ProRodeo Sports News - 2021 Year End Edition

PRCA ROOKIES OF THE YEAR

Rookie Success

Slade Wood receiving a buckle after winning Round 2 at NFSR with an 11.7-second time to win Award. The Second Go- Round Award is given in honor of the late Goodwin, who passed away after being injured during the ninth round of 1999 NFSR. PRCA proRodeo photo by Click Thompson the Colby Goodwin

Slade Wood claims Resistol Rookie All-Around title

BY TANNER BARTH S lade Wood’s first year in ProRodeo couldn’t have gone much better. In August, Wood turned 19-years old just months later he was being crowned as the 2021 Resistol Rookie of the Year in steer roping and the all-around. It was a dream come true for the New Ulm, Texas cowboy, just months after walking across the stage and graduating high school. “The all-around was something that I thought would be really cool to win, but to tell you the truth I didn’t really know if I could do it,” said Wood. “I had planned on just steer roping this year and not really entering any other events. “As the year went along, I was doing really well in the steer roping and I was like well ‘I might need to enter some rodeos in the team roping and see if I could win some money in that event.’ That way I had a chance in the rookie all-around as well. Luckily I won a little bit of money in the heading to get the job done.” He was quick to credit his father (Neal) for helping him secure the rookie all-around title. The father son duo team roped together late in the season. Neal is a four- time NFSR qualifier himself (2006-2007, 2009, 2015). “The reason I won the rookie all-around is because of my dad, I truly believe without him I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish that,” he says. “We get to rope together every single day and practice. Nothing was new for us at the rodeo, we know each other and our roping styles so well it worked out great.” Wood finished the season 29th in the rookie standings in heading and

first in the steer roping, earning $47,836 during the 2021 regular season. He says his second-place finish at the ‘Daddy of ‘emAll’ turned the year around, after months of hardship on the rodeo road. “I filled my permit fast and bought my card,” Wood says. “I went to a bunch of rodeos in the winter, I couldn’t win anything, I could barely even get a time. At this point I was thinking to myself ‘did I make a mistake getting my card this early.’ “But then I realized you have to keep your head up and have confidence no matter how the season is going. It finally turned around for me in June and I started to realize I could go in there and rope against those top guys in the world.” TOP 2021 ROOKIES BY EVENT ALL-AROUND Slade Wood BAREBACK RIDING Cole Franks SADDLE BRONC RIDING K’s Thomson STEER WRESTLING Marc Joiner TIE-DOWN ROPING Beau Cooper TEAM ROPING HEADER John Gaona TEAM ROPING HEELER Caleb Hendrix STEER ROPING Slade Wood BULL RIDING Creek Young

ProRodeo Sports News 12/17/2021

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