ProRodeo Sports News - 2021 Year End Edition

BAREBACK RIDING AVERAGE WINNER

Jess Pope takes a victory lap after winning the average title in bareback riding Dec. 11. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Phillip Kitts

Repeat Performance

Pope wins second straight NFR average

BY TRACY RENCK T he PRCA’s biggest stage – the Wrangler National Pope has won the NFR average. The Waverly, Kan., cowboy’s latest victory came at the 2021Wrangler NFR presented by Teton Ridge at theThomas &Mack Center in Las Vegas. Pope won the average with 873 points on 10 head. The average victory earned him $69,234. He finished second in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $340,499. Pope won four rounds – Round 1, Round 2, Round 7 and Round 10. He placed in seven rounds and earned $230,475, second most at the NFR behind only 2021 bareback riding world champion Kaycee Field’s $231,564. “This feels great,” Pope said. “This is what you dream of as a bucking horse rider. I was fortunate to draw great all week and use my horses. My traveling partners, Tim (O’Connell) and Cole (Franks), without them and my support system behind me and God I wouldn’t be where I’m at. It was a tough year, man, it was long. There were a lot of injuries between all of us and I had Finals Rodeo – has become Jess Pope’s personal playground. In his first two career appearances at the Super Bowl of rodeo,

to grind it out and they were there for me, and I was there for them and I’m forever thankful for them.” Pope had a 92-point ride on Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire to claim the Round 10 title and he needed all those points as he beat Feild by a half point. “Until you can live it and feel the electricity and feel yourself riding the bucking horse and to get off and look at the 17,000 people here watching, it is the greatest thing I have ever experienced in my life.” Pope lost the world championship by $16,920, but he wasn’t fretting being so close to first gold buckle. “God has a plan,” Pope said. “It is what it is. I showed up and performed to the best of my ability for 10 days and I’m ready to go back next year and come back bigger, better and stronger.” Pope has earned $400,892 at the last two NFRs and he’s keeping the same plan for his money. “I’m going to go home and buy more cows,” Pope said. “I have a house in Marshall, Mo., and then back at mom and dads inWaverly. Everything I do is in Kansas really and I bounce back and forth between Missouri and Kansas.”

ProRodeo Sports News 12/17/2021

ProRodeo.com

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