ProRodeo Sports News - November 17, 2023

Debut Cowboys Five rookies set to appear in their first Wrangler NFRs RESISTOL ROOKIES

BY TRACY RENCK C hasing the gold buckle dream took one large step to becoming a reality for Resistol rookie bareback riders Keenan Hayes, Kade Sonnier, Dean Thompson, saddle bronc rider Ryder Sanford and bull rider T Parker. That group of cowboys will make their debut at the 2023 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge, Dec. 7-16 in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center. Hayes followed up his record-setting Permit season in 2022, by setting the single-season earnings mark in bareback riding at $265,896. The NFR qualification is extra special for Sonnier. The Carencro, La., cowboy joins his father Joey, who qualified for the 2018 NFR in bareback riding. “Since I was a kid, 4 or 5 years old, that’s all I ever wanted to do (was go to the NFR),” Sonnier said. “Then, my life changed, and I took the baseball path, so rodeo was on the backburner. I never really thought about making the NFR until 2018 when my dad qualified, and I got to go. That lit a fire in me and re-sparked the love of the sport for me. God dealt me some injuries and different challenges and it changed the course of my path of what I thought my career was. “When we left after Round 10 (in 2018), we met up with my dad and I told my stepmom, you give me five years, and I will be back at the NFR (competing),” Kade said. “That’s a true story and little did I know it would be exactly five years that I would be at the NFR (competing). It has been cool to have my dad in my corner and help me enter and figure out my runs and what the best times were to go to rodeos, that really helped.” Like Hayes, Sonnier has had a stellar season, highlighted by winning $50,000 at the Calgary

T Parker made the most of his Resistol rookie season, qualifying for the Wrangler NFR by finishing eighth in the regular season PRCA | RAM World Standings. Mallory Beinborn photo

biggest highlights was winning the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up. “After the season is really when it set in (that I qualified for the NFR),” Thompson said. “I didn’t really have the time when I was on the road to sit down and appreciate what this year has meant to me. I feel blessed about the goals I have been able to achieve so far. “I was in the Top 15 all year and then in the first of August I was 22nd or somewhere in the standings. Now, it has set in, and my life is based on being prepared when I get to the Thomas & Mack. I get my sweat on every day and train my body for what I know is coming. I’m excited to go and see what I can do.” Saddle bronc rider Ryder Sanford had quite the memorable season, which included big wins at the Cheyenne Frontier Days and at the first leg

Stampede and splitting the title at Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Rodeo. “I have a feeling all the emotions are going to come back to the first time I went to the NFR and it brought tears to my eyes,” Sonnier said. “I stood for a lot of cool national anthems in a lot of cool places, but nothing compared to the NFR. When I get there and hear them play Viva Las Vegas in the Thomas & Mack, that song goes from a song Elvis wrote to a staple of the pinnacle of rodeo. When I hear the national anthem and Viva Las Vegas it is going to be emotional, but I just have to trust my stuff.” Thompson echoed the excitement of Sonnier. The Altamont, Utah, cowboy comes in eighth in the PRCA | RAM World Standings and one of his

ProRodeo Sports News 11/17/2023

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