Hershey, Nebraska’s Cooper and Tucker White added a total of $4,532 each to their earnings, moving them both to first in the PRCA’s Badlands Circuit with $9,251.59 and $6,802.89 in circuit earnings, respectively.
“I’ve always been second or third,” Cooper, 23, who is sitting 45th in the PRCA world standings with $10,452.57 in season earnings, said. “We’ve never really had a good Circuit Finals. This year we’ve got a great start to them for what’s left for rodeos this year. We’re just hoping to try and keep the ball rolling. We’re just going to try and keep doing the same job that we’ve been doing—make our run and don’t get wrapped up in what everybody else is doing. Everyone is up here this year. It’s not just circuit guys so we have to put our neck out on the line and try and make the best run we can on whatever we draw.”
“I’ve been close a couple times but I’ve never been leading it,” Tucker, 27, added. “There’s 14 rodeos left in our circuit and I think we’re going to go to the majority of them. We’re going to stay on it and see if we can end up being where we want to be at the end of the year. It’s been our goal for a long time to win the circuit.”
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They won the Championship PRCA Rodeo in Steele, North Dakota, with a 4.4-second run, worth $1,111 a man, placed fourth at the Wall (South Dakota) Celebration with a 5.8-second run, worth $855 a man, and placed third at the Wolf Point (Montana) Wild Horse Stampede with a 4.6-second run, worth $2,566 a man.
“We’re really blessed to have the rodeos going on that we do in our circuit right now with COVID,” Cooper said. “It’s great getting to go somewhere. Last weekend we went to Wall (South Dakota) and we’ve ran those steers before. We made a good run and ended up getting fourth. Then we went to Wolf Point (Montana) and had a really good steer and made probably one of the best runs that we’ve ever made and that one paid really great for us. In Steele (North Dakota), we actually ran those steers the day before at an amateur rodeo. We knew the steer and I watched the video and he was great. We made the fastest run that we’ve ever made at a rodeo so it was a good week last week. We did good at all the amateurs and ProRodeos that we went to. We’re just really grateful for it.”
Cooper is heading on a borrowed horse named Razor (11) that has helped their team over the past year.
“A guy named Andy Miller owns him,” Cooper said. “Last year I was kind of struggling a little bit and he said, ‘Well, you can just take this horse.’ He won’t let me pay him mount money. He just wants to help me out, and he’s a great friend. I’m so thankful to have him and to let me ride that horse. I started riding him last summer a little bit at the end of the year. I started at Deadwood (South Dakota) and I rode him at Denver. He’s been great. He’s one of the best ones that I’ve ever rode. He’s made my job a lot easier.”
Tucker is heeling on his old faithful bay heel horse Gator, who he believes to be 16 years old.
“I’m on my old trusty steed, Gator,” Tucker said. “I’ve had him for about seven or eight years. I lost his papers. He’s just a little, ugly bay horse and he tries his heart out for me every time. I have some other horses but I don’t feel confident enough in them to pass him up yet.”
The White brothers are motivated to enter up and finish out the 2020 ProRodeo season in the top spot in their circuit.
“If I say anything it kind of amped up our entering a little bit,” Tucker said. “We weren’t expecting to maybe go to some different states that we’ve been going to. We’re going to go ahead and rodeo a little bit more than what we had anticipated. It’s been going good so we’re going to roll the dice on it and see how it goes.”
Current Circuit Standings Leaders:
Badlands: Cooper White, $9,251.59; Tucker White, $6,802.89
California: Pat Boyle, $6,763.89; Jared Hixon, $6,763.89
Columbia River: N/A
First Frontier: Eric Fabian, $2,131.18; Derek Carey, $2,131.18
Great Lakes: Payden Emmett, $2,848.20; Cody Andrews, $4,447.14
Maple Leaf: N/A
Montana: Kal Fuller, $4,528.60; Ryan Zurcher, $3,956.89
Mountain States: Garrett Tonozzi, $8,273.98; Joe Roderick, $2,916.82
Prairie: Andrew Ward, $7,507.77; Brye Crites, $6,910.38
Southeastern: Clint Summers, $11,514.57; Britt Bockius, $10,683.19
Texas: Dustin Egusquiza, $16,734.01; Junior Nogueira, $16,761.42
Turquoise: Erich Rogers, $6,619.94; Logan Medlin, $7,133.89
Wilderness: Hagen Peterson, $4,720.21; Jace Nielsen, $4,720.21
Mexico: Jorge Hawkins, $546.06; Miguel Valenzuela, $1,011.23
