Mary Jordan
Springdale Public Schools
Coaches say Joseph Rouse is a sneaky good ninja.
“When we got him in here to start doing ninja warrior, he just started picking up all of it, because he had the ability to hang from stuff forever,” said Caleb Benson, coach and owner of Flip Side Ninja Park in Lowell. “He just became unstoppable.”
Rouse, a Don Tyson School of Innovation sophomore, will be featured on Season 15 of “American Ninja Warrior.” The season began airing June 5 on NBC, and episodes featuring Rouse will begin at 7 p.m. on June 12.
“I feel pretty good about just going and competing and doing my very best,” said Joseph Rouse of Fayetteville.
"American Ninja Warrior" features courses with multiple stages and obstacles that require strength, endurance and strategy to complete.
The show began in 2009 and was inspired by the Japanese television show "Sasuke," according to the Internet Movie Database, an online multimedia resource. The success of the show has inspired worldwide spinoffs, as well as the "ninja warrior" sport and athletic competitors called "ninjas."
Rouse gives his all at everything he does as a student and an athlete, said Vanessa Rouse, his mother.
“It goes beyond talent,” she said. “He works very, very hard for everything he does: school, sports, climbing.”
Philip Rouse, his father, said the 15-year-old is a “springy powerhouse” as an athlete, who got his competitive start in rock climbing. The teen was a 2019 regional bouldering champion for Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. He also competed in a national-level bouldering competition in 2020 in Bend, Ore., and another for speed climbing in 2022 in Chicago.
“He was the smaller climber most of the time, and he had to develop a lot of power to jump for moves,” Philip Rouse, said, adding his son could be as much as 22 months younger than his competitors due to how climbing competitions are bracketed. “He had to go for it. He had to jump. He had to commit.”
The Ninja
Rouse said he began climbing when he was 8 and gave ninja warrior a try in 2015 when his mother was invited to compete on “American Ninja Warrior.” Vanessa Rouse said she was unable to participate in the competition following a ligament injury a week prior to filming.
“I saw her training and getting the call for the show, and I was inspired by her doing all this cool stuff,” Rouse said. “I wanted to also be like her someday.”
Rouse said he was drawn to the sport due to the problem-solving nature of ninja warrior, which also applies to rock climbing.
“You can find different solutions to each and every obstacle,” he said.
Season 15 is the first time he’s been on “American Ninja Warrior,” Rouse said, who competed on “American Ninja Warrior Junior” in 2021. Vanessa Rouse said he made it all the way to the qualifier showdown, just shy of the semifinals.
Rouse said his favorite obstacles require “big moves” that necessitate leaping from one course component to another.
“The feeling of flying through the air and grabbing something is really fun for me,” he said.
Rock climbing has also given Rouse a liking for obstacles that require grip strength, he said. Obstacles like the Cliffhanger require competitors to navigate a wall using only narrow ledges as handholds.
The most intimidating, he said, are those that entail holding an object to complete an obstacle. Obstacles like the Salmon Ladder require athletes to use a bar to perform leaping pullups to ascend a ladder.
“It can be tricky sometimes, because you have to keep everything level and have good hand-eye coordination,” Rouse said.
The Entrepreneur
Rouse has not only grown as an athlete, but has also worked to develop SlapChalks, his own business.
The teen came up with the idea of SlapChalks about two years ago when his focus was impeded by coaches providing him access to chalk bags as he progressed through obstacles during a ninja warrior competition .
“It’s pretty important, especially for gripping during obstacles,” Rouse said of having access to chalk when competing.
Some athletes rub chalk on their pants during competitions, but Rouse said he wanted to create a more sustainable solution.
Rouse’s answer to the problem was to create ninja warrior shorts and pants that feature a mesh side pocket in which ninjas can place cloth bags filled with powdered chalk, he said. Athletes simply slap the pant pockets when competing to chalk their hands so they can progress through the course uninterrupted.
The pants and shorts are made from a weave of nylon, polyester and spandex and can be purchased online for about $70-90, Philip Rouse said. The pants are produced in small batches by Interform, a Springdale nonprofit that promotes creative growth and change in the region.
“It's basically really empowering our community and it's doing a blessing for Northwest Arkansas,” Philip Rouse said.
Joseph Rouse said he’s also invented a Refill Ring to use in the mouth of chalk bags to help ninjas fill them easier. Filling the bags can be a challenge, and the removeable rings hold bags open, allowing athletes to fill them by simply scooping and pressing chalk into the bags.
Rouse produces the rings himself using a 3D printer, some of which are custom painted by his mother. The rings sell for about $15 and offset other SlapChalks items, such as T-shirts, hoodies and water bottles.
The teen said he plans on expanding his SlapChalks line in the future to include custom items that can be ordered in team colors.
The Engineer
In addition to being a small business owner, a competitive rock climber and a ninja, Rouse is also a member of Don Tyson School of Innovation’s Vex Robotics team, something “American Ninja Warrior” producers integrated into the show.
The teen was asked to create a robot that could wave to the audience just one week prior to beginning the qualifying rounds and filming Season 15 in Los Angeles, Calif., he said.
“I thought it was a pretty cool idea,” Rouse said, admitting it was a daunting task to accomplish on such short notice.
Rouse used a chassis design his robotics team used to compete in the state championships in Russellville March 12, he said. He built the robot in the DTSOI robotics classroom and used a 3D printer to create the robot's hand based off the shape of his own.
The completed robot not only waves, but gives high fives, he said.
”It was cool watching all the behind-the-scenes footage in L.A. with the ninjas coming up and giving it high fives,” Philip Rouse said, adding the robot’s hand now sports numerous autographs from “American Ninja Warrior” hosts and competitors.
Rouse said he named the robot Chalky, which was inspired by SlapChalks. Chalky will travel with Rouse as he participates in five different ninja warrior championship competitions in North Carolina and Florida this summer.
Chalky will regrettably be dismantled following the competitions, Rouse said, as all of his parts, save the hand, belong to the school.
“He was fun having around,” Rouse said. “He had a pretty good run.”
Benson said Rouse also has the ability to have a pretty good run at “American Ninja Warrior” and has the capacity to take home the win.
Ninjas are competing for a $1 million grand prize this season, according to the NBC Insider, NBC.com’s editorial outlet for breaking news and coverage of NBC shows. Season 15 marks the first time ninjas will compete against each other simultaneously in runoff rounds.
“It's really exciting to watch ninja vs. ninja on the course,” Rouse said.
The course can sometimes beat even the best ninjas, though, Benson said.
“When he's going at the course, you don't hear a lot of doubt from him, and I think that's a huge thing for an athletic mindset,” Benson said of Rouse. “There's not one thing that's gonna hold him back, but the nature of the show is one obstacle can get you quick.”
