Rodeo personnel make Sisters event shine

With praise for having one of the best rodeos in the PRCA, Sisters Rodeo gives a tip of the cowboy hat to the professional contractors who make the rodeo's fast pace attract fans from across the nation.

The team includes the four-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Announcer of the Year, Wayne Brooks, a smooth announcer on horseback, who shares the stage with one of the best historians and statisticians in rodeo, Curt Robinson.

The complementary duo keeps the crowd informed and interested in all eight events of the rodeo. Their quick wits highlight the unusual and unexpected twists that spice up any rodeo. Both announcers are familiar figures and voices at National Finals Rodeo.

In the arena, the bullfighters are superb athletes who fire on a fast trigger to protect a bull rider, sometimes putting themselves in danger. Rowdy Barry and Dan Newman exhibit their well-honed skills to get space between bulls and riders after a ride, over and over again. Sometimes, they are a show of their own.

Ryan Manning, 20-year-old son of Rowdy Barry, will be the second bullfighter in the arena with his dad during Xtreme Bulls. "I never wanted to ride bulls," Manning said, "but I have watched my dad all my life and wanted to be a bullfighter like him."

JJ Harrison, barrelman and clown, has risen to world rodeo fame from a PRCA career that began at Sisters Rodeo. Rodeos clamor for a chance to have this energized rodeo entertainer. When he is on the job, his purpose is to get the attention of a bull, drawing it away from a rider and keeping it focused until it can be released through the exit gate.

The entertainment JJ provides, both in this event and throughout the rodeo, supplies some of the best laughs in the stands. There will be two face-painting booths at the rodeo so kids can look "just like JJ," and fill the stands with little JJ rodeo clowns.

The stock contractor, Mike Corey, brings competing rodeo animals (stock) that continue to enhance the reputation of Flying Diamond Stock Company all the way to National Finals Rodeo. The company had 11 animals qualify for 2015 National Finals Rodeo in all three bucking events, bareback riding, saddle- bronc riding and bull riding. The bull Bottle Rocket was third in the NFR ratings.

The professionalism of the stock contractor deserves the credit for keeping the action popping at Sisters. Corey's professional crew has the ability to keep the flow unfettered, moving animals into chutes or into a line-up and then getting them out of the arena quickly for the next competitor. From behind the chutes to the mounted pick-up men in the arena, John Leavitt, the Arena Director, could not have better organization.

"We have collected a crew of professionals that works so well together that we have not found a reason to make any changes for many years," said Leavitt.

With the McMillan Family Trick Riders as special entertainment, the rodeo will keep fans hyped from the start, when the professional wild horse race amps it up to the grand finale bull rides that cause the ground to tremble in each performance of the rodeo's non-stop action.

The rodeo recommends buying tickets early.

Sisters Rodeo will begin June 8 with Xtreme Bulls followed by four rodeo performances June 10-12. For tickets and information, call the ticket hotline at 541-549-0121 or 1-800-827-7522, or visit the ticket office at 220 W. Cascade Ave. For information visit www.sistersrodeo.com.