But Clint is a darn good cowboy. And he’s here to win. Deaf since birth, the 19-year-old from Ranger is competing in steer wrestling, calf roping and team roping at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center. This marks his fourth year at the IFYR.

The opportunity to compete isn’t enough to satisfy Clint, as it would be for many people with such an impairment.

In Tuesday morning’s performance, Clint recorded a steer wrestling time of 4.79 seconds and was tied for first place.

On Wednesday, Clint’s time of 4.7 seconds put him in a first place tie with Casey Jon McGuire, of Vinita, Okla. They shared the top prize money in steer wrestling, each earning $927.36.

A few more performances like that and he’ll be on his way to accomplishing his lofty IFYR goal.

"I want to win everything," Clint said in American Sign Language, with his mother, Melissa Thomas, as his translator. "But it’s not easy."

More specifically, he wants the title of All-Around Cowboy.

He thinks he can win it, too, and why shouldn’t he?

In 1996, his first year of competitive rodeo, 10-year-old Clint won the Georgia junior all-around. He earned Georgia’s high school all-around championship last year. He has competed and won events on the PRCA and IPRA circuits around the Southeast.

Clint recently graduated from Georgia School for the Deaf, which is located in Cave Spring, about 50 miles — or one hour on the bus Clint rode every day — from Ranger.

He sees rodeo in his future, but he plans to spend a year at a technical college near home. Then, when younger brother Jake, 17, finishes high school, the two may look for a college rodeo team where they can participate together.

Becoming a cowboy was never much of a question for Clint.

"My daddy rodeoed," he said. "I’ve been around horses all my life. I’ve been riding since I was 2 or 3."

He could tie his rope into a loop by the time he was 2 years old, something he learned by watching his father, David.

"Clint could watch and learn. He was always real quick at picking up those kinds of things," Melissa said. "Hearing people wait to be told how to do something, but he just watched how to do it."

It was David who first suggested Clint had a hearing impairment.

David pointed it out the day they brought Clint home from the hospital.

Eleven months later, when tests were performed, the family knew for sure.

"It was no surprise to us," Melissa said. "We had already begun going through the process and learning how to handle it. We had a fantastic speech therapist who taught us sign language."

Sign language provided more than a way to communicate. It created a bond between Clint and Jake.

"Jake is 26 months younger than Clint," Melissa said. "Jake signed before he could talk. We even wondered if he was ever going to talk very much. He would watch Clint signing, or watch me signing to Clint, and he picked up on it.

"Jake and Clint are very close. They take care of each other. Jake has had a lot of responsibility, because he has to be with Clint when they’re in a group to let him know what’s going on. Jake can’t always do what he would like to do because he has to take care of Clint."

Then there’s the rodeo.

Clint and Jake will compete together in team roping this week and Jake is usually around to get Clint ready to go in his individual events.

Clint has made several friends through rodeo and they are always offering to help when Jake and David aren’t there.

With so many people willing to help, what difficulties remain for a deaf cowboy?

"Nothing," he said without even a flinch.

Clint says he has encountered a few other deaf competitors on the rodeo circuit.

"They just do it for fun," he said. "I love the rodeo. "I’d love for it to be my job."

Even if Clint can’t turn roping into a career, it doesn’t mean he won’t have a life in the saddle.

"He’s been training horses for seven or eight years," Melissa said. "People pay him to ride and train their young horses.

"He’s got a gift for getting along with horses." Calm and confident in the arena, Clint can’t settle on a favorite rodeo event.

"I like calf roping and steer wrestling," he said. "If I do good at calf roping, that’s my favorite. If I do good at steer wrestling, that’s my favorite."

He has never ridden a bull. "Dad won’t let me," he said. But if he ever went over the rail and sat on one, he’d probably ride it, too.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the world of rodeo that Clint Thomas can’t do.

Scott Wright is a sports writer for the Shawnee News-Star. This story was reprinted with permission.

By Scott Wright