Football players come from all walks of life, and that includes farm life. Florida Gators sophomore cornerback Avery Helm is all about farm life. Raised around animals, the 6–foot-1, 180-pound Helm grew up living in Sweeny, Texas, a rural town southwest of Houston and not far from the Gulf of Mexico. That’s where his love for horses started.
We caught up with Helm through the Gator Collective as he was home visiting family and spending time riding horses. Recently clocked running 22+ M.P.H. this summer by Florida’s strength staff, Helm couldn’t get to Texas fast enough to spend time with his passion.
“I grew up in the country fishing, hunting, riding horses,” Helm said when asked about his love. “That’s what I’ve been doing in my free time my whole life. My uncle owns about 60 horses. I have three uncles that have big farms and are country, country.”
Helm has life goals and that includes playing professional football. He loves the sport and excels at it. His endgame after he’s done is to be able to do what he also loves in terms of horses and animals. He doesn’t have the time now to own and take care of animals like this, but when he gets time off he uses it to care for his uncles’ animals.
Helm recalls when the whole country life sunk in and he grew to enjoy it.
“I stayed in the country one year in middle school my eighth-grade year, I stayed there full time,” he said. “I was living down there with my grandma. We would go fishing every day. Every day I came home from school we would go fishing or I’d just go out there and ride horses or I’d go to my great grandma’s house and she owned a lot of land. I’d go hunt and whatever I killed they’d cook it.”
Helm says he likes to squirrel and hog hunt but says he hasn’t done that in Florida yet. But it’s the horses that he went back to Texas to be around after summer session ended and before fall camp starts. Fond memories of the horse he named Avery as a kid, keep coming back.
“The thing about me that people don’t really know about me is that when I get older and make money I want to breed horses,” he said. “I want to live on a farm. One of my biggest goals is that I want to own a lot of land.”
He’s a real-life cowboy. I’m not sure how many of those there are on the Florida team, but he’s all Texan in orange and blue.
“I want rodeo horses. I know how to rope like team roping,” he said. “Ever since I started in eighth grade when I really started to learn how to do it I’ve been trying to get good. After I’m done playing ball that’s what I really want to dedicate my life to, getting back in the country.”
“I will breed bulls. I thought about that I also want to breed bulls. You train bulls just like you train in football. You train them to buck, then take him to the rodeo and hope he throws the rider off.”
Just a future day in the life of a Florida football player and cowboy.