In a matter of weeks, 21-year-old Trey White went from buried in the Resistol Rookie heeling standings to No. 2 with $43,138 won after a late-summer surge behind veteran header Spencer Mitchell.

White, of Los Osos, California, spent most of his childhood convinced his future was in baseball, not team roping.

That might be the unexpected part of the story considering the family he comes from. White is the son of Ryan White and Tammy West-White, owners of Best Ever Pads. Tammy is the winningest female team roper in PRCA history, with a résumé that includes multiple California Circuit Finals appearances, the BFI, the US Finals Open and wins at some of the West Coast’s biggest ropings.

In 2022, Tammy said her own roping had begun taking a back seat as Trey and his sibling started competing. “Now, it’s more about the kids,” she said then.

Four years later, one of those kids is making a run at a Resistol Rookie title.

White’s rookie season hasn’t been an easy one. Earlier this summer, a string of no-times and a partner swap left him admittedly beat down mentally. He went home, regrouped and returned to the trail before joining forces with Mitchell after Cheyenne. The new partnership quickly began paying off, including a win at Santa Barbara and a breakthrough week at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston, Oregon.

With a month left in the regular season, White told all about the journey that brought him here, growing up in one of California team roping’s best-known families, what he’s learned from Cody Snow and Mitchell and how far he hopes his roping can eventually take him.

TRJ: With your family’s background, people probably assume you grew up wanting to rodeo. Was that actually the case?

White: I’ve been to most of these rodeos when I was younger and my parents rodeoed. Then when I started school, I really didn’t care to rodeo or anything—I was more into playing baseball.

Then COVID hit and I couldn’t really play baseball—everything was locked down. All we could do is rope. Ever since then, it clicked. I was still playing baseball a lot, but my senior year of high school, I hurt my arm playing. I really couldn’t go to the next level playing, so I hung up the cleats and really started grinding it out roping.

That’s how it’s been ever since my senior year. I’ve just been focused on roping. But other than that, it’s been mostly baseball my whole life.

TRJ: So you weren’t completely new to roping when you started taking it seriously at 15?

White: I always roped. I always went branding and during Vegas I would always rope because my parents had the booth there for just their business.

TRJ: Your parents obviously have an extensive background in the sport themselves. What role have they played in getting you here?

White: My mom and dad, they’re awesome. I can’t ask for better parents. They’re everything behind what I’m doing. They support me to the fullest, and I’m pretty blessed to have them in my life. It’s awesome.

They rodeoed for a little bit. They didn’t really go that hard, but it’s pretty cool because they all know the rodeos. My dad knows the deal and he’s all fired up. He’ll call me every day and he’s all into it. It’s pretty fun.

TRJ: Beyond supporting you, how did they help you learn it all and take your game to the next level?

White: My mom, she knows everything about the horses, so it’s pretty easy. She always knows a good horse, so we always had good horses at the house. I never really learned to rope on a bad horse.

My dad heels, so he helped me out just starting with the fundamentals. He also sent me off because with kids learning from their parents, I feel like it’s hard sometimes when they’re always around their parents and I think he knew that, so he sent me off.

He sent me off and I basically live with Cody (Snow) now, so he sent me off to him and was like, “Man, you need to go to Texas, learn, go to Arizona and all that.” He helped push me to go to all these places.

TRJ: When you started taking your heeling seriously, what was the biggest weakness you had to work through?

White: My horsemanship was really bad at the beginning. I didn’t really ride my position or ride my horse that good. My dad always taught us to throw fast, and then work our way to getting where you could catch a lot, kicking around, tracking the steer. That was always the biggest thing was tracking around and catching my steer. I could always throw fast, but never just kick around and catch a steer.

That was a big learning curve for me. But now that I’ve figured out riding my horse to the bottom and just catching, it’s helped my heeling a lot more.

TRJ: Why did 2026 feel like the right year to buy your rookie card?

White: The first year I just went to the circuit rodeo. Then last year I went out a little bit, went up to Northwest, just eased around. But right now, I got a couple good horses and I just felt like it just felt good.

TRJ: The numbers look pretty good now, but this rookie year wasn’t always going this way. What was the first part of the summer like for you?

White: It’s been fun out there but it’s been pretty challenging. It’s beat me down mentally, but also, I got to go home for a little bit, regroup, and came back, and it’s going good so far since I came back out.

TRJ: What made that stretch so difficult mentally?

White: We made a partner change. Things weren’t working and we just had a lot of no times on the board, and it’s just frustrating not catching the cow and it’s hard on a guy mentally.

TRJ: You started roping with Spencer Mitchell after Cheyenne. What has having a veteran like him on your team changed for you?

White: Roping with him is awesome. He’s helped me a lot in the last three weeks we’ve roped. We went over before Santa Barbara and I roped with him for a week straight and we broke it down and we watch the videos every time I’d miss.

TRJ: What do you like most about being on the road?

White: One thing I love about being out here is seeing all the guys and learning a lot. You might not rope as much, but you really get to watch all those good guys at the rodeos and you get to talk to them. I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity to get better out on the road that some people don’t take advantage of, but I want to get out here and learn.

I got to talk to all the guys about and they’re nice enough to help me out when I need help, and that’s pretty cool. I really like to golf too, so it’s fun. I get to see all these cool golf courses out here too.

TRJ: You grew up wanting to be a baseball player. Has anything from baseball carried over to roping?

White: Playing baseball is all about balance, your core strength, your mental game. Baseball is very similar to team roping— it’s all a mental game. It really helps you compete too.

TRJ: And after baseball gave way to roping, what do you want the future to look like now?

White: A perfect world would be making a living with my rope, being around enough of the right people that can help me out. I want to be one of the greats. I want to try my hardest to be known as one of the best to ever do it. I want to be one of those guys. But if not, I always could fall back. I can help my parents with the business and I can still rodeo.

The end goal is I want to be one of the greats.