By WESLIE STRATTON
Moapa Valley Progress
The Clark County fair will once again include five nights of PRCA rodeo April 11-15 taking place at the fairgrounds located at 1301 Whipple Street in Logandale. The rodeo will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
According to Fair Manager Kevin Willard the rodeo is part of the Wrangler Pro Rodeo Tour this year.
“This puts us in with the biggest rodeos in the country,” he said.
The Logandale event will be the first night in the tour schedule. The tour then continues over the following six months visiting 23 different events all across the west and ending up in the grand finale in Puyallup, Washington at the Washington State Fair Rodeo in early September.
To be a part of the Wrangler Pro Rodeo Tour, the rodeo has to be a certain size and is ranked based on the purse or the amount of money available for competitors to win.
“All of the top cowboys will be there,” Willard said.
This year will feature 500 of the nation’s best Rodeo athletes that will come to compete for more than $250,000 in prize money.
Though most people just check out the evening rodeo event, the action actually begins each day at 1:00 pm with timed event slack for Tie-Down Roping, Steer Wrestling and Team Roping. The top 12 contestants of each of the afternoon slack sessions will return to compete in the night performances where they will be joined by some of the world’s toughest Rough Stock Riders and the Lady WPRA Barrel Racers. Spectators can come and enjoy the slack competition each afternoon for just the admission price of the Fair.
The first four nights of rodeo will present competitors with the opportunity to perform well enough to compete in the short go or final which will take place on Sunday.
“There will also be a rodeo drill team made up of locals,” Willard said. Participants include young riders who have worked hard to perfect the routine.
Included in the rodeo fun will be the traditional sponsored team roping. This event allows local ropers the opportunity to compete in the rodeo event. Businesses who sponsor the event are randomly matched up with a team who will represent their brand.
According to organizer Troy Shiozawa there will be six local teams competing in the event Wednesday through Friday. The six fastest teams will be brought back for an event final on Saturday night.
“We want this to be representative of the fair,” Shiozawa said. “It’s friends and neighbors who get together to re-live heritage and have a good time.”
Shiozawa said that most of the team roping competitors are from families who have ties to the community and are just looking to have a good time. These include married couples, brothers and sisters, friends and more.
“These are people who enjoy the lifestyle,” Shiozawa said. “The goal is to have fun and to recognize people who are gracious enough to support the community.”
