# 15 Shoot Out
2016 Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team
Roping
Saturday October 22 2016
J R Dees and Riley Wilson
By Melinda Clements
Once
in a great while people come along in your life that you just know are a
Godsend to restore your faith in humanity. Every once in awhile things unfold and you just have to
smile. Such is the case with J R
Dees and Riley Wilson. They just
make you smile. They put joy in
your heart and you suddenly realize we are all human and it is okay to be
honest, open, joyous and sincere and one does not have to wear a mask or
pretend. Life is, indeed, a ball so take it and run wild.
J
R Dees was ecstatic. He had just
won the #15 Preliminary at the 2016 Cinch USTRC Team Roping in Oklahoma City
with partner, Riley Williams. He
so wanted to repeat the win in the #15 Shoot Out with partner, Riley
Wilson. The kid ropes awesome.
“I’m
pretty lucky to have some good heelers,” Dees voiced. “I’ve been a little
nervous through all this.” As it
turned out Dees and his partner, Riley Wilson was the sixth high team back
going into the short go round of the #15 Shoot Out at this years NFTR. Dees had tasted victory and he more
than liked the feeling. To say he
was on a role was to underestimate what was staring everyone in the face.
Wilson,
however, was like a cat on a hot tin roof. “You are not human if you are not
nervous,” Wilson voiced. “I could not sit still. I could not think. I had been a bundle of nerves and
stressed from the moment I had stepped on a plane headed from Canada to
Oklahoma. It had been a zoo, lost
luggage, crazy horses and strange happenings. I lost my stirrups and made the
shot of the century with no stirrups. I felt like a monkey trying to ride a
basketball through the whole deal. I had to check and make sure I didn’t need
some clean clothes.”
Regardless
of what Wilson was trying to cope with when he and Dees rode into the box in
the short go round it was all business.
“I
had to put it behind me,” Wilson elaborated. “I just rode into the box and
thought about being fourteen years old when roping was just fun and I roped
because it is fun and what I love to do. By golly, it worked.”
It
did work. Dees and Wilson posted a
time of 6.46 on their short round steer and set into motion a chain of events
that involved waiting and trying to stay calm, cool and collected. A waiting
game is never fun.
When
the dust cleared and the numbers were totaled one team emerged that would make
you smile. Dees and Wilson would
take the win the #15 Shoot Out.
Splitting $100,000 the pair would also take home Martin Championship
Team Roping Saddles, Gist Championship Gold Buckles, Tony Lama Boots and
Western Horseman Framed Prints. The win was phenomenal.
“Is
this real?” Dees asked when
presented a check for $50,000.
“Wow, I can’t believe it!”
“I
just want to kiss this kid,” Wilson said ecstatically. “You understand when you
get older and slower you go find someone younger and faster? That is why we
rope together. When the best header out there wants you to rope with them you
just naturally say YES!” His mood was contagious.
As
the team posed for pictures and gathered for interviews the pair was
electric. They reveled in the
attention and wondered if it was all a dream. Cameras clicked as they tried to
answer questions about being nervous and how it was to rope and suddenly have
so much money.
“I
asked this kid how much money he had when this all started,” Wilson teased and
he actually had about five bucks left in his pocket. Now I can borrow money from him and not feel bad.”
“I
couldn’t find you when it was our turn to rope,” Dees jabbed back. “I thought
you had left. I just wondered where you were and what you were doing. I figured
you had left me hanging.”
Dees
is eighteen years old and Wilson wouldn’t give his age then Dees ratted on him
and Wilson denied it only to say that he was old enough to know better.
As
the interview ended and the coliseum became dark somewhere in the darkness a
golf cart made its way to some distant stalls. Whoops and hollers and shouts of joy filled the cool night
air and upon further investigation one reporter discovered two team ropers in
the company of friends still celebrating their good luck. Dees and Wilson were embracing their
good fortune. They had rerun and
rehashed the #15 Shoot Out at the 2016 Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team
Roping over and over again. Dees
still wondered if it was real.
With
joy and a humble thanksgiving the ropers would never ever forget one evening in
2016 when they were crowned the National Champions of the #15 Shoot Out. Smile and think back. Team roping is a timed event and time
is of the essence. Team Roping changes things and it always makes a difference.
