Panola
men's rodeo team set to compete at national finals
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tilden Hooper was last year's bareback Rookie of the Year in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He also won the bareback national championship as a college freshman a year ago.
This week Hooper and five teammates will try to bring home more hardware as Panola College's men's rodeo team competes in the National College Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo., starting Sunday and extending through Saturday.
With experience on the college and pro circuits, Hooper knows what to expect this week. He said the luck of the draw has almost as much to do with it as skill.
"There's a handful of guys who are as good as I am," Hooper said. "If I can get four good horses, then I have a pretty good chance."
Hooper, now a 19-year-old sophomore from Carthage, earned more money in the bareback event in his first year with a pro rodeo card than any other bareback competitor in 2007, giving him the Rookie of the Year honor.
Hooper aims for his second straight college bareback title as he helps lead a Panola squad that finished second in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Southern Region behind Northeast Texas Community College in Mount Pleasant. The Southern Region has 11 schools, including four-year institutions such as Texas A&M, Sam Houston State and McNeese State.
Longview's Pat Garrett will perform saddle-bronc riding duties for Panola. Garrett and Hooper join Lucas Butler (saddle-bronc riding), Will Foster (saddle-bronc), Ryan Thibodeaux (calf roping) and Kennon Tucker (bull riding) representing Panola in Wyoming. Thibodeaux placed third in the Southern Region, and Panola rodeo coach Travis Adams believes Garrett and Foster both have good chances of performing well at the CNFR. Adams also called Hooper "probably the best 19-year-old bareback rider in the world."
Adams said the Southern Region has produced the sixth-place (Panola), fifth-place (McNeese State) and third-place (Northeast Texas) teams at last year's CNFR, so the Panola cowboys know what it's like to face tough competition.
"I guess probably the favorite would be last year's champion, Ranger," Adams said. "Our region is an extremely tough region. I expect our schools to do really well again."
Hooper said many of the cowboys he'll try to beat in Wyoming are the same guys he competes against in the PRCA rodeos. Hooper, who will transfer to McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., on a rodeo scholarship, said the college finals present a fun atmosphere for those involved.
"Instead of having to pick up and travel every day, it's more laid back because you're there for the whole week," Hooper said.
Each region sends the top three competitors in each event, plus all-around cowboys that perform multiple events.
That puts the field at 35 to 40 contestants in each CNFR event. Each contestant has three preliminary rounds before a final short round, which will be Saturday night.
Scores and times from the first three rounds are added and the 12 competitors with the best times and scores in each event advance to the final short round.
The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association team and individual titles aren't the only prizes on the line. More than $207,000 in scholarships are up for grabs as well.
Panola assistant rodeo coach Jeb Barney, a former professional roper, said the CNFR is quite a trip for the cowboys and cowgirls who qualify.
"It's absolutely beautiful," Barney said. "If you come from 90-percent humidity and 90-degree days, it's really nice. The town of Casper really caters to the finals contestants and their families."
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