It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Riley Webb. At one of the last rodeos of the year in Fort Worth, Texas, Webb stepped out of his tie-down roping comfort zone.
The $183 he won while team roping with Cole Clemons at the Stockyards Pro Rodeo boosted Webb’s overall earnings and helped him to two Resistol Rookie of the Year awards for 2022. He had clinched the tie-down roping rookie title long before that date in late September, but the money he collected in Fort Worth’s historic Cowtown Coliseum was enough to give him the all-around crown, too.
“The all-around was a last-minute thing,” said Webb, 19, of Denton, Texas. “The calf roping has been aa goal for a long time.”
It was a spectacular inaugural campaign for Webb, who finished the regular season with $117,505 in tie-down roping and has earned his first qualification to the National Finals Rodeo. He is one of five Resistol Rookies of the Year to not only win that title but also advance to ProRodeo’s world championship event as one of the top 15 contestants in his respective discipline.
He will be joined in Las Vegas by barrel racer Bayleigh Choate, breakaway roper Josie Conner, bareback rider Rocker Steiner and bull rider Lukasey Morris.
“To win the rookie and make the NFR is very huge,” Webb said. “I’m just very blessed to get to do something I love. This is definitely a dream come true.
Making the NFR was his primary goal, and he will enter the competition as the No. 11 tie-down roper in the world standings. By making the NFR, the Resistol Rookie of the Year followed suit. All winners will be recognized during a luncheon, which takes place Tuesday, Dec. 6. They will be honored again during intermission of that night’s Round 6 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
It takes great talent and a powerful mindset to finish any season that well, and each Resistol Rookie of the Year has proven that. To compete on the biggest stage in ProRodeo is just another reflection of all that goes into being the very best in each category in their opening year in the game.
“The NFR pays so good that anybody has a chance to have a big week out there,” Webb said of winning a world title in his rookie campaign; if he were to do that, he’d be just the third tie-down roper in the sport’s history to have accomplished a world title and a rookie title in the same season, joining Joe Beaver in 1985 and Haven Meged in 2019.
“I don’t want to change anything when I get there. I want to go out there and have fun and see what happens.”