ProRodeo Sports News - January 8, 2021

for professional competition. When the boys were youngsters, their father required that the pair spend an hour each day practicing with their ropes. One of the first targets was a pop bottle, brought into the living room when the weather was cold. From the bottle, they graduated to roping chickens and finally calves. “We were raised on a ranch and found a way to win money (roping) without having a job,” Jerold said. “We were raised roping. We roped all day long and we loved it, and it was a way out for us. “We both dedicated ourselves to be the greatest ever. We were so fortunate to learn from our dad, and from then on we changed the style of roping and changed the style of heeling the steers in the air. We worked at it really hard, and when we went out on the road people were amazed with the way we were roping.” Fellow ProRodeo Hall of Famer Jake Barnes, the header who roped with Leo when he won his last world title, was full of praise. “In my mind, Leo is one of the godfathers of team roping,” said Barnes, who won seven world titles (1985-89, 1992 and 1994) with Clay O’Brien Cooper. “Frommy perspective of Leo, I was a young, talented kid, but when I started roping with him, I moved in with him in (Lockeford, Calif.) and lived with him for a year-and-a-half. I have to give him all the credit as far as prepping me to become a world champ. “I was a young guy going to rodeos, making the (NFR) and having fun, and it was serious. But roping with him, he took my roping to a whole new level as far as taking better care of business, taking better care of my horses and roping at a professional level. He taught me how to make a living roping. I took what I learned from living with Leo and then took all that with me when I started roping with Clay.” Tee Woolman, another ProRodeo Hall of Famer and team roping header, won his first world title in 1980 while partnered with Leo. “He was a fierce competitor,” Woolman said. “He worked on his roping every day. When we went to practice, he was working on something new to try and improve to get faster and better. Some days our practices weren’t great, but when you went to the rodeos, there was nobody there who was more prepared than Leo was. If you were on his team, he was with you all the way, but if you weren’t on his team, you were the enemy.” Woolman said it was Leo who taught him the ins and outs of rodeo. “He took me under his wing, and we went everywhere together,” Woolman said. “He knew how to rodeo, knew how to enter and how to get to places, and had everything set up. He told me all I had to do was show up and get on and rope, and he would do the rest. That’s what I did my rookie year.” Leo also meant a lot to Dee Pickett, a team roper and tie-down roper who was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2003. “I roped with Leo in 1978 and 1979,” Pickett said. “Leo asked me in the winter of 1977 if I would be interested in roping with him that June. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have a good horse and I wasn’t ready to rope with him, but I wasn’t going to turn it down. I was darn-sure ready when I was done roping with him and I had a good horse. The main two things I learned from Leo was how to enter and how to travel and get to rodeos. That was good for me because I didn’t know how to do that, and I watched how he did it. “He liked to compete, and he loved to talk trash. He invested a year-and-a-half in me that did me a lot of good in the long run.” Leo is survived by his wife, Sue; sons Wade and Trey; and daughter, Cassie.

James Fain photo Team roper Leo Camarillo is honored after winning his final PRCA world title at the 1983 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.

Fred Nyulassy photo Leo Camarillo competes in tie-down roping at the 1991 Clovis (Calif.) Rodeo.

ProRodeo Sports News 1/8/2021

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