NAEC team showcases skills at competition

Lineworkers from North Alabama Electric Cooperative tested their mettle during this year’s Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo. The NAEC team performed a set of timed tasks to highlight their abilities under pressure against their counterparts from across the Tennessee Valley Authority’s seven-state service area.

NAEC lineworkers Blake MacDonald, Casey Smith and Jade Luckhart competed as a team June 6 in the journeyman division for teams of three. Teams performed four timed and graded tasks. The NAEC team members, whose combined experience exceeds 30 years, scored 381 points out of a possible 400, and they finished each task under its allotted time.

“The rodeo events are a bunch of scenarios lineworkers do on a day-to-day basis,” MacDonald says. “They turn it into a competition — who can do the tasks fastest and smoothest, without having any hiccups. But it was actually very different from the usual day to day because the weather was great. I’ll just say, it’s odd to have perfect weather conditions, because we usually do that kind of work in weather that can be the worst of the worst.”

The Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo has showcased the skills of lineworkers yearly since 1998 with events that reward excellence in safety, performance and knowledge in the field. The 2026 rodeo was June 4-6 in Florence.

This is the first year NAEC was represented at the rodeo.

The NAEC team’s tasks started with the hurtman rescue, which requires two lineworkers to climb a 40-foot pole to reach and retrieve an incapacitated victim — portrayed by a mannequin — and lower it to the third team member waiting below to prep the victim for CPR. The trio scored their highest mark in this opening event — a perfect 100.

The other events, also requiring work high atop poles, were C1 conductor tie, B5 pole transfer and transformer change.

The NAEC lineworkers’ debut in the Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo capped off a challenging workweek after stormy weather hit the NAEC service area, causing damage that led to several outages and long hours for lineworkers.

“Rest would’ve been great, but you know, it’s just part of it,” MacDonald says. When it came time to compete on Saturday, we just worked as a team, which is how it goes here at the co-op.”

Competition and kinship

Hosted in varying locations across the Tennessee Valley, the yearly rodeo is more than a competition. It is a chance for lineworkers’ families and friends, as well as spectators and sponsors, to show their support. The event cultivates pride in the trade and kinship among participants and attendees.

The rodeo features four competitor categories — three-man journeyman, in which NAEC vied against 34 other teams; apprentice, involving 121 competitors, individual lineman and senior individuals. All these events were in McFarland Park, where dozens of power poles were placed for the rodeo.

The event also included a 32-team golf tournament at Blackberry Trails to raise funds for Line Brother’s Keeper, an organization providing financial, emotional and physical assistance for electrical journeymen, lineworkers, groundmen, operators, substation technicians and their families following a work-related injury or fatality.

The evening after the golf tournament, all the rodeo participants were invited to the vendor showcase, where they could see the latest equipment, tools and technology. It was a time to eat, mingle with fellow competitors and families and be entertained by the music of Muscle Shoals artist Austin Bohannon.

“Thursday night a bunch of us linemen got together from different companies at the showcase and traded hats and T-shirts,” MacDonald says. “They served free food and had fireworks and everything for us that night. Then Friday was the start of the rodeo.”

The NAEC team arose early Saturday for the rodeo’s 7 a.m. start. At 7 p.m., competitors gathered for the rodeo banquet at Renaissance Shoals.

Saturday’s competition was a learning experience for the three-man NAEC team.

“We didn’t really know what to expect, and we didn’t get much practice time, but we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome,” MacDonald says. “We’re supercompetitive, and everybody wants to do better. We learned a lot as we competed, so maybe we’ll get the opportunity to do it again next year.”

The 2027 rodeo will be in Johnson City, Tennessee.