my school work first, and then practice," he said. "That was my priority."

Sena has the academic record to prove it: He graduated fourth in a class of around 300 at Rio Grande High School with a grade point average of 4.14.

The brights lights of the arena, and the thrill of big winnings, was all pretty heady stuff for a teenager, but Sena said he never was tempted to try to make a living on the team roping circuit.
"There's a lot of competition out there, and it gets pretty hard," he said. "There are a lot of guys better than me."

Now he's competing for grades. "Calculus isn't bad at all," said Sena. "Now chemistry, that's a tough one."

He also has a new partner, an upper-class electrical engineering major who is teamed up with Sena as his student mentor.

"They really open their arms to you here," he said. "All my teachers say, 'if there's anything you need, come and see me.'"

Sena brings to his new life as a Tech student the lessons he learned as a team roper. "You learn to lose," he said. "You learn that you're not always going to win. Winning that $10,000 was a big moment, but I've also lost a lot," he said. "It's just that the few I did win were big ones. Sometimes you come out ahead, sometimes you don't."

"It's gambling, basically," he said. "You're trying to beat the odds."

For Randy Sena, an education is a better way to get ahead, to improve the odds for a secure future. "I miss roping and my family," said Sena, the middle of the three children of Tony and Ruby Sena of Albuquerque. "But my family supports me a lot, my coming to school, and I'm not that far from home."