We had the opportunity to watch some very special moments in the arena this year and – luckily – hear what those amazing athletes thought about those moments outside of the arena. Some of them made us laugh, some made us cry, but all of these moments left a lasting impression on us.

The Rank is back and bigger than ever for the 2018-2019 junior rodeo season with the addition of approximately 500 regular-season events that will help us track more future rodeo superstars than ever before. We started with tracking the major junior rodeo events streamed on FloRodeo, but for the new season we are digging deeper by tracking all of the National Little Britches Rodeo Association season rodeos. 

Contestants came from far and wide — including overseas — to the 2018 International Youth Finals Rodeo to compete in Shawnee, Oklahoma, for more than $250,000 in prize money. Winners of the world's richest junior rodeo came from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa, and even a "home-stater" from Oklahoma.

For many rodeo kids out there, the first person you compete against when you start getting ready to rodeo is your sibling. Your home arena may play host to hundreds of Cheyennes, Calgary Stampedes, and NFRs where siblings battle it out and learn how to be competitive. 

From the first season the two got together, Sulphur, Louisiana’s Brooklyn Gunter and a bay mare named Blaze have been unstoppable at the International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma. They won the pole bending at IFYR in 2016, then came back to win it all over again in 2017. 

We spoke to young Kelsey Cadwell at the 2017 Junior NFR shortly after she qualified for the short round. Not only did Cadwell do so among a field of tough junior barrel racing competitors, but she also did it on a new mount when her horse came up lame and needed surgery.

Three arenas, six days, hundreds of junior competitors, and infinite talent. 

After a strong showing at the 2017 Junior NFR in Las Vegas, Dawson Stewart debuted on The Rank in the No. 4 spot. Four events into the Ote Berry Junior Steer Wrestling World Championship tour season, Stewart has climbed the ranks and now sits at No. 1 in the Steer Wrestling Rankings. 

The Ote Berry Junior Steer Wrestling World Championship has added a key event to its tour for 2018: the International Finals Youth Rodeo. Known as the world’s richest youth rodeo, the IFYR will be one of 18 stops on the tour—up from 12 in 2017.