On Tuesday, June 10, Junior Nogueira revealed in a Team Roping Journal article that he had sustained a fracture in his right leg during a practice run back on May 12. The broken bone and associated ligament damage to his knee kept him out of competition for the last month, putting him outside of the top 35 in the PRCA Team Roping Heeler World Standings.
A week later, the injury remains – everything else, however, has certainly changed.
Along with heading partner Kaleb Driggers, Nogueira made a commitment to keep competing, despite an injury that could have sent him home for up to four months.
That decision has proven to be the right one thus far. The duo won both the Eagle (Idaho) Rodeo and Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo in Vernal, Utah over the weekend while also placing second at the Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo.
“We have to go and I need to keep going. It was awesome and we did good in all three rodeos,” Nogueira said. “We entered in three rodeos and caught all three steers – we won two and took second on another one, so it can’t get much better.”
In total, the three results netted the pair more than $14,000. Nogueira moved from 36th to 15th in the heeler race, while Driggers is just outside the top 15 at No. 17. Both men now have $33,951 in earnings for the season.
In Vernal, the pair finished in 4.3 seconds, tying them with Hiyo Yazzie and Shawn Murphy for the top spot. A 4.7-second effort in Eagle was good enough to edge out Nelson Wyatt and Jonathan Torres by a tenth of a second to win. In Sisters, their time of 5.6 seconds was two-tenths off the pace set by Cody Snow and Hunter Koch.
Those outcomes put the pair back on track to return to Las Vegas for the 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, something that appeared in great jeopardy just a few days ago.
In 2024, Nogueira, a Sao Paulo, Brazil native, placed third overall in his quest for a third heeler World Title, while also placing third in the all-around race. He secured his 11th straight trip to NFR last December, a streak he hopes to maintain as the summer schedule heats up.
Making that happen is going to take some hard work and a little ingenuity. The injury has forced Nogueira to adjust his approach to roping as he can’t rely on leg pressure as much while the bone heals. Before getting hurt, he had considered leaving his veteran horse, Lucky Bucky, at home for some of the summer, allowing him to work with some younger horses who have a little more stopping power.
Those plans have been scrapped and Lucky Bucky appears to be the primary mount moving forward.
“I was about to not bring him. He’s really fast and he doesn’t stop like my other horses do. He’s mainly my jackpot horse,” Nogueira said. “I thought about leaving him home this summer and riding some young ones I have that are pretty aggressive and really stop. But I had to change everything and put him in the trailer. So right now, he’s the main guy until I can get healed up enough to ride other horses. But if not, I have to stay on him and see.”
While there’s a long way to go between now and NFR in December, Nogueira and Driggers aren’t about to let opportunities pass them by. They’re inching back in position to reach Las Vegas together, and nothing, not even a broken leg, appears to be slowing them down.
The results last week were certainly a good place to start.
“We hadn’t done very good this winter so we were really, really behind. We have a lot of work to do,” Nogueira said.