PRORODEO Sports News - Nov. 7, 2025

DARCY KERSH NAMED 2025 LINDERMAN AWARD RECIPIENT By Alex Dodd

T he PRCA Linderman Award is one of the most presti gious awards in PRORODEO. It recognizes a cowboy who won at least $1,000 in three events during the PRORODEO season, and those events must include at least one roughstock and one timed event. The 2025 Linderman Award winner is Darcy Kersh after an exceptional season in which he took home more than $1,700 in three events. “This means a lot to me,” Kersh told the PRORODEO Sports News. “It’s been a goal of mine ever since I first found out about (the award). I used to think it was pretty cool as a kid when guys could work both ends of the arena. There aren’t many guys who do it anymore, so it’s pretty cool.” The Queensland, Australia, cowboy finished the season with $46,564 in steer wrestling, $3,576 in tie-down roping and $1,720 in saddle bronc riding. Kersh is the first Linder man Award winner from Australia since Bernie Smyth Jr. earned the award in 1990 and 1992. “I’m just glad to be able to do it and show that there are a lot of good cowboys who are coming out of Australia as well,” Kersh said. Kersh said he’s known about the Linderman Award since he was young

and the bronc rider sent one his way. The next step for Kersh was getting on a practice horse and he handled the test well, so he decided to enter a small rodeo. Then, Munro encouraged him to enter the saddle bronc riding at the Legends of the West PRCA Rodeo in Wickenburg, Ariz., on the way out to the California run this past spring. “I sort of remembered how I enjoy riding broncs,” Kersh said. “I just kept entering all of the circuit rodeos in Califor nia throughout the year. It’s been a lot of fun but I definitely didn’t plan on it. I just prayed about it because I didn’t want to get hurt. But if I was meant to do it this year then I asked that God would maybe give me a few signs to keep trying. He did, so I kept trying and it’s pretty cool.” Kersh finished the season with $51,860 across his three events and missed out on qualifying for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. But he plans to travel this December to receive the Linderman Award during Round 7 on Dec. 10, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “It’d be pretty cool to go out there and receive that award,” Kersh said. “It’d be a lot cooler to be there competing at the NFR and that’s what I plan on doing next year.”

Darcy Kersh, who compet ed in saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and tie down roping, was named the 2025 Linderman Award winner. (PRCA photo by Brett Schneider)

and always had the goal of being the first Aussie to earn the prestigious honor since the 1990s. But the 26-year-old, who primarily focuses on steer wrestling, didn’t have it on his radar this year until PRCA steer wrestler Travis Munro put it on his radar at the start of the season. “He started harping on me saying, ‘You used to ride a couple broncs, you need to just enter and see what you can do,’” Kersh recalled. “I was like, ‘Well, I haven’t got on one in three years and don’t have a saddle or anything.’ But he kept harping on me and convinced me to try and get a saddle.” Kersh called fellow Australian Jake Finlay to ask about getting a saddle,

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