ERA 2016 Season Preview- Steer Wrestling

The Elite Rodeo Athletes (ERA) debut season begins Friday in Redmond, OR. In part one of my season preview, I focused on the roster of bareback riders who will be competing for the 2016 World Championship. In part two, the attention turns to Steer Wrestling. The roster assembled has combined for an impressive seven World Titles, including the last five.

I hope you enjoy the 2016 ERA Steer Wrestling preview. As always, please comment below or on Twitter with your own predictions for the inaugural season! Thanks for reading!


Steer Wrestling Roster

• Bray Armes
• Luke Branquinho
• Hunter Cure
• Stockton Graves
• Nick Guy
• Kyle Irwin
• Casey Martin
• Sean Mulligan
• Tyler Pearson
• Jake Rinehart
• Todd Suhn

Overall Roster Outlook 
The 2016 ERA Steer Wrestling roster is headlined by five-time World Champion Luke Branquinho. He's going to go down as one of the best ever in the sport, and he's won three of the last four gold buckles. In 16 years as a pro, the California cowboy has racked up a big list of accomplishments in steer wrestling and will certainly be one of the favorites to be crowned the inaugural ERA World Champion Steer Wrestler.

The 2015 Champion Hunter Cure may have something to say about that. The Texas Cowboy is coming off a fantastic season and has won two of the last three World Titles. On paper, it looks like it might be a two-man race for the gold buckle in steer wrestling.

Fortunately for fans and the other cowboys, World Titles aren't won on paper. They are won in the arena, and there are plenty of other ERA Steer Wrestlers capable of contending for the World Championship. Stockton Graves, Casey Martin, Sean Mulligan, and Todd Suhn have been a mainstay at the top of the sport for years. Martin, in particular, is coming off a 10th-place finish in the standings a season ago.

The Elite Rodeo Athletes is also focusing on some of the up-and-coming talent in each sports, and Kyle Irwin definitely fits the bill. He's only been a professional for five years, but he's already become one of the best steer wrestlers in the world. Nick Guy and Tyler Pearson have only been pros for 10 years, so they're still in their prime as well.

2016 Steer Wrestling Champion Prediction- Hunter Cure
The race for the first-ever ERA Steer Wrestling gold buckle is going to be a great one. While it may look like a two-man race, it's probably going to be wide open going into the World Championship in November. That being said, I'm still going with one of the preseason favorites. Hunter Cure is the defending champ and has won two of the last three World Titles. He's going to do his thing again in 2016 and end up on top at season's end.

My Twitter- @CThrash13
My Email- cthrash13@hotmail.com

ERA 2016 Season Preview- Bareback Riding

The 2016 rodeo season brings the arrival of a new organization made up of a plethora of past and current World Champions. Elite Rodeo Athletes, often referred to as ERA, begins its inaugural season this Friday in Redmond, OR. The season will conclude November 9-13 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX.

The ERA will feature a group of the best cowboys and cowgirls in seven different rodeo events, and the roster that has been assembled is incredible to say the least. The competition in every event is going to be fierce, and with a television deal with Fox Sports 2 already in place, fans of the sport will get to see all of the action over the next several months.

I've put together a little preview for fans of the sport, and I'll even go out on a limb and make my predictions on who all will be crowned the first-ever ERA World Champions in November! In part one of the preview, I'm focusing on Bareback Riding. Feel free to chime in with your own predictions by commenting below or on Twitter. Enjoy!

Bareback Riding Roster

• Richmond Champion
• Steven Dent
• Kaycee Feild
• Austin Foss
• Ryan Gray
• Tilden Hooper
• Will Lowe
• Justin McDaniel
• Bobby Mote
• Steven Peebles
• Wes Stevenson

Overall Roster Outlook
The bareback riding roster is headlined by four-time World Champion Kaycee Feild. The Utah cowboy won the title every season from 2011-2014 and will be one of the favorites to win the 2016 ERA World Championship. Feild will be joined by four riders who have also won World Titles in the past, including the 2015 Champion Steven Peebles. Peebles is coming off an amazing season and will battle for the top spot once again this season.

The other former World Champions are Bobby Mote (4 titles), Will Lowe (3 titles), and Justin McDaniel (1 title). While a majority of the bareback riding roster is made up of veterans of the sport, there are a couple young guns who have made an immediate impression on the sport as well.

Richmond Champion and Austin Foss don't have as much experience as the rest, but they're both more than capable of contending. Champion was the Million Dollar Winner at The American in 2014, and Foss is coming off a season in which he finished fifth in the World Standings.

2016 Bareback Riding Champion Prediction- Kaycee Feild
Feild has won four of the last five gold buckles in bareback riding, and he has to be the favorite going into the first ERA season. Every rider on the roster is going to be capable of contending this season, but Feild has been too strong the last handful of years to pick against. Regardless of which rider becomes the first-ever ERA World Champion Bareback Rider, it's going to be an exciting first year of competition in this event.

My Twitter- @CThrash13
My Email- cthrash13@hotmail.com