Louisiana’s Cyle Denison, 20, who is currently roping with Lane Mitchell, sports his 2016 Year-End Reserve Champion Header CPRA buckle after a tough summer rodeoing in Texas’s Cowboy’s Professional Rodeo Association and United Professional Rodeo Association.

“It was a good year,” Denison said. “I was 17—the year before I could buy my permit and get ready to Pro Rodeo. I was second in the CPRA and third in the UPRA and won the average at the UPRA finals. They’re the biggest amateur rodeos in Texas. I roped with a lot of different partners.”

Denison was amongst a wolfy group of team ropers going into the finals that year.

“I was like No. 4 going into the finals. I was roping with Corey Hendrick at the finals. I missed the first one, then we won second in the next two rounds, and we still won around $5,000. That moved me up high enough to win second.”

That one miss didn’t slow Denison down, but prepared him for the upcoming PRCA year.

“Amateur rodeoing down there kind of gets you ready for Pro Rodeoing because you see a lot of the same guys.”

Denison roped off of a then 9-year-old mare, Beyoncé, who helped him do battle in the 2016 rodeo season.

“She’s 12 now. It was the first year I got her. I got her that spring and she was really green. She’d been to about three rodeos when I got her. I started amateur rodeoing on her and finished her out. I got her from Colt Fisher. I traded a horse and some money to get her off of him.”

Now the header, who finished fourth in the 2018 Resistol Rookie race, only hopes to swap out his Reserve Champion buckle with a goat roping win or, even greater, a St. Paul (Oregon) Rodeo win.

“I told someone at one time that I wanted to win the goat roping at Guymon (Oklahoma), but I would like to win St. Paul. That’s one of my favorite rodeos with the trees.”