Giving 100 Percent: Kaleb Driggers And Junior Nogueira Win The American
Select Footage Courtesy of RFD-TV EVENTS, LLC.
Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira have been roping together for the past three years, been runner-up to the world title, but never have the pair won an event like this past weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Driggers calls winning RFD-TV’s The American, presented by Dish the biggest win of their partnership and — although he’s now won the event three out of the five years it’s been in existence — this one holds a special place in his heart.
After their championship run at The American, Nogueira told the story of his late father, a top roper in Brazil until his passing when Nogueira was just 5 years old. Nogueira said that his father gave rodeo all of his effort right up until his death, which tragically occurred in the roping box just as he was about to compete. Nogueira says this proves that his father gave 100 percent to rodeo.
He went on to say that, as a team, both he and Driggers work very hard at their event, but after his father was inducted in to the hall of fame in Brazil just the night before The American finals, Nogueira was going to make sure he too gave it 100 percent in honor of his father’s legacy.
After a finals long round that saw seven sub-four-second runs, the pair headed in to top four finals with the No. 1 time of an impressive 3.32 seconds. The sudden death finals saw the slates wiped clean, and it turned out to be a different story altogether: a leg and a no-time meant the championship was wide open for the last two teams.
Chad Masters and Travis Graves made a respectable 5.03-second run, and for the team that specializes in roping fast, it meant even more pressure was on to just make a solid run. Junior reflected on seeing his shot on the “wrong side” of his horse, but decided to wait to straighten out and rope the steer from the proper side.
They stopped the clock in a time of 4.57 seconds, taking home Drigger’s third and Nogueira’s first championship at The American.