ProRodeo Sports News - Nov.20, 2020

LONG TIME COMING

The last time multiple native Australian cowboys qualified for the same NFR, Hamilton was all of 3 years old. Saddle bronc riders Glen O’Neill and Scott Johnston made the 2003 Finals along with bareback rider Darren Clarke. Dave Appleton was the first Australian-born cowboy to win a world title, tackling the all- around in 1988. His bareback riding and saddle bronc riding skills landed him in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. The year he won the all-around he also won the bareback riding average and finished second in the world standings. Both Howlett and Hamilton are from the state of Queensland, but Hamilton is from Mackay, while Howlett is from Roma. Appleton is also fromQueensland, and the Hall of Famer is thoroughly excited to see two Aussies heading to Arlington to compete in the Finals in Globe Life Field. “It’s way overdue,” Appleton said. “I think there are too many qualified and talented kids in Australia who have the ability to come over here (to the U.S.) and win and be successful and make the NFR if not win a world championship. I would encourage more to do it because in my mind there’s no reason we should have an NFR drought for Australians. “A lot of the kids nowadays can come over here through the high school programs and go into a college program and at the same time test the waters of the PRCA. Then, once they get out of the college program go into the PRCA. It’s a head-scratcher to me really why we don’t have more Australians competing in the PRCA.” Hamilton and Howlett followed that exact scenario that Appleton laid out – both coming over after qualifying through high school rodeo, then advancing to college and eventually the pro scene. And both pointed to Australians before them as trail blazers that gave them the belief they could follow and continue the path – guys like Greg Potter, Troy Dunn, Sam Spreadborough and Clarke. “The guys who’ve made the Finals in the past from back home, I looked up to them a lot,” Hamilton said. “To be able to do something

At 30, Jamie Howlett will make his Wrangler National Finals Rodeo debut. Howlett, seen in 2019 at the Santa Maria (Calif.) Elks Rodeo, will be one of two Australians at the Finals. Dan Lesovsky photo

they’ve done is pretty cool. To grow up watching them compete at the NFR and all of a sudden you’re there is pretty cool.” Howlett knows there are cowboys on the other side of the world looking up to him now. “It gives me a pretty good confidence boost and makes me prideful (to make the Finals),” he said. “Not many Australians have done it, and now there are two in the same year. Hopefully Ky and I and (saddle bronc rider) Jake Finlay get the roughstock sorted out next year and get other Aussies confident that they can make it if they work hard at it. … “Hopefully it’s not another 17-year gap.”

BREAKAWAY ROPER While the NFR is Dec. 3-12, the inaugural Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping will also get a flair from Down Under. Breakaway roper Tanegai Zilverberg, from Australia, will compete at the Wrangler NFBR, which will take place at Globe Life Field, Dec. 8-10. Zilverberg, who resides in Holabird, S.D., moved to the U.S. in 2004.

DEC. 3-12, 2020

ProRodeo Sports News 11/20/2020

51