PRORODEO Sports News | January 24, 2025

PRORODEO SYSTEM

and Saturday night, and having 30 turnouts, and their rodeo was hurting. I suggested we move it back.” The move to October revitalized the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo because it was taking place in conjunction with the Heart ‘O Texas Rodeo and the PRCA Permit Finals at Extraco Events Center. “I made the move to October, because Waco (which has been the home of the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo for 30 years) was needing something to fill that gap, and I told them that I could guarantee them contestants. I said you’re going to have 12 contestants every night, and let’s make it four go rounds instead of three. And all I would like to see is that we bump the added money up. Well, they came with $10,000 an event right off the bat, including steer roping and breakaway and then with our sponsor dollars it makes us the highest total payout circuit there is with more than $400,000 paid out at our circuit finals. The last two years, we’ve had numerous contestants (earn) more than $10,000. I wanted our circuit to be the most appealing, so that our circuit contestants would quit jumping circuits and want to come back home to the Texas Circuit. “My ultimate goal was to make our circuit finals, the very best circuit finals. That’s what I wanted to do, and I feel like we’ve accomplished it. And my other goal was to try to get our contestants back. And if you look at our circuit rodeos, our money’s increased every year since I did it. Our entries have increased, and our circuit membership has increased.” Reina also is a proponent of having the money earned in the circuits count in the world standings. “I think if it doesn’t count, and if the circuit finals don’t count, then your circuit finals are not important to everybody, right? I think it’s just another rodeo to them,” Reina said. “Like I told Waco, I felt like they needed a title event to be big again. So, by having the Texas Circuit Finals there in Waco, and it’s a title event (with contestants having the opportunity to qualify) for the NFR Open. It’s a big deal again and it draws people. You have to have the dangling carrot for the circuit. I use the steer roping circuit finals (National Circuit Finals Steer Roping in Torrington, Wyo.) as an example, if you get a chance to make it to the NCFSR and you win $15,000 there, then, if you placed in Cheyenne, or Deadwood (S.D.), or one of the rodeos that pays well, all of a sudden, you have a chance to make the NFSR and, and that’s the dangling carrot with the NFR Open. These guys who go to 25 circuit rodeos, and just the big rodeos that they can get into, if they get a little lucky here, and there, next thing you know, they have $50 to $60,00 won. So, I feel like the dangling carrot is for the other 80% and if you don’t have the 80% what good is the 20% I mean, the top 20 can’t make it without the bottom 80, and some of them forget that.” Cliff Overstreet, who was president of the Texas Circuit from 1995-98, understands the value of the circuit system. Overstreet has been a PRCA judge since 2001. “It gives the circuit guys who can’t rodeo full time, either because of a job or they don’t want to travel, a chance to have a championship of their own,” Overstreet said. “And you know, as the years have grown, the money has got so much better. Now the circuits are huge.” Reina, who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 1999 in tie-down roping, and the NFSR five times (2013-14, 2017-19), views his role as the Texas Circuit president as a platform to boost the sport he loves. “I take a lot of pride in it,” said Reina about the Texas Circuit. “I’m sure enough on the tail end of my career. I mean, I still rope steers and still qualify and win and have a good time doing it, but I feel like my efforts from what rodeo has done for me, that’s what I’m trying to do now, is give back, and in that way, it’s serving on the board and being the president and trying to conduct the business of the circuit to make it the best it can be. “I think in the future, I think we’ve got nowhere to go but up. Mikey Jo (Duggan) is a very intricate part of our circuit. She’s our circuit administrator. She’s served as secretary, she has served as a timer. She’s done everything. Then, five years ago, she stepped into the position of circuit manager, and her and I, with the help of the executive board, we do the best we can for the circuit.” Overstreet also beamed when talking about contestants competing in the Texas Circuit. “Texans brag a little more probably than most, right? It’s always, you know, things are always better in Texas, right?” Overstreet said. “When I was the president, you had so many NFR guys who were right there (competing in the Texas Circuit) and qualifying for (the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo). So, the quality of the (Texas) Circuit Finals is very, very good. Then with the number of stock contractors who are in our circuit, you have quality stock that goes along with it, and usually the contract personnel are always top notch, too.” ProRodeo Hall of Famer Ty Murray knew when he was cracking out in the PRCA he had to go to Texas. “I was raised in Arizona and New Mexico, and I went to Odessa College in Texas, and I couldn’t wait to get to Texas,” said Murray, who was the 1988 Bareback Riding Resistol Rookie of the Year. “I wanted to be in Texas because I felt like that’s where the toughest competition was. As a kid, you grow up, and you start trying to see how good you are. And you know, I had success at the state level and stuff in Arizona, but I felt like I had to get to Texas to see where I really stacked up.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

BY TRACY RENCK A s the saying goes, “Everything is bigger in Texas” TEXAS HAS MADE ITS PRESENCE FELT IN THE PRCA CIRCUIT SYSTEM, WINNING 17 NATIONAL TITLES CIRCUIT CITY Reina Well, the cowboys who have competed in the PRCA’s Circuit System – since its inception in 1975 – have made the state proud. Team Texas has collected a PRCA-best 17 titles at the National Circuit Finals Rodeo – now known as the NFR Open. And Tony Reina, who has been the president of the Texas Circuit for the past five years, is proud of what the Lone Star State cowboys have done in the state circuit. “When I was competing in the calf roping in the 1990s, the Texas Circuit, to me, was such a huge thing, because it was a mini NFR back then, and I made the circuit finals three or four years before I ever made the NFR, so the Circuit Finals was a big deal for me. Then if you got to go on to Pocatello (Idaho) back then (for the Dodge Circuit Finals Rodeo), that was just as good. “Since I became president, I made some changes with our venue in Waco. We moved our Circuit Finals from New Year’s weekend. We moved it back up to October (in 2022) during that part of the Texas Fair. Waco was in a struggle to have good performances after they lost the All-American ProRodeo Finals. They weren’t getting enough contestants. They were having too many turnouts. They were having a packed house on Friday

James Phifer photos

ProRodeo Hall of Famer Trevor Brazile, top, competes in the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo. Brazile has won a record 15 year-end all-around titles in the Texas Circuit. Below, saddle bronc rider Jacobs Crawley, above, competes at the Texas Circuit Finals in 2022 in Waco. Crawley has won a Texas Circuit-record 11 saddle bronc year end crowns.

ProRodeo Sports News 1/24/2025

ProRodeo Sports News 1/24/2025

ProRodeo.com

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