ProRodeo Sports News - July 27, 2018

IN HIS OWNWORDS: KORY KOONTZ TEAM ROPING HEELER SEARCHING FOR 22ND FINALS BERTH

I know I’ve never been that fast on two head before. At a two-head rodeo, being 8.2 seconds on two head is pretty fast. My partner being very aggressive was the reason we went so fast. It’s always good to win no matter where it is. But to win a rodeo like that (Ogden) and place good in both go rounds, it’s a big boost to your week. The main thing is winning every week, so it keeps piling up. It makes making a living a lot easier. We’ve won first at more rodeos since I started roping with Dustin than I’ve ever won in my whole life. It just boils down to him and the talent he has and how fast he turns the steers. If I can do my job, clean it up and catch two feet, a lot of times we’re fast enough to win first. He’s a laid-back kind of guy. If he has any nerves he doesn’t show it. A lot of what we do and what he’s doing has never been done before. He has the ability to nod, swing his rope, ride and throw as he’s leaving the box. He’s still a kid and I’m old. In a lot of ways we are real tight and good friends, in other ways it’s like a father-son relationship, where I try to hold back on being too much of a father-type figure. But in some ways, it’s good to have that. We’re good friends. When he gets into business deals, trailers, horses, he’s Team roping heeler Kory Koontz, 46, has been at his craft for longer than his team roping header Dustin Egusquiza has been alive. That’s no matter, as the duo have rocketed to second in the PRCA | RAM World Standings as of July 25. Each has won $74,698. In the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Standings, Egusquiza ranked 17th, Koontz 14th. Koontz, of Stephenville, Texas, has been to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo 21 times. Egusquiza is 22 years old. On July 24, the duo won Ogden (Utah) Pioneer Days, where Koontz posted the fastest two-head time of his esteemed career.

gotten comfortable enough that he asks my advice. I give it to him one way or the other. He bounces things off me. I’ve been through all of it and can tell him I had the same deal in my earlier years, so maybe you can learn from that. My kids are older than Dustin. My son, Jae, is 27, and my twin daughters Harlee and Ashlee are 24. Jae has a daughter who’s 3. She’s great. At first it was a little hard with the thought of being a granddad. But it’s soaked in and I love it. My twin daughters drove up this week and met me in Cheyenne on my way to Deadwood (S.D.). They are spending a week with me and traveling with me. It’s fun to have my kids with me and to have family around. The Wrangler ProRodeo Tour is really important. It’s kind of funny that we’ve not done as well at the Tour rodeos as we’ve done at other rodeos. That has been something I’ve looked at. I don’t want to be in the Northwest going to all those rodeos and not be able to go to Puyallup. That’s a really important rodeo that time of year, especially jockeying for position going into the NFR. It’s on my mind when we’re entering, when we’re roping at rodeos. That’s a cool rodeo and another I haven’t won, and would really like to. I’ll put it like this – and I’ve said this for years – it’s fun when you win. I don’t care who you are, it’s not fun when you lose. And you do lose a good bit of the time in this business, because it’s an up-and-down deal with a lot of variables. I’ve put a lot of work in over the years, so being able to look back over my career and still be competing at a high level at this age, yes, I’m having fun with what we’ve got going on with my partnership. I’ve been to 21 NFRs and never won a world title. My goal is to have a chance to win one and for my partner to have a chance to win one when we get to the NFR. That’s what we work for every year, and it feels like we have a good chance. We’ll see how it plays out.

ProRodeo Sports News 7/27/2018

ProRodeo.com

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