High-stakes team roping for kids 17 and under will also be a Jr. NFR qualifier.
PHOENIX, Arizona, March 21, 2018 – For more than 40 years, kids throwing loops at roping dummies have pretended they were the high-call team at the Bob Feist Invitational. Now, those kids can actually back in the box on Wrangler BFI Week, in the same arena as the pros at the world’s richest Open team roping – to compete in their own BFI.
The inaugural Hooey BFI Junior Championships are scheduled for June 20, 2018, in Reno, Nevada – just two days after the 41st BFI. The ropings start Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. following the #12 High Desert Showdown at the Livestock Events Center.
The Hooey BFI Junior Championship Open is open to any classification and limited to 50 teams with entry fees of $500 per roper, enter twice. The roping is a four-steer average, progressive after three, and the pot is 80 percent payback. Contestants must be 17 or younger as of January 1, 2018, and must be pre-entered by June 1 or when all 50 teams have been entered, whichever comes first.
The same format will be used in the Hooey BFI Junior Championship #10, which is capped at a 6-Elite. With 50 teams in either roping, the winning team is expected to earn $15,000 cash, plus Cactus saddles, Gist buckles, YETI prizes, Resistol hats and Heel-O-Matic prizes, and more. Second place will pay $10,000, on down to sixth place, and each go-round will pay at least two places.
Both ropings will serve as qualifiers for the annual Junior NFR in December, and will offer more than double the points of other qualifiers around the country. A couple of days later, on Friday, June 22, there will be more Junior NFR qualifiers in tie-down and breakaway roping at the Reno Livestock Events Center.
Entries for the Hooey BFI Junior Championships must be postmarked by May 30. For an entry form or more information, visit www.BFIWeek.com or www.Facebook.com/BobFeistInvitational.