Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes, as the only qualifier team to make it back to the Top Four with a time of 11.30 seconds on two head, won RFD-TV’s The American with a time of 4.24 seconds in the shootout round, worth $100,000 a man and split the million with professional bull rider Joao Ricardo Vieira. 

For the first time, $50,000 of their earnings counts towards their PRCA earnings, which will move them to the number-one spot in the world, unofficially.

“Besides my daughter being born this is the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” Proctor said. 

Proctor has been in this position before in 2016 with former partner Jake Long but broke the barrier. But not this time.

“Coming back this year with a chance to win it, I definitely wasn’t going to miss the start,” Proctor said. “I told my wife I ought to be leaving and pulling instead of being a step late and making it hard on us. I’m glad they screamed ‘yeah’ and we made it this time.”

The Minor’s put the heat on Proctor and Motes after they roped their steer in 4.75 seconds. Proctor pinned the start and got his rope on the red steer right out of the chute to give Motes a quick handle to clean things up, making them 4.24 seconds in the Top Four round, moving them to the lead and putting the Minor’s in second. 

“We had a steer that Tsinigine (Aaron) ran yesterday, and they said he left sharp,” Motes said. “Then Clay Tryan ran him first team out with McCoy (Profili). That steer left sharp and Clay hung it on him. They were four-flat, and McCoy roped a leg. We knew he wanted to push to the right the first couple times. We had to go 4.7 to take the lead. There was a miss and a 4.7 when we rode in there. We wanted to put a little bit of heat, I guess, on Luke (Brown) and Paul (Eaves). They actually came back on the steer we had just run so we kind of knew the situation. If it came together on that steer it was going to be fast. Coleman hung it on our steer fast and he switched back out in front of me and I just kind of came around there and cleaned it up—let Coleman do all the work.”

When it was all said and done, they knew they had the million split as a team but still had one calf roper, three saddle bronc riders, one steer wrestler, one barrel racer and one bull rider to sweat to see if they would be splitting the million, as only qualifiers, rather than the top ten invited contestants in the 2018 PRCA world standings, are eligible for a shot at the big bucks. 

“It felt like there were a lot,” Motes said. “It’s kind of funny because you’re waiting to see if someone’s going to tie you. You’re still so happy about doing well, but when he (Joao) wins the bull riding it’s losing $166,000 but you don’t even care. I’ve never not cared about $166,000 in my life, I promise, but you’re just so happy cheering for everybody else. But, trying to figure out who’s eligible for it and who’s not. You’re happy for them too, but obviously I’m really happy for us.”

“We were just excited,” Coleman added. “Like Ryan said, yeah it costs you a fictitious $160,000 but at the end of the day I just left The American with more money than I have ever dreamed of being able to throw my rope for. I just wanted to get my fees paid, let alone diesel and expenses and now to actually be able to look back on my career and say that I paid off land and set up my family for the rest of our lives, I made a dent with this rope, that’s an amazing opportunity. So no matter if we were to split it one way or six ways, that’s a lot of money and thanks to The American for giving qualifiers just like us, we had to come up through the hard way and we could have been any other qualifying team. That’s the great thing about team roping, there’s so much talent out there now-a-days that you’re going to see team ropers win their share of the million again.”

Team Roping Results:

Long Go:

1. Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, 4.78 seconds 

2. Luke Brown and Paul Eaves, 4.90 seconds 

3. Marcus Theriot and Coleby Payne, 4.94 seconds  

4. Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes, 5.37 seconds

5. Aaron Tsinigine and Trey Yates, 5.98 seconds 

6. Rhen Richard and Cody Doescher, 6.31 seconds

7. Riley Minor and Brady Minor, 9.64 seconds 

8. Clay Tryan and McCoy Profili, 9.83 seconds 

Eight man Final: 

1. Riley Minor and Brady Minor, 4.74 seconds 

2. Luke Brown and Paul Eaves, 4.9 seconds

3. Luke Brown and Paul Eaves, 5.42 seconds

4. Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes, 5.93 seconds

5. Clay Tryan and McCoy Profili, 9.01 seconds 

Shoot out qualifiers: 

1. Luke Brown and Paul Eaves, 10.32 seconds on two head; 

2. Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes, 11.30 seconds 

3. Aaron Tsinigine and Trey Yates, 11.95 seconds on two head

4. Riley Minor and Brady Minor, 14.38 seconds on two head 

Shoot Out: 

1. Coleman Proctor and Ryan Motes, 4.24 seconds, $100,000 

2. Riley Minor/Brady Minor, 4.75 seconds, $25,000