The boys of BFI greats get great advice – and great expectations
In very few professional sports do fathers and sons reach the same pinnacle, but the BFI is special. This year’s early roster reveals several sons of former BFI champs, from Tyler Tryan to Trey Yates to Reece Wadhams to Nicky Northcott. It’s a double-edged sword – these kids got supreme mentorship, but they’re also bearing heavy expectations.
Twenty-eight years after David Motes won the BFI as a header, his son Ryan clinched the prestigious title in 2009 at the heel end. The only other father and son to sport BFI buckles are Travis Woodard, who won it all in 2003, and his dad Walt, who came tight on the bucket-list win actually after his son, in 2008.
There are more father-son talents with BFI history, including Mike and Brandon Beers, Denton and Justin Parish, Speed and Gabe Williams, and more. But so far, only the Woodard and Motes families are to jackpotting what Mannings are to football.
“Ken Griffey Jr. tried to commit suicide when he was 17 because of the pressure,” said Travis, of the eventual Baseball Hall of Famer who with his dad became the first-ever father-son teammates in the Major Leagues in 1990. “I definitely think it’s real.”
Travis, as the only son of a heeling GOAT and veteran instructor of the sport, said he didn’t have much trouble with the added pressure of being a Woodard, but he still reckons it’s easier for a guy who’s not from a famous roping family,
“I still get compared,” he said. “I’m 42 and people tell me how they figure my dad’s schools are different than mine.”
It’s a big shadow to grow up in. Travis’ nephew is Jade Corkill’s son Colby, who’s only 14 but entered his first BFI this year and will compete against his three-time-world-champion-dad on March 29.
“Of course, I worry about the pressure he might put on himself,” Travis said of the youngster. “If I could go back, I’d tell my 15-year-old self to take it easier.”
Reese Wadhams is 24 now, and entered in his second BFI. His dad Jay Wadhams won the epic roping in 2010 with J.D. Yates, when Reese was 9.
“It definitely pushes me a little more to do well there,” said Wadhams, who heeled his way to a reserve national high school rodeo title. “It does dang sure light a little bit of a fire under me to try and do what he did.”
Reese and Ky Redstrom won a round at last year’s BFI, and they want to win the whole shebang this time. Wadhams said Jay hasn’t ever been very hard on him, coaching-wise.
“The main thing he told me was always just do my job and catch two feet; not do anything dumb to take me out of the roping,” said Reese. “He just let me do my deal, and helps if I’ve got questions.”
Team roping has a funny way of becoming all-encompassing in families. That’s where Woodard thinks if a kid has a good relationship with God, it helps. He points to the attitude he always saw from another GOAT heeler, Patrick Smith, who worked hard but kept in mind that only if it was God’s will, he’d win. And if he didn’t, he’d continue to work hard.
“That’s a great way to deal with that kind of stress and pressure,” Woodard said. “If you put the burden only on your own shoulders, that could be tough.”
Plus, it’s hard for kids not to take for granted what’s happening at the time. Travis looks back and thinks how cool it was that he got to heel for Walt Woodard at the BFI. Yep, the aging world champ trained a head horse so he could spin for his boy when Travis first entered the most prestigious roping in the country.
Travis’ own 12-year-old son ropes, but is eaten up with baseball. Maybe that’s because the San Franisco Giants’ Madison Bumgarner took him (and his dad) to Game 7 of the 2014 World Series the year MadBum was named MVP.
“Wearing his champagne goggles as a 4-year-old and eating steak and lobster next to those Major Leaguers might have affected his mindset,” joked Travis.
Their DNA is not what gives these kids the ability to win the BFI. What it does give them is daily exposure to some of the best horsemen and ropers in the world, the chance to ride some of the best horses, and their dads’ great advice.
Hall-of-Fame heeler Bobby Harris never won the BFI. His son Ryan got very good at heeling, and when people would walk up and ask Ryan if he heeled as well as Bobby, he’d simply shoot the same question back at them and ask, “Do you?”
Woodard said kids either let the comparisons eat them up, or they just learn to stop listening.
“I heard Jake Barnes talking about pressure one time,” recalled Woodard. “He said if he wakes up and ropes as the best Jake Barnes that he can be, then he is the pressure. And I always tried to think of it that way, like I was only competing against myself.”