Sunday's Tucson Rodeo Finals included 12 Arizonans but many cowboys and cowgirls came from afar — including La Fiesta de los Vaqueros first-timer Heith DeMoss.
That is, the 22-year-old saddle bronc rider is pretty sure it's his first Tucson Rodeo.
"I've been knocked a lot, but I think this is the first one," DeMoss quipped before the sold-out finals.
"It's actually a really well-known rodeo — one of the bigger rodeos out of the year. Anybody who's anybody has got to come through it," he said.
DeMoss, of Crowville, La., competed at the the 83rd annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros with his free arm in a cast. He broke it about about a month ago while saddle bronc riding in Odessa, Texas.
Even with his injury, DeMoss rounded off the Tucson Rodeo with an aggregate score of 164, which placed him in a tie for second with Jess Martin of Dillon, Mont.
People are also reading…
DeMoss won $3,925, including $900 from his ride Friday, said Joan Liess, the rodeo's media director.
Longtime rodeo cowboy Billy Etbauer of Edmond, Okla., was the overall Tucson Rodeo winner in saddle bronc.
DeMoss hasn't had much time to experience the Old Pueblo, but he thinks he likes it.
"I went to Denny's earlier in the day, but other than that, it's been in and out for me. I haven't had time to do anything," he said. "It's a good town, I think, but I haven't got to experience any of it, and I don't feel I'm going to get to. After I finish today, I've got to head back."
For him, the rodeo life is a traveling one. After competing in the Tucson Rodeo on Friday, he went to a rodeo in San Angelo, Texas, before driving back to Tucson for this rodeo's finals.
His next destinations are Dallas, San Angelo again, Hawaii and finally his home state of Louisiana.
"It gets tiring, but earlier in the year I'm ready to go — ready to get on the road."
DeMoss, whose older brother Cody is a well-known saddle bronc rider, team-roped in high school and didn't start saddle bronc riding until he was 17.
After breaking about three bones in his first year riding broncs, he started doing it professionally at age 19 and, since then, has been off to a leaping start.
In December, he won at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas as an NFR rookie. Now he has a second-place tie in the Tucson Rodeo under his belt.
And of course the added benefit of making money doing something that he loves.
"I don't think there's anything better in the world than it — traveling and meeting everybody, new friends and the rush of it," he said.
Sean Elliott: Homegrown talent gives Arizona basketball special spark in Final Four run
