Cinch cowboy Doescher becomes first Oklahoman to win title
(PHOTO BY JAMES PHIFER)
In December 1984, the Lazy E Arena opened near Guthrie, Oklahoma, in time to host the National Finals Steer Roping in conjunction with the National Finals Rodeo, which was just a few miles away in downtown Oklahoma City.
Still, organizers wanted a showcase to define the now-historic complex. Three months later, the inaugural Cinch Timed Event Championship featured the greatest all-around timed-event cowboys of that era in a battle for big bucks and the bragging rights of being the best ever.
This happened five years before Cody Doescher was born, yet he still holds one of the most distinct honors in the event, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary during the three days of competition set for Thursday, Feb. 29-Saturday, March 2.
A year ago, the Oklahoma City-born cowboy became the first Sooner State competitor to win the Timed Event. In days, he will try to defend that title against 24 other extremely talented cowboys, including world champions like Clay Smith, Haven Meged, Erich Rogers, Tyler Pearson and Cole Patterson. He’ll also test his talents against other Timed Event titlist, including Rogers, two-time titlist Paul David Tierney, Jess Tierney, Justin Thigpen, Taylor Santos, Marcus Theriot and K.C. Jones, a five-time winner.
“Winning the Timed Event means a lot to me, because that’s about as close to my hometown as I’ll get rodeo-wise,” said Doescher, 33, a Cinch-endorsed cowboy now living in the eastern Oklahoma hamlet of Webbers Falls. “The Lazy E is a special place to me; I won my first saddle ever there when I was a kid. There are so many great cowboys from Oklahoma, and I’m able to represent Oklahoma on that kind of stage.”
The unique championship features 25 contestants competing in all five timed-event disciplines: heading, heeling, steer wrestling, tie-down roping and steer roping. One time through the order constitutes a round, and there are five spread out over three days. It’s a rugged test of ability, adaptability and resilience.
It’s especially grueling in a day and age when more cowboys are focused less on their all-around talents and more on individual-event success. Leo Camarillo was already an all-around champion who was part of the first class inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame when he won the first Timed Event in 1985.
Trevor Brazile is the winningest cowboy, not only in ProRodeo but also in the Lazy E’s history. He owns seven Timed Event titles to go along with his 26 PRCA gold buckles, a dozen of which came in the all-around; the others spread over heading, tie-down roping and steer roping. Most of this year’s field includes cowboys who focus on one event and dabble in others.
Doescher is a true all-around cowboy and made a living over several years competing in multiple events. Much of the time, those were team roping as a heeler and steer wrestling, but he’s never been afraid to rope calves or trip steers. He proved it last March when he left the Lazy E Arena with $107,000 in earnings.
“It’s being able to compete at that level in more than one event,” said Doescher, a 2008 Moore (Oklahoma) High School graduate. “There are so many great team ropers and great steer wrestlers and great calf ropers and so many great rodeo guys, but there are not that many that can really compete at a high level at multiple events. Most guys growing up do several events, but when it gets time to start doing it for a living, they focus on one event and try to succeed at that one event the best they can.
“I’ve done several events for so long, I like having more than one opportunity at making money. I’ve always worked at multiple events just like I was in one event. Seeing guys outside their comfort zones makes it fun, because you’re going to see guys bulldog that haven’t bulldogged since high school or college trying to do it again.”
That’s the intrigue of the Timed Event, that something special that draws out the true cowboy deep within all competitors in the mix. Trying to overcome challenges is just half the battle.
“They have to sharpen back up and back in the (timed-event) box for $100,000 and do something they don’t do every day,” he said. “That’s what makes that event stand out. To do the challenge and be able to compete on that kind of stage is something you don’t see or hear about every day.”
Doescher received his first offer to be in this invitation-only field in 2014. For nine years, he was bruised and bloodied, all while scraping together some solid performances. He earned just $12,500 in that time. His 10th Timed Event became his finest rodeo moment and provided him and his family with life-changing money. Now, he enters the coveted championship with a chance to defend its title, something hasn’t been done since 2007, when Brazile accomplished it for the second time.
“Everybody there is capable of winning,” he said.
Five years ago, Doescher was a full-time rodeo cowboy, primarily living on the earnings he made through success in the arena. Circumstances changed at the 2020 Timed Event. He suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery and kept him on the sidelines. Some of the big, winter rodeos in Texas didn’t allow for medical exemptions, so the opportunities to cash in became fewer.
With a growing family – he has a wife, Courtney; two step-children, Paizley Rock, 13, and Rance Rock, 8; and a 3-year-old son, Holten – Doescher found more consistent income as a ringman for auctions. He travels across the country with his auction career and is building a business with it.
“Without those exemptions at San Antonio and Houston and stuff like that, I wasn’t going to chase it,” he said. “Before I ever got married, I made a promise to myself that I would never go off rodeoing and chase money if I had a family to feed. I’d been in the auction business and had been helping my grandpa here and there since I was 13, so I started working the ring a little bit. My dad got my foot in the door at a few places, and my auction career took off from there.”
He hasn’t abandoned rodeo, but he’s found competing closer to home a little more to his liking. He purchased his IPRA card last year and made enough money to qualify for the International Finals Rodeo, which took place at the Lazy E Arena in January. It helped rekindle a little of the passion he’s had for so much of his life.
“I don’t have much desire to go off rodeoing, but I started to enjoy being out there and started to enjoy roping and bulldogging and being around it a little again,” Doescher said. “I went to maybe 30 rodeos, a few back East at the end of the season. It was enjoyable to be able to go to most of the stuff close to home. I could work in rodeos between my sales, and it made it fun.”
The Cinch Timed Event Championship is unique in its format and its challenges. There are struggles from one run to another, but it’s overcoming any adversity that helps define warriors. Over its first 39 years, only 19 men have been crowned its champion. Inside the walls of this storied complex rests the banners for every titlist, with the most recent being the first native Oklahoman.
“Being able to represent my home state is special; when they drop my banner, it will be before my hometown crowd,” Doescher said. “I’m able to represent my state and my family with my banner up there with some of the greatest cowboys to ever do it. That means as much to me as anything.”