Enumclaw basketball star Riley Carel excels in rodeo arena

ENUMCLAW — In some ways, he's the ultimate urban cowboy. More chat rooms than chaps, more texting than tethering.

Still, Riley Carel's hometown is a place considered a little bit more country than rock 'n' roll.

"Everyone thinks of us as the hicks," Carel admits.

And in the Carel household, the three R's aren't always reading, 'ritin' and 'rithmetic, even though parents Jackie and Rick are both school teachers. When it comes to Riley, they could just as easily include ridin' and ropin'.

Carel grew up on the junior rodeo circuit and last year captured the high-school state team calf-roping championship with partner Sam Weber from Walla Walla. He has won countless belt buckles and a half-dozen dazzling saddles, easily worth $500 each.

In Enumclaw, though, Carel is better known as the quarterback of the football team and point guard on the unbeaten, top-ranked boys basketball squad. The only thing he is interested in lassoing this week is the program's first Class 3A state championship.

"It would just be great," said Carel, a three-year starter who was a vital sixth man as a freshman. "We're all a bunch of homegrown kids. We don't have a bunch of incoming transfers or anything. We've just been playing together since we were real little."

Basketball is clearly Carel's first love and the sport he will play in college. In fact, he's passing on rodeo competition this spring to concentrate on improving his game and avoid injuries. Ropers can easily break or even lose a finger if it gets caught.

He loves rodeos too much to stay away forever. After all, he has been riding horses since he was 3 and started roping the family dogs and cats shortly thereafter. Carel quickly excelled in the sport, which his father took up while attending Eastern Washington University in Cheney. Most of the top high-school ropers are full-time rodeo athletes, according to Rick, who is Enumclaw's girls tennis coach as well as an assistant to his wife on the volleyball team (which includes junior Richelle Carel, Riley's sister).

That versatility makes Riley's success even more impressive.

For years, the ritual has been for Riley to play football on Friday night and practically sleepwalk to the family travel-trailer at 5 a.m. on Saturday for a four-hour trip with Rick to Eastern Washington for a rodeo. As they pulled into a lot, regulars on the circuit welcomed them by pounding on the trailer and yelling, "Come on, Riley, get your gear on!"

The kids in jeans and cowboy boots were greeted by the boy in the basketball shorts and sneakers.

"It's a great environment, the rodeos," said Riley, whose family lives on an eight-acre ranch. "There's no one out there who's out there for themselves. Anyone will help you with anything. You're spending the whole weekend in a trailer, going out to eat wherever you can. Most of the time there's no town or anything, there's just maybe a gas station, so you're just on survival mode."

Riley attributes a lot of his success to Fuzz, his 5-year-old horse.

"Pretty amazing" is how he describes what his four-legged teammate can do in the rodeo arena.

Many marvel at what Riley has done in his four years in Enumclaw's basketball program.

"Riley's just a consummate winner," coach Phil Engbretsen said. "He's a kid who does whatever it takes to win. I think he's made tremendous sacrifices for the team over the years, where he might have taken more shots or scored more points. I think he's capable of scoring 20 points a game, but he's been willing to find teammates and do other things, and maybe at his own individual sacrifice, as far as recruiting."

Carel, voted most valuable player of the South Puget Sound League 3A, is one of four Enumclaw players averaging in double figures at a team-best 12.8. He also averages 7.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals.

Engbretsen said the rodeo background likely has made Carel an even tougher competitor.

"If you can ride a horse and be around cows and steers and long-horned animals, playing against a human opponent must be pretty easy for him," the coach said. "Very few things rattle him, when it comes to competing, and that's why we've been pretty successful."

Sandy Ringer: 206-718-1512 or sringer@seattletimes.com