ProRodeo Sports News - Dec. 20, 2019

New view leads to new Wrangler NFR experience EDITOR’S LETTER SCOTT KANIEWSKI T he 2019Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was my third trip as the editor of ProRodeo Sports News . But this go-round was a new experience. This spot in the magazine is usually reserved

in the department gets to watch the entire rodeo from the arena. Heck, we don’t even get to watch much of it on the TVs provided for us in the gym because we’re too busy. Nobody, that is, except for one person. And this year, that one person was me. I watched all 10 nights – though I did miss a couple events one round tending to another issue. Other than that, I was glued to my chair, two rows off the dirt. Before, I’d only seen the opening ceremonies and bareback riding in person. Then, I’d scurry back to the gym and spend the next four hours typing away on a keyboard. Not this time. I got to watch Ty Erickson lose his lead in the world standings only to regain it and claim his first steer wrestling world championship. I saw rookie sensation Haven Meged watch 2016 world champion Tyson Durfey go 7.9 in tie-down roping in Round 10, only to respond on the next run with an 8-flat to win the average, the rookie tie-down roping title and the world championship in his first year as a PRCA professional. He topped Durfey by two-tenths of a second for the average. And of course, I watched Sage Kimzey hold off all comers – tossing in a 94-point ride on Powder River Rodeo’s SweetPro’s Bruiser for good measure – to win his sixth consecutive bull riding championship – only the second cowboy in ProRodeo history to accomplish that feat. Being that close to the action allowed me to see the exultation, the anguish, the disbelief, the joy firsthand on every competitor’s face. A camera can only catch so much. In person, I saw it all. My recommendation, do yourself a favor and get out to Vegas for the Finals. You’ll love the experience as much as the rodeo.

for “In His Words,” devoting a section to letting cowboys or contract personnel tell their stories in their words. Before that – which was before my time with the PRCA and PSN – this was the Editor’s Letter section, an area reserved for the editor to offer some thoughts. Knowing that, I’d tossed around the idea about bringing back the Editor’s Letter, but not at the expense of losing a chance for readers to hear from ProRodeo cowboys. So what if we bounce back and forth? Sometimes it’ll be an Editor’s Letter and sometimes it’ll be an “In His Words.” Then I wondered about when the best opportunity would be for the return of the Editor’s Letter. It hit me as we returned from Las Vegas and the Finals: Now. Now was the time to do this, fresh off another trip to Las Vegas and the Finals. Why? Because this was a different Wrangler NFR for me. A behind-the-curtain reveal to those not in the know. Members of the media department aren’t in Las Vegas for 10 days of rodeo. We’re there for at least 14 days working at least 12 hours every day. We spend the first several days preparing for 10 days of the world’s biggest, richest rodeo, setting up and preparing for an influx of more than 150 media members from around North America, and sometimes beyond. When the rodeo begins, PRCAMedia Staff spend long days in an auxiliary gym in theThomas &Mack Center aiding other newspapers, websites and television networks get what they need while we also produce nightly press releases, web stories, photos and social media posts. Nobody

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ProRodeo Sports News 12/20/2019

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