ROUND #7

Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR)
Thomas & Mack Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
December 7, 2006

Pearls Before Bovine
Before we talk rodeo and Wyoming let’s tip our hats to all the men and women – our esteemed elders – who were here when our country was attacked at Pearl Harbor. The “Greatest Generation” is just that and we are all much obliged. It says something good for America, and for our sport of rodeo, when 65 years after we were plunged into world war there is a young Japanese-American calf roper from Idaho tearing up the national finals. Matt Shiozawa is an all-around athlete who has given the WNFR crowds many thrills in the last week. Shiozawa was a standout basketball and football player in high school.
Wyoming was thrilled to see barrel racer Brandie Halls of Carpenter leave the arena with another second place finish last night in round seven. Halls and Slim ran a 13.69 and their payday of $12,600 took Brandie’s 2006 WNFR total over $50K. She’s in fifth position both in the overall standings and in the aggregate at the finals.
Casper team roping heeler, Jhett Johnson, put things back in order last night. A time of 4.4 was good enough for third place and $9,500. Jhett and his partner Travis Tryan are fourth in the aggregate. Their seventh round steer was roped for the win in round one. Johhson/Tryan were first out last night and Jhett is glad they’ll move to last tonight. “It’s a definite disadvantage being out there early. If you get a chance to see what’s making good money ahead of you it can keep you from pushing so hard and making mistakes,” he said. Their quarry last night has a tendency to drag his back legs instead of jumping. “If you wait too long he’ll drag. I had to throw fast. It’s nice to be back on track,” says big Jhett. His parents named him for the character James Dean played in the movie “Giant.”
The rest of the Wyoming athletes had to look for cash at the slots or tables of Las Vegas last night. Bull rider Bobby Welsh of Gillette gave game effort to stay on top on Werewolf – a truly magnificent bucking bull. Alas, the night belonged to Werewolf.
He Could Go All The Way
The announcer team for ESPN2 includes eight-time bull riding world champion Donnie Gay. I ran into Donnie at the coffee pot last night and asked for his perceptions about a few things. First, Gay believes the bull breeding program is improving at least at one level. “The middle of the road bulls are a lot better. The rank bulls are all the same,” he said. Donnie sees a changing of the guard among the young field of bull riders. “They came in here (WNFR) the last couple of years and were very young. They’re starting to grow up and I think it’s going to be a plenty good bunch,” Gay assessed. He has also seen something a seasoned world champion should know about Wyoming bull rider Bobby Welsh. “This is new territory for him. I think this boy could get a lot better. He’s just trying to be good and doesn’t realize he could be better than everybody else if he puts his mind to it,” Gay said.
Zero to 74 in Three Hours
WNFR bareback rider Ryan Gray, who grew up in Cheyenne, was given a goose egg for double grabbing at what the clock said was six seconds into his ride last night. Trouble is the timer didn’t work at the start of the ride. Ryan is a college honor student and a religiously inclined young man. He didn’t want to make a fuss but knew he’d been on that horse for at least ten seconds before grabbing with the other hand. He was determined to get a correction and kept quietly seeking satisfaction throughout the rodeo. Finally, after a lot of time and effort he was given a score of 74. Nothing in terms of money last night but meaningful for overall scoring at the finals and certainly a testament to a very fine person who knew he was in the right. It won’t even show up in the score sheets because they were printed before Ryan was able to find someone who would make it official. But he knows it was a scored ride and now so do you.