Just before she was to go on stage July 21 to deliver her two-minute speech, Chelsy Dean of Tioga was informed her father, Dave, was in a motorcycle crash.

Dean said it was difficult to give her speech, and by the time she’d finished, she was in tears.

“I just wanted to come home that night,” she said.

Her father is recovering with a cast on each leg, and he insisted she and her mother, Jody, stay in Farmington, N.M., at the recent National High School Rodeo Association queen contest. Dean, 17, was crowned the North Dakota High School Rodeo Association Queen in June.

Although she received the bad news before giving her speech, it didn’t impact her performance, as she won the top award in the two-minute speech division. She also enjoyed hearing the other speeches. “Everyone was given the same topic, but we all came up with 43 different speeches,” Dean said.

The topic was about one’s state or country with a Western theme. Dean’s was about the American flag and how it’s helped the country through hard times.

“It’s a really touching speech, and I really like it,” she said.

Dean kept busy while she was in New Mexico. She was up around 5 a.m. each day in preparation for her many appearances. She attended rodeos until late into the night and participated in dances to socialize with others, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. She made many friends during the competition.

“I now have a friend from every state and a couple provinces as well,” Dean said.

She isn’t too disappointed about not winning the national queen title and is thankful for the experience.

“My senior year’s going to be busy enough,” she said.

She encourages anyone who is considering to run for rodeo queen to go for it.

“It’s so much fun, even if you don’t win, you make a lot of friends.”