Sun sets much too quickly on life of 'real cowboy'

John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 28, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

More stories »

CASTLE ROCK - Country music was on his radio. The Outdoor Channel was on his television. John Wayne was his hero.

When it came to shopping, he favored Cabela's. When it came to eating, his appetite brought him to the rustic Buckhorn Exchange. And when he looked around for a group to join, he chose the 4-H Club.

Even Stuart Mazanec's favorite color - "John Deere green" - spoke of a Colorado teenager who got in touch with his rural, Western roots early on and never let go.

"He was a real cowboy all around," said Eddie Pryor, Mazanec's friend and classmate.

But the 17-year-old's life would be cut short doing one of the things he loved.

Last Saturday, the Douglas County High School senior from Larkspur was crushed by the bucking bronco he was learning to ride at a rodeo school in Byers.

He clung to life for five days at Swedish Medical Center before his family decided to take him off life support Wednesday evening.

"It was clear he was not going to recover," said Bruce Caughey, a spokesman for the Douglas County School District.

Caughey said Mazanec sustained serious injuries to his heart.

Mazanec's friends gathered Thursday in a Douglas County High classroom to talk about the teen who had a propensity for dirt-bike riding, hunting and shooting.

"He would call at all hours of the day to ask if he could go coyote hunting at my ranch," said Sarah Wiens, daughter of state Sen. Tom Wiens.

The students, many of them members of Future Farmers of America, recalled Mazanec's wilder moments with a laugh - like the time he lit his lawn on fire and nearly burned down his home.

Or the cake fight that broke out at his 17th birthday party last July.

But mostly they remembered Mazanec as a "great person" who was "head over heels" in love with his girlfriend.

"On the night he was injured, he was talking about how he'd messed up his girlfriend's prom night," said Jenny Romanin, a classmate who met Mazanec in kindergarten when he punched her in the face and she threw sand at him.

It's a story she said Mazanec loved repeating to others.

"There is nothing but love in his heart," she said.

Romanin said Mazanec planned to take classes in the construction trade at Laramie County Community College in Wyoming after graduating from high school next month.

Romanin, who wore a hand-drawn T-shirt bearing her friend's name, shared details of what she had heard about Mazanec's final days.

She said the trouble began on Saturday when Mazanec got his hand caught in the rigging after he was bucked off his bronco. Several people jumped in to calm the horse and bring it to the ground, Romanin said.

That's when the horse rolled on top of Mazanec and bruised his heart, she said.

Pryor said he was rattled by his friend's sudden death.

"He was such a great person. It's hard for us to make sense of it," he said. "On his meanest day, you knew he was joking around."

Douglas County High's principal, Edna Doherty, called Mazanec "a very involved kid and a good representative of the high school."

Mazanec is survived by his parents and a sister, also a student at Douglas County High School.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News