ProRodeo Sports News - May 14, 2021

PRORODEO COWBOYS

FROM Page 33

In the meantime, he had befriended longtime ProRodeo clown Hollywood Harris, whom he originally met when he was 13 at a junior bull riding event. Harris helped the family during his recovery by donating items to be auctioned off to help with mounting medical bills. Then, Harris had a thought. Every year he’d bring a local cowboy with him on the road to tour the U.S. and Canada to accompany him in his clown act and to rub elbows with top cowboys and just get out and see the world. He gave Creason a call to gauge his enthusiasm about the idea but had no idea what the young cowboy was going through. “He told me he had stomach cancer and he was having his stomach taken out, but by June, he’d be ready to go,” Harris said. “When his dad drove him to meet me (several hours north in Micanopy, Fla.), he had his feeding tube taken out on the way. He was going to spend the summer with me. I’m guessing he had never been out of Florida before.” Creason said the pair hit 28 states and Canada during the summer journey, entertaining fans – Harris would have the 5-foot-4, 115-pound Creason climb in his barrel during his clown act – and riding at rodeos, highlighted by an event in Alberta when Creason finished a close second to Marcos Gloria, who had won the Calgary Stampede’s $100,000 round the previous year in 2018. The pair was prepared to finish the summer at a few events in Australia. But while he was competing at the national high school finals in Rock Springs, Wyo., he learned that his father’s cancer had advanced into his lungs and he had only one or two months left to live. “I told myself I can rodeo the rest of my life, but I only have one dad,” Creason said. “I went home after the finals to spend time with dad.”

Jessica Burns photo Billy Lathero, left, provides bulls for Fisher Creason to practice on a few times a week. Creason, a ProRodeo permit holder, has battled through the death of his father and the daily struggles of surviving cancer to keep competing.

the hospital, I made up a little quote to keep me positive: The mind is a very powerful thing. If you know how to use it, you can accomplish any dream.” His positivity has rubbed off on those who know him best. “He’s just a different type,” said longtime friend and traveling partner Ricky Ringer, who took Creason to the hospital after the bull riding accident in 2018. “Look, here’s a guy who helped pay the rent by working two jobs when his dad was sick. I look at Fisher and see how well he’s dealt with stuff and doesn’t dwell on it. I ask for his advice every day. I know he’ll go places in rodeo. We’re all waiting for it. Ever since we were 10 years old, this is all we’ve ever talked about.” Creason knows what could have been. Like Ringer said, he doesn’t waste time thinking about the past. Instead, he embraces every day. “That bull that stepped on me was a miracle in disguise,” Creason said. “I could have been at stage four and not known it and died in five years. I just tell myself I can do it and stay positive. My cancer slowed me down, but it hasn’t held me back.”

Clint Creason died Oct. 7, 2019, at 43.

MOVING FORWARD DAY BY DAY These days, Fisher gets bloodwork in Orlando every six months to see if there are any signs of the disease returning. So far, nothing since his stomach was removed. He spends his workday pushing wheelbarrows of concrete for his uncle’s stucco business and weekends riding bulls. After hopefully filling his permit this year, he plans on getting his business at home in order so he can hit the road as a ProRodeo rookie in 2022. He earned $767 toward his permit with his first PRCA win following an 80-point ride aboard Silver Spurs Club’s Squirrely at the Wide Open in Fort Pierce, Fla., in late February. “I want to get out there more, but I need to get my stuff situated here before I just hop out there and go,” Creason said. “When I was sitting in

ProRodeo Sports News 5/14/2021

ProRodeo.com

34