12-14 By the Numbers_Layout 1 9/9/10 3:57 PM Page 142
by the
NUMBERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE14
represents an age bracket––the light blues designate the 17 & Unders, the dark blues the 45-54 years olds the yellows the 25-34 year-olds and so on. This chart, instead of representing entries at sanctioned ropings, represent winners at sanctioned ropings. By winners I mean teams that earned checks. So if your team won a check(s) at any sanctioned roping between 2004 and 2009, you are part of a color on this chart. Each set of columns represents a roping division. Looking at the Open, as an example, you can see that the age bracket that won the most checks in the Open was the 25-34 year-olds by far. The 25-34 yerolds were also the top winning bracket in the #15, the #13 and the #12 but from there on down, the 35-44 year-olds take over. In every division except the #15 and the Open where 18-24 year-olds come in second, the two brackets encompassing 25-44 years of age finish first and second. Notice that I have also included ALL Ropers at the far
right. These are the same figures that are in TABLE 2, but keep in mind that there is a little bit of apples and oranges going on here since all the numbers NOT in the ALL Ropers column depict six different years in time while the ALL Ropers column only illustrates one. Nonetheless, the numbers should be fairly close to being accurate. So, using the ALL Ropers column you can perform the following exercise to see how well each age bracket does. Draw a line from the top of each column in ALL Ropers straight across to the left to the Percent Xaxis. How well each age bracket is doing, relatively, is indicated by how many columns of the same color are either above or below that line. Drawing lines in your mind’s eye from the tops of the yellow (2534) and the green (35-44) colums straight across and you will see that in every division, both columns are higher than the ALL Ropers line. That tells me that those two brackets are winning more than their fair share of ropings. Next best would be the 18-24 year-olds. They are above the ALL Roper line in five divisions and below the line in three. The 18-24 weak divisions are the #8, #9 and #10. 45-54 year-olds are above the line in two divisions, below in
six. Their two strong divisions are the #8 and #9. The 17 and Unders are above the line only once, in the #9 division while the senior set of 55-64 and 65 & Over do not get above their lines at all. So if you thought the under 25 year-olds were running away with every roping in sight, I’m sorry, but you were wrong. It appears that you have to get over the quarter century mark before you can start claiming any real honors. And its not like the senior set are getting shut out, by no means. They obviously don’t fare well in the higher numbers ropings but then they, as we saw in Chart 3, don’t enter those ropings very often either. In the #8, #9 and #10, on the other hand, the 55-64 year-olds are winning 9.2%, 11.2% and 8.4% respectively, while representing 11.7% of the total roping population. That isn’t far off the mark. After all the numbers have been put back in the vault, I am still impressed by the huge breadth of aged participants in our sport. While I couldn’t find one, team roping is about as close to a nine to ninety sport you can find. I’ll bet that can still happen. Keep your eyes peeled in the arena, we may get, not a May-December, but a JanuaryDecember team roping marriage yet! n
55.0%
Chart 4
A Average verage T Team eam Age A ge o off Winners Winners b by yD Division ivision (2004 (2004 - 2 2009) 009)
Average Age of Winners by Division (2004 - 2009)
50.0% 45.0% 40.0%
Perc Percent ent
35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% 1 7&U nder 17 Under 18-24 1824 2525-34 34 35-44 3544 45-54 4554 55-64 5564 65 & Ov Over er
#8
#9
#10 #10
1 #11 #1
#1 2 #12
#1 3 #13
#1 5 #15
Open Open
ALL Ropers Ropers ALL
3.7% 9.4% 24.4% 29.6% 21.1% 9.2% 2.7%
4.6% 8.9% 23.5% 28.1% 20.4% 11.2% 3.3%
3.8% 12.6% 27.0% 27.2% 19.2% 8.4% 1.9%
3.1% 14.7% 27.6% 28.9% 17.5% 7.0% 1.0%
3.8% 18.6% 31.2% 27.7% 13.6% 4.0% 1.0%
3.5% 21.4% 35.0% 27.8% 10.1% 1.8% 0.4%
1.8% 31.4% 38.4% 22.1% 5.4% 0.4% 0.5%
0.7% 22.9% 49.8% 22.6% 3.6% 0.1% 0.3%
4.2% 12.9% 22.9% 21.2% 19.7% 11.7% 7.4%
Divisio Division n
142 / OCTOBER 2010