Derrick Begay hits notable career milestone by winning RodeoHouston

CROWNPOINT – Derrick Begay has accomplished a lot in his professional career.

The Seba Dalkai, Arizona, cowboy is one of the most consistent team ropers in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association ranks, having qualified for 10 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo events.

His list of accolades includes wins at the World’s Oldest Rodeo in Prescott, Arizona (three times), the Pendleton Round-Up in Oregon (three times), the California Rodeo Salinas and the Navajo Nation Fourth of July PRCA Rodeo in Window Rock.

He was also the co-champion at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo.

The one rodeo that remained on his bucket list to win was RodeoHouston. On Sunday, Begay checked that one off his list after capturing one of PRCA’s notable winter rodeos with heeling partner Colter Todd inside the NRG Park in Houston.

“Houston has always been on the top of my list, and I never could get it done,” Begay said. “And finally, I got it done this past weekend.”

Begay, who traveled 18-plus hours on Sunday night to make it back home to the Navajo Nation on Monday afternoon, said that he was surprised to come out on top as the team roping competition had an unexpected turn of events during Sunday’s Championship Shootout.

Begay figured that Erich Rogers, and his partner Kollin VonAhn were the favorites to win, but Rogers had a mishap when he missed his dally as that last run produced a no time.

“Before this even started, I was pretty sure that Rogers was going to do good because they sorted all the steers and they were supposed to be good,” Begay added. “So, I was thinking Rogers was going to go out there and be probably a 4.7 or a 4.8.”

Despite the no time, Rogers didn’t leave Houston empty-handed as he and his partner collected $10,000 in the Championship Shootout.

The next team out was the two-time reigning world champions in Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp. Unfortunately, the duo was assessed a 10-second penalty with a broken barrier as that run turned into a 16.2.

“Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp are always fast, so I was assuming that they were going to set the bar,” Begay said. “I was thinking by the time we went out, we’ll know what we have to do, but it was kind of the opposite.

“One (team) had a no time, and one had a barrier, so when we went out there, we just had to make a clean run.”

With all that chaos, Begay acknowledged the previous runs played into his head, something that he never thinks about.

“That is when it got me really thinking, so I was like, ‘OK. Well, don’t break the barrier,’” the Arizona team roper said. “I just had to make sure that I turned that steer because I knew Colter would do his part.”

The pair passed that test with flying colors as they set the bar with a 5.8 run with one team left. The final team of Tanner Tomlinson and Travis Graves also ran into bad luck as they, too, broke the barrier, which gave them a 15.1 run.

“It doesn’t feel like we really won it,” Begay mused over. “We just kind of like survived. After we did all our interviews, I was thinking back on why we won it and how we won it?

“The only thing that I can think of is – it was just our time, and we were meant to win it.”

With the first-place run, the Begay/Todd duo collected $65,000 each for winning the Championship Shootout as the pair now lead the world standings with $91,182.

The second-place team of Tomlinson/Graves collected $30,000 while the team of Wade/Thorp took home $20,000.

And while the circumstances for the other qualifiers didn’t go as planned, Begay was humbled in winning RodeoHouston as this triumph took years in the making.

“It kind of feels unreal,” Begay said. “I mean, this is like a bucket list of rodeos that everybody wants to win whether you have been rodeoing for one year or for multiple years like I have.

“This is what everybody wants to win, but this doesn’t happen all of a sudden,” he added. “It took my whole career to finally get this done. There were stretches to where I drove away from (NRG Park) disappointed more times than I can count.”

But to his credit, Begay accomplished this feat at the ripe age of 41 years old. With that, he has grown to value this triumph more than he would have if he won this title at the start of his successful career that began in 2007.

“That’s the nature of growing older,” Begay said. “When you’re a kid, you don’t see things as you do when you get older like I do. For it to come later in my career, I think I’ll appreciate it more than I would have if it had come earlier.”

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