Junior Nogueira is the PRCA’s 2016 All-Around World Champion and the 2021-2022 PRCA World Champion Team Roping Heeler.

From Presidente Prudente, Brazil, Junior Nogueira exploded onto the team roping scene in 2014 when seven-time World Champion Jake Barnes picked him up to hit the road after meeting him at a roping school. Nogueira didn’t speak English and had never traveled across the US, but he qualified for the NFR his rookie year with Barnes. He won the Resistol Rookie of the Year title, and he’s won the Spicer Gripp, The American, The Wildfire and four US Open to the World titles.

Nogueira has made more 3.3-second runs than any heeler in history, and his horses—from famed mare Apache R Hali to Green Card to Timon—have helped him along the way. Nogueira is also a world champion header in the AQHA on Apache R Hali.