ProRodeo Sports News - January 8, 2021

Team roping header Andrew Ward made his Wrangler IN HIS WORDS ANDREW WARD Team roping header ready for return to Finals C ompeting at the NFR was a dream come true, and the money is so good. We were fortunate enough to do well. I haven’t had a lot of money

(Ward’s brother and previous partner) and I had. I felt like I took more of a veteran attitude instead of trying to catch a lot of cows and see how I ended up. Maybe the way we started (helped), but I was able to stick to that and turn a lot of steers for Buds. Really, in the years before, if I would have stuck to those plans, Reagan and I were I love this time of year because you get to stay at home and work at your roping. I think that’s the most fun part of the whole thing. I think I love practicing because I want to do well at the big rodeos. I don’t know if I would like practicing as much if I didn’t feel like I was preparing for San Antonio, Odessa, San Angelo or Houston. I have tons of respect for Luke Brown and Kaleb Driggers, guys that stay out there every year no matter what. But I think I understand now why they try so hard because Arlington was such a good rodeo. It was a dream come true, but also the money is so good, it sets up those guys for next year. If I’m 16th at the end of the year, I’ll be pushing because of how good that rodeo is and how big it is to get a chance to rope there. Everyone was telling me, Arlington was awesome, but Las Vegas, there’s nothing like walking into Vegas for your first time, seeing the crowd on top of you. So that excited me. I’m going to try as hard as ever to make it there again. plenty good enough to make it.

my whole life, so once we did catch a few cows, it felt like we were rich leaving Arlington. I know that we’re not really rich, but it’s more money than I’ve seen, so it was a lot of fun.

National Finals Rodeo debut at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Dec. 3-12. Less than a month later he’s ready to get back to the Finals. Ward, 30, is again roping with Buddy Hawkins II. The duo each finished among the top five in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings in 2020 in their respective events after earning $96,308 at the Finals and ending the season with $160,180. Hawkins and Ward also are brothers-in-law.

I had a good year, I enjoyed it. Buds (Hawkins) catches all the time; he doesn’t miss much. Man, he’s a good teammate and he’s really good at the business side of it. There are a lot of good things about Buds. The main reason is he catches so good behind me, and after that he’s a heck of a good partner and works hard at his roping. He’s the lead, I think. We were friends before we started roping. I think it’s nice when you’re with your partner a lot, it’s nice to get along. My wife and his wife are sisters. It’s a family deal. We all get along pretty good, and I think that makes it even easier to rope with somebody. It would stink if you didn’t enjoy each other because you’re with each other so much of the year. I think it fell the right way for me and I was able to get in the groove and figure out how to catch and win this season. It seemed like in years before, I would press and go fast and miss a lot of cows. And maybe I was too green-minded, not a veteran. Buds and I talked it over, the same kind of talks Reagan

ProRodeo Sports News 1/8/2021

ProRodeo.com

6