Perched on the top of a cage containing bulls for the rodeo, Jacob Locke soaks it all in.

Locke will be competing in the 2011 Alabama High School Rodeo Association state finals this weekend at the Covington Center Arena, where he and partner, Ty Alford, will defend their state roping title.

Locke has been involved in the rodeo for about five years. He started when he was in the eighth grade.

“It’s fun to do,” he said about why he loves to rodeo.

Locke said winning the state title last year in team roping was a great experience.

“It was good because I’d been working really hard at it and getting better,” he said. “Once I finally won it, it felt good because I felt like that was the right thing to do.”

This year, Locke and Alford enter the rodeo as the No. 2 seed in the team roping category.

When asked what his thoughts were on the finals, Locke said they were going to try their “best.”

“Coming in, we’re just going to go in and try and do the best we can with the cows we get,” Locke said.

As a goal this year, Locke said he wants to win the team roping title again to get back to nationals, where he placed 11th last year.

Locke graduated from high school at Ponce de Leon, and will be going to Troy University on a rodeo scholarship.

The rodeo will continue tonight at 7:30 p.m. with the GO-2 performance.

The AHSRA state finals continue through the weekend.