Long drive worth it for Medical Lake's Mollee Gray

What draws a high school student to give up the short drive or bus ride to local schools in favor of the freeway shared by 10s of thousands of commuters?

For Medical Lake High School's Mollee Gray, making the 32-mile, 40 or so minute drive allows her a continuation of the farm life she has known all of her 17 years.

And it's also giving her the opportunity to compete on the national stage this summer for the title of Miss High School Rodeo Queen, plus do some competition on the dirt floor of the arena as well.

"I grew up around horses," Gray said. The family lives on a ranch just east of Liberty Lake near the Washington-Idaho state line. Technically she should be attending Central Valley High School where Gray would be entering her senior year this fall.

Gray said she decided on making the long commute to Medical Lake, not for rodeo, but because of its Future Farmers of America program. She has an interest in agriculture and learning how farmers feed the world, drew Gray and her older sister, Connlee, to make the drive.

"She fell in love with FFA and loved it so I gotta' get into this," Gray said, referring to her sister who is two years older. "It ended up being a bonus that they had an equestrian team."

After one year with that, Gray moved into high school rodeo. "High school rodeo isn't attached to one school, we are just Washington High School Rodeo," Gray explained. "It's more of a whole state team rather than an individual school."

She competes in barrel racing and rein cow horse, the latter of which she qualified for nationals in Gillette, Wyo., July 17–23.

While barrel racing is pretty familiar, in it's simplest form rein cow horse is a set of skills used to herd cattle. It's a competition designed to let you "Push them around if you need to in a situation where you might not have a rope," Gray said.

Gray invites the curious to Google her and the discipline on YouTube.

The other competition on which Gray is focusing is that of national high school rodeo queen. Of 44 contestants in 2015, Gray was 17th but she has bigger aspirations in her second, and final shot.

"I just decoded that my goal is to be anything other than 17th place," Gray said. "Winning it would be awesome but I don't have to win it, just beat 17th place, that's what I'm telling myself."

Gray plays volleyball for the Cardinals but rodeo, which has both fall and spring seasons, gobbles up the remainder of her free time.

That, along with FFA where she also qualified for nationals and the well-spoken student will travel to Indianapolis in October to compete in extemporaneous speaking.

Looking further into the future, Gray said she is not totally sure which college is on the horizon for her, but it likely involves some kind of study in the medical field, she said.

"Because of how much interest I have in agriculture, everyone guessed I would go into agriculture," Gray said. "I think neurology would be a ton of fun, I love learning how the brain works."

That, or sports medicine where she might be able to live the dream and be part of the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association traveling medical team. "It would be the best of both worlds, rodeo and medicine," Gray said.

Regardless, Gray said she wants to initially get on the pre-med track, which will give her another four years to decide. Her drive next year will give her even more time to think.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].