Beyond the Crown: How 25 Years of Rodeo Royalty Became a Leadership Pipeline
The Benton County Fair and Rodeo queen program is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026. Its real legacy is not measured in crowns or appearances, but in the women who leave prepared to lead within agriculture, rodeo, and their communities.
A rodeo queen’s role is often underestimated.
From the outside, it can look like tradition—crowns, sashes and appearances. But at Benton County, it has always been something far more powerful: a proving ground where young women learn to lead, advocate and take ownership of the future of rodeo.
This isn’t about pageantry.
It’s about presence, influence and impact.
As the program celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026, its legacy is unmistakable—not just in who wore the crown, but in how those women now show up as leaders shaping the Western industry.
More than a title—it’s a transformation
The Benton County queen program builds leaders from the inside out.
Participants don’t just learn how to present themselves—they learn how to command a room, represent an industry, and carry responsibility with confidence. They develop skills in public speaking, sponsor relations, horsemanship, and agricultural advocacy, all while navigating high-pressure, highly visible environments.
They learn how to speak with authority.
How to lead with purpose.
How to stand tall in spaces where their voice matters.
And when the crown comes off, those skills don’t fade—they ignite.
Where leadership becomes action
The true power of the program is revealed in its alumnae—especially in the former rodeo queens who are now actively reshaping the rodeo industry.
Nicole Schrock, a former Benton County rodeo queen, stepped onto the national stage as a Miss Rodeo America runner-up. Her success proved that women from this program can compete—and lead—at the highest levels of Western representation.
Rylee Henderer, also a former queen, carried that leadership forward, representing other local titles and moving forward behind the scenes through both rodeo and fair committee ranks, respectively. She took the discipline, organization, and communication skills developed during her reign and applied them directly to building and managing a competitive rodeo environment.
And then there is Morgan Young. Last year’s Benton County Fair & Rodeo queen, Morgan represents the next evolution of leadership—one that doesn’t wait for experience to accumulate before stepping forward. She recognized a gap in opportunity for women in the Northwest and helped drive the effort to connect the Larry Bell Memorial All Girls Rodeo to the Premier Women’s Rodeo pathway.
Together, their leadership is not theoretical. It’s proactive, strategic, and industry-changing. These women don’t just represent rodeo; they are redefining it.
Where queens become builders
Nowhere is that leadership more visible than in the Larry Bell Memorial All Girls Rodeo.
This event exists because former rodeo queens chose to lead.
Nicole, Rylee and Morgan—each shaped by the Benton County queen program—didn’t just support an idea. They built it. They organized it. They elevated it.
They took everything they learned as rodeo queens—confidence, communication, grit—and turned it into action that is now impacting competitors across the region.
The result is a growing, competitive platform that is expanding opportunities for female athletes across multiple events and connecting them to the Premier Women’s Rodeo pathway.
This is what leadership looks like in motion. Not waiting for opportunity—but creating it.
Leadership that comes full circle—and pushes forward
What sets Benton County apart is not just that it develops leaders—it empowers them to return and raise the bar. These women don’t fade into the background after their year. They come back stronger, more experienced, and more determined to make an impact—not just for themselves, but for the next generation.
The system is powerful because it’s continuous:
Learn to represent with confidence
Step into leadership with purpose
Build opportunities that didn’t exist before
Each generation doesn’t just follow the last—they elevate it.
And increasingly, they are doing so as former rodeo queens who understand both the responsibility and the potential of the role.
A 25-year legacy of bold leadership
For 25 years, the Benton County queen program has done more than crown ambassadors. It has built women who lead with conviction, speak with authority and act with intention.
Women who aren’t afraid to take up space.
Women who don’t wait for permission.
Women who understand that leadership isn’t given—it’s claimed.
And behind that legacy stands Kristi Schrock.
For more than 20 years as queen advisor, Kristi has not simply guided contestants—she has shaped leaders of leaders. Her influence extends far beyond a single reign or a single year. She has built a culture of expectation, accountability and belief that continues to produce women capable of stepping into meaningful roles across the Western industry.
Her leadership is measured not just in crowns awarded, but in the caliber of women who leave the program—and return to lead.
The crown may last a year.
But the confidence, the voice and the impact lasts a lifetime.
And today, that impact—driven by former rodeo queens like Nicole Schrock, Rylee Henderer and Morgan Young—is reshaping women’s rodeo in real, measurable ways.
About the Benton County Fair and Rodeo Queen Program
The Benton County Fair and Rodeo queen program celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026. Guided by longtime advisor and fair chair Kristi Schrock, the program develops young women through horsemanship, public speaking, community service and leadership training.
Its alumnae continue to shape the Western industry—and are now playing a key role in building the Larry Bell Memorial All Girls Rodeo into a major opportunity for women in rodeo.