PRORODEO Sports News - June 6, 2025

RAISING EXPECTATIONS

FIRST-TIME PRCA WORLD CHAMPIONS EAGER TO GET BACK TO THE TOP

By Alex Dodd

Josh Frost was one of three first-time world champions present for NFR Media Day in Las Vegas June 2-3. PRCA photo by Hailey Rae

W inning a PRCA World Cham pionship changes things for PRORODEO cowboys. From the moment they receive their gold buckle, they’re announced as world champions when they back into the box or load up in the chutes and fans in every arena expect them to perform like champions at every event. The three first time PRCA World Champions bareback rider Dean Thompson, steer wrestler J.D. Struxness and bull rider Josh Frost returned to Las Vegas June 2-3, for the annual NFR Media Day at South Point Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. The trio acknowledged that their no toriety in the sport has increased but

so has pressure to keep winning and they’re up for the challenge. “It’s crazy. It really is,” Thompson said of the feeling he gets when he’s announced as the reigning bareback champ. “There are not many guys going down the road that get that.” The Altamont, Utah, cowboy has been on the PRORODEO road since 2022 and first qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 2023. In his first trip to Las Vegas, Thompson competed but didn’t win a round. Last season, he placed in eight rounds and won Round 5 and Round 8 en route to his top finish. Thompson travels with a pair of world champions in Tim O’Connell (2016,

2017, 2018) and Jess Pope (2022). Recently the group went to the airport and Thompson overheard O’Connell telling a fellow traveler that each of them was a world champion, and it caused Thompson to take a step back. “It was crazy when he said that be cause I’m around these world champs every single day and it’s such a big deal,” Thompson said. “The second a guy wins a world title, it puts so much respect on his name immediately.” Struxness secured his eighth quali fication to the season’s culminating event last year, and had never fin ished higher than fourth in the PRCA Steer Wrestling World Standings. Last December, everything came

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