Building a Champion: Riley Webb’s Rise from Junior NFR to Gold Buckles

In 2014, Riley Webb made his first trip to Las Vegas to compete at the inaugural Junior National Finals Rodeo.

“The first year it was the Roy Cooper Junior Invitational and I think I was 11 years old at the time,” Webb recalled. “I competed (at the Junior NFR) every year until I was 18 in 2021.”

Webb will make his annual pilgrimage to Vegas again in December as he looks to win his third consecutive Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association tie-down roping world championship at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

The 22-year-old Webb currently leads the PRCA world standings with nearly $300,000 on the year. Shad Mayfield, another former Junior NFR competitor, is second in the world standings.

“Shad is a couple years older than me, but he was always at the Junior NFR,” Webb noted. “So we got to rope against each other back in the day and now we’re still battling it out at the real NFR.”

Webb had been roping long before he made his first trip to Vegas with his parents, Dirk and Jennifer Webb. But he doesn’t think he’d be in the position he is now without all those years competing at the Junior NFR.

“Getting to go to Vegas and getting that experience was great,” he said. “I got to see all those guys I looked up to and the arena had those yellow chutes and yellow panels, just like they had at the NFR. And there was great competition that pushed you to get better because I was learning something new every time I was there.”

Webb was learning from, and competing against, the best at the Junior NFR.

In addition to Mayfield, who won the 2020 tie-down world title and is the defending world all-around champion, Webb remembers watching and learning from older ropers like Shane Hanchey and Tuf Cooper, who would often show up at the rodeo.

For a kid who dreamed of following in their footsteps – Hanchey was the 2013 world champion and Tuf Cooper won three tie-down world titles (2011-12, 2014) and the 2017 all around title – Vegas was the place to be.

“I got to go to all the ropings (around Vegas) with my mom and dad, and I watched the NFR on TV, and I just took everything in,” Webb said. “I watched how guys acted, how they tied their jerk line … I tried everything, and if it didn’t work for me then I tried something else.”

Obviously, Webb has figured out what works for him on the pro circuit and under the bright lights of the Thomas & Mack Center. Even back in the early days of the Junior NFR, though, he was good enough “to win a few rounds.” He made other ropers take notice in 2021 when he won the average at his final Junior NFR.

“I bought my permit in August of 2021, and that was the last year I got to rope in the Junior NFR,” he said. “It really hit me that year because I was buying my (PRCA) card for the 2022 season and I had a chance to come back the next year and make the real NFR.

“I knew it was my last year at the Junior NFR so I wanted to make it count. I learned a lot and it taught me a lot, but now it was time to move on to the big show.”

Even though Webb has aged out of the Junior NFR, he still has strong ties to the rodeo. His parents run Webb Roping Productions, which provides cattle for the Junior NFR breakaway and tie-down roping competitions; and Jennifer is the producer of the tie-down.

“It’s a great event and you can’t take it for granted,” Webb said of the Junior NFR. “My goal when I was 18 was to be in Vegas every year competing at the NFR.

“When I did make it to the NFR it was a little different,” he added, “but I had the routine for getting ready. I knew we were going to leave the day after Thanksgiving. It’s been the same deal for the last 12 or 13 years so it doesn’t feel out of the ordinary. ‘All right, we’re going to load up and head out to Vegas and get ready to rope.’”

As long as Webb can remember, he’s had Vegas on his mind.

“When you’re a kid one of your big goals is to make it to the Junior NFR,” he said. “And once you’re in the pros your goal is to make it to the NFR.”