ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 4, 2022

EDITOR’S LETTER TRACY RENCK PRCA winter season heating up for cowboys

U nlike most professional sports, the PRCA doesn’t have an offseason. The 2021 regular season ended Sept. 30, and then Oct. 1, the 2022 season was underway. There aren’t a ton of rodeos fromOct. 1 to Jan. 1. Of course theWrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge was a 10-day extravaganza in December to crown the 2021 world champs at theThomas &Mack Center in Las Vegas. By the middle of January, however, the PRCA winter run kicked into full swing with some rich payouts. The National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver returned in 2022 after being canceled a year earlier because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Western Stock Show added a new chapter to its history book, and you can read more about those winners in this digital edition of the ProRodeo Sports News . Lost in the celebration of Denver’s return was that it is part of the rebranded 2022 PRCA Playoff Series. Like the 2021 ProRodeo Tour, the 2022 PRCA Playoff Series will have a long list of rodeos to compete at with the goal of qualifying for the NFR Playoff at a yet-to-be announced location. As exciting as Denver was, contestants have plenty more opportunities to cash in on winter rodeo riches and get off to a strong start in the PRCA Playoff Series. The Fort (Texas) Worth Stock Show and Rodeo concludes Feb. 5, and will be a game changer for the winners. The 2021 FWSSR was canceled because of COVID-19, but it has a projected payout of $1 million in 2022. Back in 2020, the Fort Worth winners were bareback rider Tilden

Hooper; steer wrestler Jacob Talley; team ropers Clay Ullery/ Jake Edwards; saddle bronc rider Dawson Hay; tie-down roper Tyler Milligan; and bull rider Brady Portenier. All those winners qualified for the 2020Wrangler NFR except the team ropers and Hay. Hay was well on his way to the NFR before he suffered a skull fracture injury the first of July that sidelined him for almost two months. Mixed in with Fort Worth is another 2022 PRCA Playoff Series rodeo – Rodeo Rapid City (S.D.), which began Feb. 3 and concludes Feb. 5. Following Rapid City, the next Playoff Series Rodeo will be the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, which runs from Feb.10-26 and is projected to pay out more than $1 million. The San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo is happening at the AT&T Center, a place it has called home since 2003, except for last year, when it took place in its old home – the Freeman Coliseum – because of COVID-19 restrictions. For the record, the following 2021 San Antonio champions, bareback rider Clayton Biglow; steer wrestler Stockton Graves; team ropers Clay Smith/Jade Corkill; saddle bronc rider Kolby Wanchuk; and bull rider StetsonWright all earned bids to last year’s NFR. A day after San Antonio ends, La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros in Tucson, Ariz., concludes. The Tucson rodeo is part of the 2022 PRCA Playoff Series and could give some fortunate cowboys a double payday after San Antonio.

Tracy Renck is the editor of the ProRodeo

Sports News . He previously served more than seven years as a media coordinator at the PRCA. He has three decades of experience in sports journalism with the last several consumed by ProRodeo.

As crazy as it seems, the 2022Wrangler NFR qualifiers will be taking shape by the end of February. But that’s the way the PRCA rodeo world turns and why it is so exciting.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/4/2022

ProRodeo.com

6