Arena Tracks | Tierney Breen: A champion in and out of the arena

For some reason, I get tears in my eyes when I talk about Tierney Breen. We are in no way related, she’s not my neighbor and she’s one-third my age.  Despite the lack of connections, I seek her out whenever I can.  There’s just something about Tierney that draws people in and makes them want to know her.

Tierney was born in Huron and was a Wolsey-Wessington Warbird from the jump, culminating her senior year as their Homecoming Queen.  Her mom, Lacy Eaton, is the heart disease and stroke program coordinator for the South Dakota Department of Health and her dad, Mica Breen, is the cow-boss at an operation near Hitchcock.  Both of Tierney’s folks are handy and competed in rodeo when they were younger.  Lacy was twice crowned the South Dakota 4H Rodeo Junior Girls Goat Tying Champion, starting a legacy she would pass down to her daughter. Lacy and Mica met while competing in college rodeo and have continued to co-parent Tierney, living as an example of how to communicate and treat one another with respect while putting Tierney first in their relationship.  

At the Jackrabbit Stampede this weekend, I twice heard people refer to Tierney as an old soul.  It struck me how perfectly that described the 19 year old.  Tierney is one of those people that can carry on a conversation with a toddler or an 80 year old man with the same “all-in” attitude and complete connection.  There is no glancing at her watch or looking over her shoulder.  When Tierney Breen talks to you, you are the only thing in her sights.  This has a way of making folks feel special and heard.  It also tends to compel peers to follow her lead.  It was that focus and empathy that led the SDHSRA Student Membership to twice elect her to state office.  During Tierney’s senior year, that office was the SDHSRA Student Body Presidency, a true reflection of the admiration her fellow contestants had for her leadership.  

It isn’t just Tierney’s kindness and leadership that draw people to her.  She’s a stone cold winner in the arena as well as out of it.  Always a tough competitor, 2024 was Tierney’s year, ending with her crowning as the 2024 SDHSRA Goat Tying Champion and earning her a trip to Rock Springs, Wyoming for the National High School Rodeo Finals aboard Marge, a horse that hadn’t been ridden in nearly two years after suffering what was thought to be a career ending injury.  With Tierney and Lacy’s love and dedication to her daily rehab, Marge came back to place her girl in the right spot every trip down to the stake.  Back home from Rock Springs, Tierney earned the South Dakota Timed Event Goat Tying Championship before heading off to her father’s alma mater, Mitchell Technical Institute where she is coached by her mom’s former rodeo coach, Blaine Carey. 

The Careys, family friends, were among those that noticed Tierney, smart and sensitive as she was, just had a hard time listening.  Was she aloof?  Concentrating?  In her own world?  As parents and friends will, they often joked, “What are you?  Deaf?”  These days, they wince when telling that story as they would soon come to regret those words.

As the school nurse, Lacy performed yearly physicals for the students of Wolsey-Wessington much as other school nurses do for those enrolled in all South Dakota schools.  Height, weight, heart and lung sounds, a quick look at Tierney’s eyes and ears and she was good to go.  A good student who graduated at the top of her class, there were never any concerns expressed by school staff about her hearing and Lacy had never noticed any truly alarming issues.  Then, in the 7th grade, the state hearing van came to Wolsey-Wessington to complete more in depth hearing screens.  Following alphabetical order, Tierney Breen was the first into the hearing van…and the last to come out.  The staff, after double checking their equipment and testing and retesting Tierney, contacted Lacy and Mica, recommending a more specialized exam.  At that subsequent appointment, Tierney was diagnosed with a mild to moderate hearing loss and prescribed hearing aids.  They took molds of her ears and sent her home with a pair of “loaners” to get her used to a daily wearing schedule.  Back in the car, Lacy started it up and Tierney shrieked, begging her mom to turn off the car. The sound of the heater blowing on high was totally foreign and so loud it scared her, likening the cacophony to a spaceship during lift off.  Stunned, Lacy shut off the car and cried.

No thirteen year old girl wants to be different from her peers and for sure none would choose to wear hearing aids.  However, Tierney’s doctors were adamant that the hearing loss wouldn’t get worse if she maintained the use of the aids.  Tierney, intelligent and thoughtful, committed herself to using them.  While her friends and family were all supportive, she still had to make a point to focus on her mental health and give herself grace while she adjusted to the changes she was encountering. In the end, Tierney did what she had to do: she adapted and kept on living her life with kindness and a positive attitude.  Tierney doesn’t wear her hearing aids when she competes as the brush of her hat over them is like a shirt brushing on a microphone, echoing into her ear.  Their bulk also makes getting a hat to fit tricky.  These are the types of considerations and accommodations Tierney has to make before saddling up and competing.  They are second nature now, but caused big thoughts and feelings in that 13 year old girl.

After I saw the results come across my desk at the 2024 SDHSRA Finals I stepped outside of the office to see if I could find Tierney.  There she was, walking away from me down the familiar space under the grandstands at the Stanley County Fairgrounds.  I jogged towards her hearing the familiar cht-cht-cht of my dusty shoes on concrete polished by a million pairs of South Dakota boots.  It never dawned on me that Tierney couldn’t hear my footsteps or the zing of the kids roping the dummies with their chicken ropes.  I startled her a bit, yet she greeted me with the grace with which she greets everyone, giving me a big hug and telling me how awesome Marge worked and how thankful she was for the support of everyone in her corner.  As is typical of Tierney, she turned the praise and thanks to those around her, positivity radiating from her tiny body.  She thanked me for my congratulations and turned to go find her family and her dog.

This kid.  She deserves good things.

Author’s note:  The results from the Jackrabbit Stampede were posted Monday evening and with her performance in Brookings, Tierney is now leading the Great Plains Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association in the Women’s All Around with points in Goat Tying, Breakaway Roping and Barrel Racing.  It should be noted that Tierney’s breakaway and barrel horse was purchased from CJ and Rollie Wilson as a yearling.  Tierney has done all of the training on Brandi, starting her from scratch when she was in junior high, right about the time her hearing loss was diagnosed.