ProRodeo Sports News - May 4, 2018

IN HIS OWNWORDS: CESAR DE LA CRUZ

1/4 page color ad $457 (12mth b/w rate) DE LA CRUZ GETS BIRTHDAY PRESENT AT CLOVIS Team roping heeler Cesar de la Cruz is hoping to make his 10th Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this season. As f April 30, de la Cruz, who turned 35 April 29, was 48th in the RAM PRCA World Standings. He and team roper heading partner J.B. James Jr. are coming off winning the average at the Clovis (Calif.) Rodeo, where they cashed in for $7,543 each and scored some big points in the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. how we make our living. It’s a huge investment to try and get there. I feel like I miss it just enough; it’ll always be in my blood. Once you get to that place it stays with you. A lot of the older guys tell me they don’t miss rodeoing at all, but they miss roping at the NFR. We’ve been going to the bigger rodeos. I wouldn’t say we’ve

gone real, real hard, but we’ve gone to FortWorth (Texas), Denver, San Angelo (Texas). We’ve got a lot of day-money checks, we haven’t had a whole lot of average checks. It was awesome to get the win at Clovis. All these Tour rodeos are big ones and pay off good money. My feeling is you can go to the littler ones and you can win $1,000 at a time or $1,500 at a time. Or you can go to a big, Tour rodeo and you can win $7,000, $10,000, $15,000. That’s why I feel like it’s very important to do well at these Tour rodeos.

W inning in Clovis was huge for us. That rodeo has fallen on my birthday weekend ever since I can remember. I’ve been wanting to win that rodeo for the longest time. I’ve had some mishaps. But this year everything worked out. My partner J.B. James roped great for me. He rides a great head horse by the name of Transmission. I ride a nice little heel horse I call Lucky Bucky. He made my job awful easy. I ended up driving home all night, so I could see my wife, Arena, and the boys (Camilo, 7, Gio Rocco, 5, Zorro, 2). That was my birthday present. I got to Arizona (it’s about 10 hours back home fromClovis) and I got to see the wife and kids. It was a great day. For me, the Wrangler NFR is always calling. If everything sets up right and I had the right horses, get on roll, a person can make the Finals. It’s a long road, it’s hard to get there. A lot of guys, if they don’t have a good winter or a good start to the summer, they start doing different things to make a living. Those years I made it – I made it nine times in a row – I was always fortunate to get a decent start and have a good start to the summer. I really want to be there. But it requires great heel horses and a lot of luck, too. It eats at me a lot not to make the Finals. That’s our Super Bowl. That’s

PSN- Pro Rodeo Sports News May 2018 We are in the process of moving fromMarana, Ariz., to Casa Grande, Ariz. We’ll be in the new place in about a month. Our sons are very excited. They said the house is like a castle. They’ve got their own rooms and their own bathrooms, so they’re excited about it.

Camilo and Gio are big into baseball right now. I want them to be involved with rodeo, but if they aren’t, that’s fine with me. They’ve got to know if they’re going to rodeo it’s a big investment, it takes a lot of time and dedication. So if they want to do something like this it’s got to be all in. It’s an expensive little hobby. Camilo can rope. I just want it to be fun for them. For me, roping was always fun. It was work at times, but I had fun when I did it. If they want to do it, we’re going to enjoy it, I’m not going to make them do it. In the winter time, they get to school and I get out to rodeos. Then come summer time they jump in with me and go to a bunch of rodeos. I’m looking forward to summer time to get the family in the rig and go rodeo.

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ProRodeo Sports News 5/4/18

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