Seba Dalkai cowboy Derrick Begay making a case for return trip to WNFR

CHURCH ROCK, N.M.

Derrick Begay qualified for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in 2008, a feat that vaulted him into the upper echelon of the team roping world.

And for six straight years, he arrived at the famed Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev., with the intentions of winning a world championship in the PRCA ranks.

Last season, however, he experienced an anomaly by missing his first finals.

“I was bummed out that I didn’t make it but it wasn’t no life-changing deal,” Begay said, while admitting that he had some reservations about where his career was headed.

“I thought about it and I was thinking ‘Oh shoot! I missed the finals,” Begay said in an interview after finishing second in the open team roping at the Red Rock Classic last Friday. “I was wondering how was it going to be.”

Still Begay made the trip to WNFR to watch fellow Natives – Aaron Tsinigine, Erich Rogers and Dustin Bird – compete at the year-end finals.
“Man when you’re sitting back in the stands it just looks so easy but really it’s not,” he said.

Admittedly, the Seba Dalkai, Ariz., cowboy said it was hard to see his three best friends compete but in hindsight he gained a different perspective.

“Maybe it was a good thing because it kind of rejuvenated me,” he said. “It gave a different outlook for this year. It seemed like I took it for granted making all those finals.”

With the summer season fast approaching, Begay is a different place.

At press time, he was sitting second in the year-end standing with over $41,000 won with heeling partner Clay O’Brien Cooper.

“It’s always a dream of mine to rope with him and I finally get a chance to do that,” Begay said of Cooper, who qualified for his 28th WNFR last December.

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