SLIPPERY ROCK — Football never did it for Logan Martin.

Neither did baseball or basketball.

The only thing that got Martin's blood pumping and competitive juices flowing was taking on an animal three times his size and wrestling it into submission.

Martin is a cowboy. Not from Dallas, but from Slippery Rock. He wrestles steers, a rodeo event not for the faint of heart.

"You just have to love it, I guess," Martin said. "You kind of have to like everything that goes into it. You either love it or hate it."

Martin has loved it since he was 12. Now 18, the recent Slippery Rock HighSchool graduate will take his bulldogging skills to Farmington, N.M. and the National HighSchool Finals Rodeo, which will be held July 20th through the 27th.

This will be Martin's third trip to the national event. He has never finished in the top 40.

He missed the event last season after winning the state championship because he was in basic training for the United States Army.

"It was a little disappointing to miss it last year," Martin said. "It would have been nice, but what are you going to do?"

Martin comes from a bulldogging family.

His older brothers, Justin and Evan, competed in the event. His father, Bill, even dabbles in the art of steer grappling.

It's not an easy sport and certainly not a mainstream one.

It's certainly as physically grueling as any sport out there.

"It's like any other physical sport," Bill said. "You have to be in shape. Logan lifts (weights). You have to keep your strength up."

At 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, Logan gives up nearly 300 pounds to his steer adversaries in the rodeo.

No matter. Logan has the technique down to a science.

"Yeah, it's pretty much all technique," he said. "If you have the right technique, you can throw 800-pound steers."

It typically takes Martin 3.8 seconds to jump off his horse, grab the steer by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.

It took Martin many years of practice, mostly with mechanical steers, to get his technique and timing down.

"The toughest part is when you jump off the horse to get ahold of the steer by the horns," he said.

Despite the size and strength of the steers, Martin has never been intimidated by them.

Perhaps that's because he grew up around the animals and the sport.

He's always had access to the rodeo thanks to his family. Bill is the president of the Pennsylvania HighSchool Rodeo Association.

Family friend and one of Logan's coaches, Bill Slater, has a nearby ranch with plenty of steers to take on.

"I never was really to afraid of them," Martin said. "Steers aren't mean or anything. It really doesn't matter how big they are."

That doesn't mean he has never been injuried.

Martin has suffered a broken arm and torn pectoral muscle while wrestling the animals.

"It got completely detached," Martin said. "I dropped down to catch the steer and sometimes the steer will just throw on the brakes and stop. Well, he threw on the brakes and I kept going."

Martin hopes to keep going in his rodeo career, too.

His dream is to be a professional cowboy.

Logan has already entered some pro competitions in the American Rodeo Association. He wants to step up to bigger events, such as the ones held by the International Rodeo Association and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

"That's something I'd like to do," Logan said. "We'll see how it turns out."