LAS VEGAS – For a man in a couple of world-title races, Coleman Proctor is focused on something rather sophomoric.
“It got pretty simple after we missed the second steer of this week,” said Proctor, who is fourth in the heading standings and third in the all-around hunt. “If we didn’t win, it wasn’t going to matter. I’ve got to be winning first or second, maybe tolerate a third. Our plan stays the same: We’re going to pin our ears back and go hard.”
He and his heeler, Logan Medlin, stopped the clock in 4.1 seconds to finish as the runners-up during Thursday’s eighth round, earning $26,624. They have each collected $107,258 so far, and they have two nights remaining to see what else can happen, and a great deal has over the initial eight days.
In fact, Proctor and Medlin have shot up to sixth in the aggregate race even though they’ve had two no-times. They have knocked down six steers in 24.7 seconds. That could be a factor when the week is done, because the top eight teams in the average will earn bonuses. The higher the placing, the more money they earn.
“When those first few teams went out of the average, I knew we were close, and then they’d had seven caught, and we were only one steer down,” Proctor said. When I watched them struggle, I was sitting right next to (tie-down roper) Shane Hanchey and said, ‘Man, one thing about it; my plan can’t change.’ Thankfully it looked like things took a better turn for us for the overall picture, but none of that matters. It’s team roping.”
Proctor sits fourth in the heading world standings with $263,048 and is just $63,000 behind the leader Tyler Wade. Proctor is third in a tight all-around race, but he’s just $1,800 behind the No. 1 man, tie-down roper Shad Mayfield, and just $80 behind the runner-up, heeler Junior Nogueira. Both gold buckles are very much in play.
“Luke Branquinho told me best,” Proctor said of the five-time world champion steer wrestler. “He said, ‘You’re the only person that controls that pressure valve. Don’t let anybody get it turned up on you.’ It’s been nice just backing in. We’ve got to go as fast as we can and try to win deep every night. That’s the big thing and just keep trying to do our jobs. The money we’re putting in the bank is just putting pressure on somebody else.
“If I can jut keep hammering the barrier and giving my guy looks, I feel like it’s going to go favorable for us toward the end.”
The race for a world championship is a marathon that began 14 months ago, but it’s turning into a sprint with two nights left on the 2024 ProRodeo campaign. It’s the last 200 meters of a kilometer run, and Proctor has his gas pedal on the floor.
“The main thing is having the experience coming back here nine times,” he said. “I’ve only been in the world-title race one other time, and I’ll never forget that pressure and never forget that feeling. It came hot. It overwhelmed me. I’ve had a lot of growth and maturity that certainly has helped me out a whole lot, but we hope that the gray hairs I’m starting to get from those three little girls will start paying dividends in this roping arena.”