For the 11th time, more than 700 of the nation’s top young cowboys and cowgirls are headed to Las Vegas in December as the YETI Junior National Finals Rodeo returns to Vegas on Dec. 3-12. For the third year in a row, the Wrangler Rodeo Arena will be set up inside a 49,500-square-foot tent across from the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center in the Platinum parking lot.
“We have a home in the Platinum lot,” said Brilynn Bentley, the Junior NFR Assistant General Manager for Las Vegas Events. “We made some changes, like adding an archway off the entry point, and fans will notice the layout is slightly different than the last couple of years, but we didn’t make any massive changes.
“We tightened it up, gave it more of a fan-fest feel and made it cleaner visually,” Bentley added. “We want contestants and fans to have the best possible experience.”
In other words, the LVE team continues to raise the bar for the YETI Junior NFR. Contestants ranging in age from 10 to 18 will once again compete in bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and pole bending. They will compete for more than $1 million in cash (giant checks!) and prizes ranging from buckles to saddles to horse trailers and more.
Parents might want to make sure they have extra room in their rig for the trip home.
While other junior rodeos have popped up over the years across the country, the YETI Junior
NFR remains the gold standard.
Lacie DeMers, who runs the Junior Roughstock Association (JRA), which is the qualifying system for the Junior NFR, and serves as the producer for the bareback and saddle bronc competition, has been involved with the Junior NFR since it first began in Vegas. She believes the success of the event begins at the top with Junior NFR General Manager Bo Gardner.
“Other associations are hit and miss,” DeMers said, “but the Junior NFR is bigger and better and it’s the most prestigious. Bo and his team know what they’re doing, and when they make changes it’s always for the better.”
With the Junior NFR taking place over the same 10 days as the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo across town at the Thomas & Mack Center, it has the feel of the NFR and puts the young contestants one step closer to rodeo’s year-end showcase. Three-time defending world champion tie-down roper Riley Webb, former world champion bareback riders Keenan Hayes, Dean Thompson and Bradlee Miller, the current leader in the world standings, along with a number of NFR qualifiers the past few years, all competed at the Wrangler Rodeo Arena.
“The Junior NFR is a steppingstone for the NFR,” DeMers said. “And even after they make it to the NFR these guys come back to the Junior NFR on a regular basis; not because they have to but because they want to be there. They take time to help these kids, because they want to give back to the Junior NFR platform.”
Demers is impressed each year by the development of the athletes, starting at a young age.
“Those kids don’t just look up to the guys in the NFR, they look up to the kids in the Junior NFR,” she said. “We’ve created a legacy that is being passed down.”