Caden Camp will be one busy cowboy at the Northern Rodeo Association/Northern Women’s Rodeo Associations Finals.

By JOE KUSEK

October 6, 2021

Visiting family and friends will have to wait.

The Finals, Oct. 28-30 at Majestic Valley Arena in Kalispell, is the culmination of the Mountain Health Co-op Tour.

The top 10 in each event qualify with the 2021 year-end champions being crowned after the final performance.

And right in the middle of all the action will be Camp.

The 22-year-old from Belgrade qualified in three events, the most for any competitor.

He enters the Finals sixth in the standings for all three of his events: steer wrestling, tie-down roping and team roping header. Camp is team roping with Delon Parker of Two Dot.

With payouts high, Camp has the potential to pocket more than $12,000 and giving him a mathematical chance at winning the all-around cowboy, steer wrestling and tie-down roping gold buckles.

“I’ve certainly been blessed this season,” said the versatile rodeo hand. “Going into the season, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to a lot of (NRA) rodeos. The goal was always to do the best I can.

“It’s awesome making the NRA Finals.”

Camp also leads the all-around for the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit and is second for steer wrestling fourth among team roping headers and seventh for tie-down roping.

Camp earned 11 NRA checks during the regular season, five in steer wrestling and three each in tie-down and team roping.

He won the tie-down roping at Harlowton during the Fourth of July run and won big at Red Eye Daze in Deer Lodge for the bulk of his money.

His second place finish at Hamilton during the Labor Day weekend vaulted him up the standings while checks at Gardiner, Townsend and Three Forks kept him the top 10 in team roping.

“You have to have a short memory when you have a bad run,” Camp said of his busy schedule at every event. “You go focus on the next event.”

Camp started his NRA career in the junior events.

“The NRA has helped me learn how to compete,” he said. “You learn how to compete against older guys. The big thing is learning how to handle failure. If you fix the problem, it’s just going to make you better. You are not going to win every time.

“Everybody in the NRA has been so good to me. They’re always willing to help me when they could.”

Primarily a steer wrestler, “I love bulldogging,” Camp said, it was Parker who pulled him into team roping.

Parker, a former NRA heading champion, gave Camp a call before the season started.

“He wanted to heel this summer. I told him no. He told me to find a good head horse,” Camp recalled. “It worked.”

Camp said Parker did more than rope with him.

“Delon Parker played a big role for me this season. He did all the entering. And he did all the driving while I did all the sleeping,” Camp said with a chuckle.

“When he drives, Delon drives in dead silence.”

Parker is just one of many Camp credits for his success.

“A lot of people helped me along the way,” said the hard-working cowboy. “My parents (Jason and Jodi) made it possible for me to rodeo.

“They have supported me all the way. My family has been awesome. They have allowed me to chase my dreams.”

Camp has also soaked up knowledge from Ty Erickson, Beau Clark and Charly Crawford. “So many people. I try to be like a sponge and learn from all of them,” Camp added.

He gives a lot of credit to Clark, a former National Finals Rodeo qualifier in steer wrestling and now the rodeo coach for the University of Wyoming.

“Beau Clark is a huge part of my success,” said Camp. “He taught me how to bulldog. I learned to be mentally tough. I would have a good run, or I thought, and Beau would be, ‘No, here are the things you need to work on.’ He taught me to take the bad with the good.

“I learned to have the attitude of going after every single one.”

It’s the same approach he plans to take on every single run in Kalispell.

“I’m trying to win,” Camp said. “I try not to look at the standings. I just love rodeoing, just the camaraderie, all the good friends you make around the state.

“You have to trust in God, trust your horse and trust you have worked hard enough.”