ProRodeo Sports News - January 22, 2021

IN HIS WORDS LANE MITCHELL Heeler off to a quick start in world standings T his year, I’m roping with Jake Cooper and we’ve had a good start to the season. We’ll go pretty hard, we’ll go to all the winter rodeos and pretty much to as many rodeos as we can, 65 of them. Last year, his partner was wanting to go home and so was mine. We ( Jake and I) said we’d finish the year together

I ride an 8-year-old roan I call Mayberry and a 10-year-old sorrel named Boomer. Lately I’ve been riding the roan more. He’s really fast and good in the box. I compete in the Texas Circuit because I already spend the winters in Texas. I’m already out here going to Odessa and San Angelo, rodeos like that. So, it’s two birds with The RAMTexas Circuit Finals went well. Kaleb and I placed in all three rounds and won the average. We earned about $4,300 and get to go to Kissimmee. That’s good, especially in a year like this, when there aren’t many chances for big money during the winter. To have a chance to go to the RAMNational Circuit Finals Rodeo in Kissimmee for that amount of money is pretty good. It counts for the world standings too, so that’s also a huge bonus. In the fall, Jake and I went 4.3 (seconds at the Heart O’ Texas Rodeo) and tied for fourth there. We won about $3,000 to get us on the board. It’s good, because in years like this it’s important to have a good winter and always important to start off well. It takes the pressure off a little bit, but not really, if that makes sense. You still have to win every weekend, week in and week out. one stone, a lot easier, a lot less traveling.

Lane Mitchell is searching for his first qualification to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The 26-year- old team roping heeler from Bolivar, Tenn., is fourth in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $7,184. He teamed with Jake Cooper to tie for fourth at the Heart O’ Texas Rodeo in October and with Kaleb Driggers to win the RAM Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo in January, earning Mitchell his first trip to the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Kissimmee, Fla., in the spring. Mitchell, who lives in Stephenville, Texas, in the winter, started roping with Cooper midway through last season. Their success, which saw Mitchell finish 26th in the 2020 world standings, have the two paired up for 2021.

and see how it went. We ended up doing pretty good the rest of the season, so figured we’d keep going this year. As soon as we started roping, we started winning. It’s been pretty dang good roping with Jake, it’s been working so far. Rodeo isn’t quite as popular in Tennessee as it is in Texas. They’ll have rodeos every weekend around there, but they are small. It’s not to the scale of Texas. My dad ( Jim) ropes, and we had an indoor arena close to my house. We went to junior rodeos. My dad heads and so do my older brother (Clay) and younger brother (Ross). I don’t know why I started heeling. It’s just what I wanted to do. I went to the University of Tennessee-Martin, earning an ag business degree. While I was there, I heeled, tie-down roped and steer wrestled. I made the College National Finals Rodeo in team roping three times.

ProRodeo Sports News 1/22/2021

ProRodeo.com

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