ProRodeo Sports News - September 21, 2018

IN HIS OWNWORDS: WILL LUMMUS COWBOY READY FOR FIRSTWRANGLER NFR

O n Oct. 7, it will be my one-year wedding anniversary. My wife, Jenna, and I live in Byhalia, Miss. We’re about 30 miles from Memphis, which is close to the airport, which works well, because I get to fly in and out. I’ve got two rodeos this weekend and I’m done. I’ve also got the All American Finals (in October), but I’m home, I’m glad to be home. It’s been going great. I’m as much of a homebody as she is. I love being home. It’s been a little tough being away so much, but it hasn’t been bad. She barrel races, so she has an idea about rodeo life. She’s been around it her whole life, she understands the sacrifice I make and she makes to make dreams happen. I’m excited about going to the Wrangler NFR, my whole family is excited about it. My uncle (Bob Lummus) made it four times in the early 2000s. To be able to go back and follow his lead means everything, not just to me but to my family and my friends who have been with me the whole time. It’s awesome to be able to look forward to it and to have that goal accomplished. I don’t remember too much from watching my uncle compete at the Will Lummus is headed to his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December. The 26-year-old steer wrestler couldn’t be happier. As of Sept. 17, Lummus had pocketed $86,958, putting him fifth in the PRCA | RAM World Standings. A year ago, Lummus finished 20th. The Mississippi native has won eight rodeos (and split the win at another) this season, including California Rodeo Salinas, Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo in San Juan, Calif., and the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Finals when I was 9 and 10 years old. But my wife and I went in 2016. We went to a few performances and I got to experience everything. Obviously, it’s awesome to be out there, but to be able to compete there it’s unreal. Last year, after coming so close to qualifying but missing, Luke Branquinho (five-time world champion steer wrestler) texted me and told me the first year he rodeoed he barely missed it too. He hoped I would use it as motivation and not something that would hinder me the next year and into the future. If you take it as a positive that your first year rodeoing you’re in the Top 20 and go from there, use it as motivation. With steer wrestlers, in general, everybody supports everybody. It’s a motivational team. It’s hard to get unmotivated and hard to get down because so many people are picking you up in the steer wrestling. It’s not like that in any other sport or any other event in rodeo, the steer wrestlers are the main motivators in rodeo, and that’s my opinion. At the Finals, I’ll be riding K.C. Jones’ 12-year-old horse, Grinder, and K.C. will be hazing for me. I think the biggest difference between last year and this year was that I had so much more knowledge this year, I was able to make better decisions. Last year at Kansas City (Mo.) I had to win something if I still wanted a chance to make it. I didn’t win anything. Jacob Talley, who made the Finals in ’16 but not last year (and who is ninth in the 2018 world standings), and I were walking out of the arena. I said, ‘Man, this sucks, we both barely missed it.’ He was out of rodeos, so he didn’t a have chance. He said, ‘Yeah, but there’s no way they’ll keep us out next year.’

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Photo by karenkellyphotography.com

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ProRodeo Sports News 9/21/2018

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