| Troy Lerwill, “The Wild Child,” will jump a truck and trailer at each performance. |
The Desertview Federal Credit Union / San Rafael Pro Rodeo is coming to town on July 29, 30 and 31 for wild rodeo action with some of the best cowboys and cowgirls in the country making their way to Castle Dale. The rodeo begins at 7:30 p.m. each night. PRCA Stock Contractor of the year Ike Sankey will supply some of the greatest rough stock animals in the country.
At the Thursday performance a quarterhorse filly will be given away in a drawing from the ticket stubs. The lucky winner will take home the filly just by showing up and hanging onto their ticket stub. The excitement will be mounting as opening night draws near to find out who the lucky winner will be. This filly is being donated by the Castle Valley Ranch.
The most extreme event in rodeo is wild cow milking. This event returns on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with local cowboys participating for cash and gold belt buckles for the overall winners. The rodeo will close on Saturday night with a big bang. Desertview Federal Credit Union will send rodeo fans a big thank you with a fireworks display.
The San Rafael Pro Rodeo Committee was excited when they received this year’s contestant list on Friday. Coming to Castle Dale for the first time is Cody Wright of Milford, the 2003 National Finals Rodeo Saddle Bronc average champion, as well as, calf roper, Brent Lewis, who has qualified for the NFR finals on several occasions. Scott Johnston, Cody Demers, Boogie Ray, all ranked in the top 20 in the world will compete this year in various events.
Lance Kelly will travel 12,000 miles to participate in the San Rafael Pro Rodeo. Kelly is from Queensland, Australia. Hometown cowboys include Brock and Justin Truman, Huntington, Justin Carter, Green River, James Sherman, Cleveland, Travis Donathan, Monte Jensen and Ryan McCourt from Price.
“The Wild Child” Troy Lerwill will perform a death defying motorcycle jump over a truck and trailer in the arena at the San Rafael Pro Rodeo. This extreme event will take place during each performance of the San Rafael Pro Rodeo.
Troy Lerwill joined the PRCA in 1997 working mostly as a barrelman. In 1998, The Wild Child was born where Troy incorporated his love of motorcycles into a rodeo specialty act. He learned to use his experiences as a professional motocross racer to build up funny motorcycle acts for the rodeo world. He told himself that somehow it should be possible to jump a Dodge pickup truck and a Sundowner trailer with his dirt bike on an arena floor. Having learned to accomplish this feat, Troy began performing his daring motorcycle jump at professional rodeos.
Troy’s act became so famous that it was immediately sought by the biggest rodeos in America and also the Calgary Stampede in Canada. In a mere five years, The Wild Child rocketed to the top of the PRCA rodeo world. In 2002 and 2003, The Wild Child act was selected as the PRCA Comedy Act of the Year. At the National Finals Rodeo in December 2003, Troy was selected to perform his act during the second go round for live ESPN broadcast.
He was born and raised in Payson, and graduated from high school there. His father Lynn was a team roper and his mother Penny was a rodeo queen and gave him his first horse when he was 4 years old. At age 10 he graduated to riding motorcycles. Two years later he entered his first motorcycle race. He became the #1 ranked professional motocross racer in the state of Utah within six years. In 1992, he started a business called Downhill Cyclery in Payson selling and servicing mountain bikes. A love of extreme danger led him to start a rodeo bullfighting career in 1994. This career led to the birth of The Wild Child.
He would like to invite fellow Utahns to the San Rafael Pro Rodeo to see the most death defying, spectacular act in professional rodeo today. Crashes are inevitable, he’ll need your prayers.