ProRodeo Sports News, June 29, 2018

Especially for a guy who missed more than a year after shoulder surgery because the injury was so bad it would fall out of its socket while he slept.

traveling partners, said Crain’s style is unique.

“Will’s riding style is not a lot of technique, not fundamentally sound,” Young said. “He keeps his hand shut, and that’s how he gets it done, he never quits. “…He’s kind of that old cowboy-try type of guy. He never went to bull riding school. He doesn’t drill, doesn’t get on practice barrels. He’s kind of older. But he’ll get on more practice bulls than all of us – four, five or six – until it feels like he’s riding good.” Until last season, Crain had never broken the $12,000 earnings barrier. He finished second in the 2017 Great Lakes Circuit with $21,151. In 2014, he won the RAMGreat Lakes Circuit Finals Rodeo, but he has yet to win the year-end circuit title. That could change after building a significant cushion in the circuit standings this year. As of June 25, he’d won $13,413 in the circuit, giving him a lead of about $7,500. “I did it last year too, but I kind of fell apart at the end,” Crain said. “Hopefully we can finish strong.” So far, so good. And over Cowboy Christmas, Crain expects to stay busy. He’s headed to the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour’s Greeley (Colo.) Stampede, among others. “We’ve got a big Fourth of July, with two good Xtreme bulls and a bunch of good rodeos in our circuit that I’d say about everybody will be entering,” he said. He’ll also hit Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days – another Wrangler ProRodeo Tour event – later in July. “I try my luck at a couple bigger rodeos, if I can, like I go to Cheyenne about every year,” he said. “I’ll enter some bigger ones, and if I get in them, I’ll go. I don’t go too far from the house anymore.”

FAMILY RODEOS

Crain grew up around rodeo, he didn’t have much choice. His family puts on amateur rodeos and he’s right there with them helping set up and mind the bulls. His sister, Dusti Crain-Dickerson, is a PRCA trick rider and Roman rider. “My family has owned bulls my whole life,” Crain said. “I started getting on sheep and calves when I was 6. It progressed from there.” Crain had access to do anything he wanted in rodeo. While at Missouri Valley College getting a double degree in business management and marketing, he rode broncs, roped and rode bulls. But bull riding has always been his love. Because of the family rodeo business, Crain stays close to home, making the circuits the ideal system for him. “My brother (Wade), uncle (Kevin) and I put on the rodeos,” he said. “We’ve got 40 head of bucking bulls. We’ve got to haul the bucking chutes, set them up and tear them down.” At the most recent rodeo put on by his family, they set it up in the morning and tore it down by the evening. A day later, Crain was in a rig on his way to the Western Fest Stampede Rodeo in Granite Falls, Minn. “I love it,” he said. “That’s kind of what keeps me home. I do that and that’s what keeps me in the circuit. I get to go home and do that stuff and get to go circuit rodeo whenever I can go.” Crain missed the 2015 season and much of 2016 after

ABOUT WILL AGE: 28 HOMETOWN: St. Peter, Ill. CIRCUIT: Great Lakes EVENT: Bull riding RECENT SUCCESS: Won Esperanza Bonanza Pro Rodeo (Marion, Ark.) and Bill Hoy Kiwanis Rodeo (Clarksville,

Tenn.) back-to- back weekends

undergoing surgery to fix his shoulder. He dislocated the shoulder well before the surgery but tried to ride through the injury. “For about two years I tried to ride with it,” he said. “I didn’t want to have surgery. It got so bad it would fall out (of its socket) while I was in bed.” He had the surgery in January 2015. He didn’t get back to competition until around the Fourth of July of 2016. Being around rodeo and putting on rodeos didn’t make the extensive process of rehab any easier. “It wasn’t the best time, but it wasn’t bad,” he said. “…We buck bulls about once or twice a week. Watching guys get on, you definitely want to get in there and get on again.” Crain finished the 2017 season with earnings of $21,432, placing him 69th in the world standings, his best season to date. This season’s earnings of $18,422 had him in 44th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings as of June 25. “Our circuit is a fun circuit,” he said. “A lot of my friends and guys I enjoy being around are bareback riders and saddle bronc riders. I really love going to all of our rodeos.” His style of riding bulls is all his own. John Young, one of Crain’s long-time TIMETO RIDE

Bull rider Will Crain, right, poses for a family photo with his brother, Wade, and sister, Dusti Crain-Dickerson, a PRCA Roman rider and trick rider. Photo courtesy Will Crain

ProRodeo Sports News 6/29/2018

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