Hockin' Nation

Prairie Circuit partners edge good friends for the title

- Julie Mankin

Jesse Stipes did it in the wrong order. Ever since 1987, winners of major sporting events from the Super Bowl to the Stanley Cup have had an answer when told, “You’ve just won ___________, what are you going to do next?”

But Stipes had just come from Disneyworld. He stopped there for three days with his wife, Ashley, and kids Addy and Jeyton on his way to Kissimmee, Fla., where he won the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo, April 6-9. Not only had Stipes just been to Disneyworld, but he’d also just purchased a new truck and hadn’t even made the first payment yet.

Nevertheless, Stipes would go home with a voucher for $20,000 toward a new Dodge RAM, along with bragging rights, trophies and $15,447 cash, courtesy of the 4.9-second run he and his heeler, 30-year-old Buddy Hawkins II of Columbus, Kan., put together to win the PRCA’s 30th Annual RNCFR. Their Prairie Circuit also claimed the coveted team title, besting the PRCA’s 11 other circuits for the third time in five years.

According to Hawkins, a former NFR qualifier and Bfichamp, Stipes is one of the most underrated headers in rodeo. The horse trainer from Salina, Okla., had made his circuit finals a few times, but never won the average or year-end titles.

He and Hawkins didn’t win those last year, either, but as reserve champs to Coleman Proctor and Billie Jack Saebens, they punched their ticket to Kissimmee when Proctor and Saebens won both titles at the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo.

Setting the Pace

Stipes and Hawkins had made business-like runs of 5.6 and 6.0 seconds on their first two steers, which placed them second in the average and made them almost last to rope in the semi-finals. The two came tight in less than 6 seconds to squeeze into the finals in fourth. That meant Stipes and Hawkins would be first to rope in the finals.