Teen hits the big time

The 14-year-old does not speak in sentences, muttering three or four words at a time when he has no other choice. Bright and friendly, Rudy plain does not like talking about himself, letting pauses hang in the air like hawks looking for food.

You ask him what it felt like this fall, when he and teammate Boshane Beatty of Whiteriver split $100,000 after winning the No. 12 Shootout category of the United States Team Roping Championships.

With other victories, the San Manuel Middle School student walked away from the Super Bowl of roping with $54,600, a belt buckle, saddle, ostrich boots and a Western print.

After winning the event in Oklahoma, Rudy and his parents went out for prime rib and shrimp.

Then what did he do? Wallpaper his bedroom with flat-screen televisions? Buy an iPod every day for a year? Purchase a sports car just to stare at for three years before he could legally drive it?

Rudy blushes.

"Save it up to buy steers," he said.

The money has been used to balance out Rudy's entry fees to roping events. He did splurge on one thing — a Palomino. Rudy named him Old Yeller.

No, winning all that money has not changed Rudy's life one bit.

Three years ago, when his family moved from Tucson to Mammoth, that is when his life changed. And his roping took off.

Little Rudy — his dad is Big Rudy — was born in Tucson.

Big Rudy is a roper — he puts on events in Tucson, Rio Rico and Nogales — and Little Rudy wanted to be just like him. He learned to ride a horse, it seems, as early as he could walk.

He would rope the family dogs.

"They'd run after me sometimes," said Rudy, who turned 14 on Thursday.

There was nothing young Rudy liked better than going to see his cousins and grandparents in Mammoth, a town nestled on the other side of the Catalina Mountains on the banks of the San Pedro River.

Big Rudy grew up there, winning the high school national roping finals in 1980 while at San Manuel High School.

His father, Benny, still lives on the 90 acres at age 77. Benny's father, Arthur, bought the land in the 1940s after running cattle through the valley. Benny and his son, Robert, still farm oats and alfalfa, and keep cattle.

When Rudy, an only child, was younger, he would beg to go north, then refuse to return home. When his parents' truck would pull up to take back to the city, Rudy would run into the hills and refuse to come down.

"In Tucson, he didn't have anybody," said his mom, Sonya. "It was just him and his dogs."

There was something about family that Little Rudy loved. He did not mind waking up at 5:30 a.m. on hot summer days to irrigate and plow and corral cows.

"You can go ride your horse anywhere you want, and everybody knows you," he said. "Family and freedom. I like it" in Mammoth.

"I always wanted to be up here near my uncles and my cousins, working out here."

The Clarks moved from Tucson's South Side to Mammoth in 2003 to be closer to family and help nurture Little Rudy's interests.

"In Tucson, there are a lot of kids that rope. But his cousins rope out here, his uncles," said his mom, who also competes in roping competitions. "That gave him more of an opportunity."

As a young boy, Rudy had competed in "dummy roping" competitions — roping fake steers attached to hay bales — with Boshane, whose dad roped alongside Big Rudy. The two boys did not enter their first USTRC event until January's Arizona Championship in San Carlos.

Rudy was the "header," aiming to rope the steer around its horns. Boshane, 15, was the "heeler," aiming for the back legs.

Rudy and Boshane roped four steers in a total time of 36.04 seconds. They won $11,704 and earned an invite to the national championships in Oklahoma.

In Oklahoma, the pair totaled 32.24 seconds to bring down four steers.

"I've been roping for 17 years and have won third or 12th or something," said Big Rudy, smiling. "He wins in their first year, and he and his partner had only roped two times together."

Little Rudy still swears he was not nervous entering the ring for the last go-round, when he and his partner had to rope a steer in under 8.71 seconds to win the title.

"It's not about the money; it's about having fun," he said.

And what was the best part?

"Winning money," he laughed.

Spending time with his family seems like the perfect day for Rudy. He practices every other day at the pen, a football's throw from his house. Sometimes, his cousins and family friends stop by.

"We go down there and rope, then take a break for a while, cook steaks and wrestle with each other," he said.

On Christmas, as they do every year, about 20 or so Clarks and family friends will head down to the pen.

The only child will do what he loves, with the people he loves, something he dreamed of doing years ago.

"Some people like other sports; I'm the one that likes rodeo," Rudy said. "It's my life."

"It's not about the money; it's about having fun," said Rudy, 14, who brought home $54,600 from a national rodeo this fall.

And what was the best part?

"Winning money," he laughed.