Three-time world champion team roper Clay Tryan of Billings now encouraging his sons’ rodeo dreams
The Northern States Invitational, part of the Wrangler Team Roping Championships season, is being contested at the Expo Center at MetraPark in Billings this weekend. The event started Friday morning and will run until approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday night. Roping continues on both Saturday an…
BILLINGS — In a rarity, Clay Tryan will miss the Wrangler Team Roping Championships Finals at MetraPark Tuesday through Sept. 29.
Now in its 19th year of competition in the Magic City, the WNTRF is run by Tryan’s father, Dennis, and brother, Travis.
The lucrative team roping event has been something that Clay — a three-time world champion team roper with championships in 2005, 2013, and 2014 — hasn’t missed much over the years.
Clay Tryan at the Wrangler National Team Roping Finals in the fall of 2020
Three-time world champion team roper Clay Tryan, pictured outside the Metra in the fall of 2020, hasn’t officially retired from the sport of rodeo but isn’t “trying to make the NFR anymore.” Tryan, who lists Billings as his hometown on his PRCA biography, currently lives in Texas and is focused on his family and encouraging his two oldest sons in their rodeo dreams.
LARRY MAYER, Billings Gazette
But now that the 45-year-old Tryan isn’t chasing National Finals Rodeo berths, instead trying to focus on his role as a father, the 20-time NFR qualifier (2001-07, 2009-15, 2017-22) and two-time NFR average champion (2004, 2014) has other commitments.
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Tryan, who resides with his family in Lipan, Texas, and his middle son, 16-year-old Braylon, have been competing in amateur rodeos and are entered in a competition during the same time as the WNTRF. The father-son duo team ropes together and Clay is a header and Braylon is a heeler.
“Me and Braylon have amateur finals that we’re in the lead for down here the exact same time,” said Tryan in a phone interview with The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports Thursday. “We wouldn’t have time to do both, so that’s unfortunate that we can’t do both.”
Clay Tryan at the Wrangler National Team Roping Finals
Clay Tryan is pictured at the 2020 Wrangler Team Roping Championships Finals at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark.
LARRY MAYER, Billings Gazette
“I didn’t make it last year either (to the WNTRF), because of the same kind of circumstance. But, yeah, I’ve made it almost every year.”
Clay’s oldest son, Tyler Tryan, is leading the PRCA Resistol Rookie of the Year team roping headers standings with $78,203.38. Brayden Schmidt of Benton, City, Washington, is second in the rookie team roping headers standings with $38,153.06. The regular season ends Sept. 30. Overall, Tyler sits in 26th in the headers world standings. The top 15 make the NFR and Riley Minor of Ellensburg, Washington, is 15th with $98,420.05 in earnings. Tyler Tryan is scheduled to compete in the WNTRF at MetraPark next week.
“He had a good year for his age and stuff,” said Clay of Tyler. “It was a good start. I mean, eventually you’ve got to get where you can make the NFR. That’s the goal.”
Clay, who still lists Billings as his hometown on his PRCA biography, was born in Plentywood and is a 1997 Shepherd High School graduate. His last NFR was in 2022 when he finished seventh in the average and third in the world standings.
Clay Tryan
Billings team roper Clay Tryan finished in third place in the 2022 PRCA world team roping header standings.
JACKIE JENSEN, For 406mtsports.com
Clay has entered some PRCA rodeos this season in Texas, but mainly he is concerned about being a dad. Clay and his wife Bobbie are parents to three sons, Tyler (18), Braylon (16), and Dash (10).
Tryan hesitates to use the word “retired” as he still does rodeo, but the past couple of years he’s mainly tried to help his sons Tyler and Braylon in the sport. Clay said Dash “ropes a little bit” but he participates in several sports like baseball and golf.
“I’m not officially (retired), but I’m not trying to make the NFR anymore,” he said. “I still go to a few pro rodeos here and there. I’ve been going to a bunch of amateur rodeos with one of my kids the last couple years. That’s kind of what I’ve been doing; staying close to home in Texas here and doing that.”
“I hate to use the word retired. People make fun of me, but it’s just more like I’m just not trying to make the NFR, which is retired to me.”
Tryan hasn’t completely closed the door on chasing the NFR dream and going on the road to rodeo after rodeo, but he’s content where he is now.
Clay Tryan
Three-time world champion Clay Tryan is pictured in this file photo. Tryan won’t be at the annual Wrangler Team Roping Championships Finals at MetraPark next week, but instead at an amateur rodeo in Texas competing with his son Braylon.
Associated Press
“You never know, so that’s why I just don’t. I mean I might, who knows? A guy might wake up one day and change his mind,” said Tryan. “I still feel like, I’m not sharp enough right now but if I really worked at it like I used to, I think. It’s not like I’ve quit roping altogether because once you quit it’s over; like you don’t do it. I still enter enough down here and go to enough team ropings, that I’m kind of, don’t get me wrong I’d have to sharpen up a little a bit, but I still rope quite a bit.”
Tryan had a longtime goal of qualifying for the NFR 20 times, which he achieved in 2022.
“I always had that goal, but that ain’t the reason that I did it,” he said. “It was just how it worked out.”
“I said it a long time ago that I thought it would be cool to make it 20 times, but I really wasn’t thinking about it. I mean 20 is a long way, but I didn’t do it for that. It’s just how it worked out.”
Slowing down on the rodeo trail wasn’t something that immediately came to Tryan.
Clay Tryan
Clay Tryan poses for a portrait outside of First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in the fall of 2022 prior to the Wrangler Team Roping Championships Finals.
Billings Gazette file photo
“You don’t really know until one day,” he said. “Everybody kind of says you know. I haven’t really talked to a lot of people, but I’ve heard pro athletes, and I kind of just thought ‘I think I’m done.’ … You kind of know it’s coming. I mean, you can’t do it forever. It is, like golf a little bit like, you can rope for a long time, but there’s roping and then there’s still being competitive, you know? And there’s just not that many old guys that are that competitive. It’s a young man’s game. So, that’s what sports are. And I was probably fortunate to go as long as I really did, no injuries, and nothing like that.”
But, Tryan stressed he has shifted gears and isn’t pursuing more NFR glory because of his children.
“The main reason is my kids,” he said. “I just felt like they were at the age where they needed to start. … When you’re rodeoing, you can’t do anything but do stuff for yourself. And, so it was time to start taking them and get them ready so they could hopefully have way better careers than what I had.”
Tryan netted $3,204,708 in his PRCA career. Among his most prestigious regular-season victories were RodeoHouston titles in 2022 and 2016. He was also proud of winning California Rodeo Salinas five times (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009). Tryan also captured five victories in Ellensburg, Washington (2004, 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2015).
He also won Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days in 2013 and 2022. In 2006, Tryan was victorious at Fort Worth (Texas). He was also a champion at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver in 2011 and a co-champion in 2020. In 2005, he was a champion at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. Clay was also victorious at Puyallup (Washington) three times (2012, 2015 and 2018). In 2015, he was a co-champion at the Pendleton (Oregon) Round-Up.
In 2021, he was a titlist at the Cody (Wyoming) Stampede and in 2022 Tryan was victorious at the Home of Champions Rodeo in Red Lodge.
Clay Tryan wins
Billings team roper Clay Tryan is pictured competing at the 2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
JACKIE JENSEN, For 406mtsports.com
“I’ve won kind of almost all of them,” said Tryan. “Reno is the one I never did win. I placed second a couple times, but never did win it.”
According to his PRCA biography, Tryan’s father Dennis was the first team roper from the Treasure State to qualify for the NFR in 1984. Clay’s brothers, Travis and Brady, are also team ropers.
Clay’s mom, Terri Kaye Kirkland, competed in barrel racing. During the 2003 NFR, Terri Kaye, Clay and Travis became the first mother-sons combination to qualify in the same year; and the trio qualified again in 2004 and 2005 per the PRCA.
In 2010, Clay, Travis and Brady made history as the first set of three brothers to qualify for the NFR in team roping in the same year.
Brady still team ropes out of Huntley and the 35 year old is 24th in the PRCA headers season standings with $81,253.74.
Clay Tryan at the Wrangler National Team Roping Finals
Rodeo champion Clay Tryan is pictured competing at the Wrangler Team Roping Championships Finals at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in 2020.
LARRY MAYER, Billings Gazette
“He did good. He had a good year,” Clay said of his brother. “He ropes good. It’s tough to make it (to the NFR) now. There’s a lot of good ropers and it looks to me like rodeoing has changed, which is good and bad. It’s good, the money. But, they’ve got so many big rodeos now that you can win a bunch at that you better do good at one of them, or it’s going to be hard to make it.”
Tryan said he’s appreciated the growth of the sport of rodeo over the years and the increases in opportunity and purse money. He’s also impressed with the current generation of athletes and still keeps tabs on and enjoys watching the top team ropers in the country.
The humble Tryan, while content with his career, also thinks he missed a few opportunities to notch a couple more victories, saying, “I honestly thought I could have did better.”
Regardless, Tryan is focused on his family and encouraging Tyler and Braylon in their team roping careers. While he’ll still be competing at the occasional pro and amateur rodeo, Tryan plans to follow the sport.
Clay Tryan at the Wrangler National Team Roping Finals
Rodeo champion Clay Tryan competes in the Wrangler Team Roping Championships Finals at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in 2020.
“It’s awesome, these young guys are going to break every record I have, money-wise, and that’s how it’s supposed to be,” he said. “I feel like I did good. I had a run there where I was probably the best guy there was for a while. So that feels pretty good. And you only get to rope in your era. I’m different, I’m not like them old guys who say ‘It was tougher when I did it.’ That’s never true. Every generation gets better. That’s how it works. And I’m just impressed to see where team roping has come and how big it is everywhere and how good the horses have become and how good the ropers are. It’s so impressive to see.”
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