Excitement fills the air as linemen showcase skills at annual event
2025 Lineman Rodeo and Family Fun Day allows family members to see what linemen do each day
Many customers know generally what linemen do. They maintain the electrical grid that delivers power to homes and businesses. And, they restore power after storms or other events have caused outages. But few know exactly what skills are necessary to do the job well. Even family members seldom see linemen perform the tasks necessary for restoring power.
The Entergy Mississippi Lineman Rodeo and Family Fun Day, held recently at the Mississippi Coliseum, provided the opportunity for apprentice and journeyman linemen to showcase their skills and allowed family and friends to watch them compete.
2025 Entergy Mississippi Lineman Rodeo and Family Fun Day
The competition includes two divisions, the apprentice division and the journeyman division. The apprentice division is reserved for linemen who are early in their training, with four years or less as an apprentice. The apprentice linemen compete individually, while the journeyman linemen compete in teams of three.
In addition to a written test, the apprentice linemen competed in four events: the pole/egg climb, hurt man rescue, block and tackle and obstacle pole.
The pole/egg climb requires the lineman to climb the pole safely, smoothly, and professionally without breaking the egg. The climber will place an egg in the bucket and place the bucket handle into his mouth. The climber will ascend the pole and will drop the empty bucket that was pre-placed on top of the pole. He will put the egg in his mouth and proceed to climb down. The goal is to touch the ground without cracking the egg.
The hurt man rescue event simulates that a man has been injured while working to change out a faulty disconnect. The obstacle pole event requires the lineman to complete a variety of tasks in order at certain locations on the pole.
The journeyman teams also compete in the pole/egg climb and hurt man rescue events. In addition, they compete in the disconnect change and the insulator change events.
The disconnect change allows the linemen to demonstrate the skills needed to replace a failing underslung disconnect. Teams are judged on using effective cover and proper personal protective equipment to perform tasks. In the insulator change event, the competitors demonstrate the skills they need to replace a 4kV dead end insulator.
The top two apprentices and journeyman teams will represent Entergy Mississippi at the 41st Annual International Lineman’s Rodeo, which will be held in Overland Park, Kansas, in October. With more than 300 teams and 450 apprentices competing, the event will include a safety conference and the opportunity to meet peers from around the world.
The linemen representing Entergy Mississippi in the international competition include Zac Noone, who received first place overall in the apprentice division and Justin Tharp, who received second place overall in the apprentice division.
In the journeyman division, the Gloster team, including Zac White, Tyler Harvey and Jacob Gill, received first place and the Grenada team, including John Ingram, Justin Hatcher and Michael Bartlett, received second place.
In addition to watching the competition, children enjoyed a KidZone that included bounce houses, a mechanical bull, a rock-climbing tower, a ring toss game using hula hoops for the rings, face painting and a colorful train giving them a fun ride around the fairgrounds. A Future Lineman relay for children up to age 14 added to the fun and gave the children a chance to compete for fun prizes.
