Tuf enough: Tie-down roper Cooper joins father as PRCA world champion

Ranching and farming lifestyles for decades were handed down to the next generation.

The 53rd annual National Finals Rodeo that concluded Saturday night before 17,720 at the Thomas & Mack Center proved golden rodeo talent also can be passed along.

Tie-down roper Tuf Cooper won a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world championship in the NFR's final go-round to join bareback riding champion Kaycee Feild as second-generation rodeo athletes this year to accomplish some of what their fathers did.

Roy Cooper, who had two other sons competing this year at the NFR, owns eight world titles; Lewis Feild, a fellow ProRodeo Hall of Famer, owns five.

For Tuf Cooper, 21, the roping world expected one day he'd win the championship based on his bloodline and talent shown when he won the NFR title two years ago.

And now he's a world champion.

"Everything's going to change from this point on," the Childress, Texas, resident said after finishing the year with $192,042. "We didn't have the Finals that we were expecting. It's definitely worked out the way we wanted it to, and it all works out in the end.

"I've got a big responsibility to a lot of people, and I'm going to try to do the very best job I can."

Cooper had a slow start this year at the NFR, and his big lead after the regular season might have affected his approach. He earned paychecks in only three of the first six rounds.

"There in the sixth round, I tried to win a little more," he said of the go-round in which he logged his second-worst time of the rodeo. "After I missed that one, I just had to tell myself that it's all going to work out the way it's supposed to. God always works it out the way it's supposed to no matter what."

Two rounds later, he posted his best run and tied for second.

While Feild and Cooper started the NFR with big money leads in their categories, Matt Shiozawa was ranked 11th  in tie-down and $87,689 behind Cooper.

But Shiozawa, a former Logandale resident, forced Cooper to have to produce a solid run in the final round.

"I'm disappointed. I came in 80 grand down but almost got it done," he said after winning the NFR event title with 10-day earnings of $106,153 for a season total and career-best $173,776.

It's the third time Shiozawa has come within a whisper of achieving a lifelong goal. In 1998, his Moapa Valley basketball team lost in the Nevada state championship game. Eight years later, he placed second to tie-down roping legend Cody Ohl for the world title.

Despite the hard charge by Shiozawa, who resides in Pocatello, Idaho, not even a pair of go-round wins in his fifth NFR will keep "runner-up" from being attached to his name.

"I gave 'em hell and had a chance to win it all," he said. "I'm happy. It's just bittersweet. My day will come."

Others winning world titles after the 10th round were: Luke Branquinho (steer wrestling); Turtle Powell and Jhett Johnson (team roping); Taos Muncy (saddle bronc riding); Lindsay Sears (barrel racing); and Shane Proctor (bull riding).

Trevor Brazile clinched his ninth all-around world title after four rounds.

Jeff Wolf is a freelance reporter. He can be reached at (702) 406-8165 or nitrorodeo@gmail.com