Jace Helton has his eyes set on more than just the 2025 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year title.

Helton sits No. 2 in the standings with $17,876.67 won on the year after making a conscious decision to wait until he was 22 and done with college to buy his rookie card. Now, the Tolar, Texas, kid is battling with a wolfy pack of up-and-coming heelers, currently headlined by Nicky Northcott with $19,675.86. For Helton, winning the Resistol Rookie of the Year title would be significant, but he’s ultimately hoping the race comes down to 10 days in Las Vegas.

“I told somebody, it is a big deal to me based on, I mean there’s some good rookies this year,” Helton said. “Obviously Nicky being one of ’em, and everyone’s kind of asked me the same thing like, ‘Oh, what about blah, blah, blah?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, the main goal is to make the Finals, so if I make the Finals and he makes the Finals, it doesn’t really matter to me which one of us wins the rookie as long as we settle it at the Finals.’ But winning the rookie is a big deal, and I kind of saved my rookie year and did some different stuff to win it. So yeah, it’s a pretty big deal to me.”

School first

While 22 is young, many rodeo kids—including Helton—picture the year they turn 18 as the year they’d buy their PRCA card and hit the road. But the California transplant was in college and realistic about how hard ProRodeoing would be when a college degree actually meant something to him.

“Actually the Southwest Region that I was in, you had to miss at least two rodeos, if not more, if you were going to Pro Rodeo,” Helton explained. “And getting a degree was actually important to me, so I wanted to make sure I got that taken care of.”

He was also brutally honest with himself about where he was in terms of talent at 18.

“I was super inexperienced, didn’t rope near good enough,” Helton admitted. “I just got to go rope with Jason Stewart when I was 18 in the Northwest on my permit and then roped with him and Tanner James when I was 19 on my permit again. I just did a little more each year and basically just figured out what I needed to work on to get to where I felt like I was ready and where I’m at now. I kind of just learned by doing. But moral of the story—college, and I was not even close to being ready when I was 18.”

The honesty and work paid off when Helton won the 2022 CNFR with fellow Resistol Rookie of the Year contender Riley Kittle.

“Not that it’s like the biggest thing in the world, but that’s a pretty big deal I feel like,” Helton said. “And just the whole process of it—that was a long-term goal, we wanted to win the college finals. We had a plan and then to win it, that was one of the first bigger events that I ever won first at. It seemed like I won second and third at a lot of stuff. I think I was 18 still when we won the College Finals, so prior to that, all the junior stuff I had won second or third at, but that was the first deal against other people my age that I won first at. So, that was really good for us.”

Going through the goal-setting process and having the pieces connect to win on a national level was a confidence booster for both Kittle and Helton.

“It felt really good to be like, ‘Alright, this is our plan, this is what we need to improve on if we’re going to go win this deal,'” Helton said. “And then we spent basically the whole year with that in mind as one of our big goals. Then to go win it, it was really good for our confidence. I think it’s really good for you whenever you accomplish something. Like, you think you can do it, and then once you know, it’s like, ‘Wow, we actually did this. Now if we can go apply the same process to other things, there’s no telling what we can do.'”

Primed for 2025

While finishing his college career, Helton also made use of his PRCA permit. In 2023, Kittle and Helton entered as many rodeos as they could over the summer. The pace kicked up for Helton in 2024, entering nearly everything he could on his permit with three-time NFR qualifier Shay Carroll, which included the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo win. That time entering heavy is helping Helton in his rookie season.

“Obviously I learned a bunch every year, but last year was the most that I had gone and I learned a lot,” Helton said. “Roping with Shay, [I learned] about taking care of the horses and just little stuff that you kind of don’t realize. I’m kind of trying to remind myself this year, ‘You are only 22, and you’ve really only done this, I mean, one or two other years. So, you need to not think you know everything and try to keep learning.’ But I feel like it’s a huge advantage for me the way that I did it a little bit more every year.”

For his rookie season, Helton is partnered up with fellow 22-year-old Kreece Thompson, and he’s feeling good about 2025.

“I’m feeling good, and I’m excited,” Helton said. “It feels like our run has been coming together pretty good, and the horses are all good. I’m excited. It’s just kind of getting started for me it feels like.”

With the summer picking up, Helton plans to take things run by run with his eyes set on some major goals.

“Step by step, and we need to catch a lot of steers fast enough to win something,” Helton said. “And then we need to make sure that we rack up tour points so that way we get to go to Puyallup and Sioux Falls. And then make the Finals and win the (Resistol) Rookie.”