Whitfield balancing work, family in return from injuries

Fred Whitfield has three major competitions to attend this week, including the Laughlin River Stampede and another rodeo in Huntsville, Texas.

But the performance that matters most to the eight-time world champion will be at a dance competition involving his 7-year-old daughter, Savannah, on Friday and Saturday in Austin, Texas.

"She's going to be doing a solo," Whitfield said Tuesday while en route to Laughlin for a preliminary round in calf roping. He plans to return for Sunday's ProRodeo Tour championship round of the $225,000 Laughlin River Stampede.

Whitfield missed the first six months of last year's Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association season because of two surgeries, but the layoff allowed him to spend more time at home in Hockley, Texas, with his wife, Cassie, and their two daughters. Whitfield's late start to the season prevented him from qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo for the first time in 18 years.

This year, Whitfield has been juggling family and rodeo, and the balancing act has favored family. It seems to be working for the 40-year-old veteran.

He has won $23,137 this year -- all in January -- and is ranked 11th in the PRCA world standings, about $47,000 behind leader Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colo., who won $58,000 Saturday at the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show.

"I got off to a decent start, and I'm feeling pretty good ... just a little older," Whitfield said.

Whitfield said he's well healed from surgeries to remove bone spurs from vertebrae in his neck and to repair his right rotator cuff.

Whitfield is among 600 contestants -- including the best in rodeo -- entered in the Laughlin River Stampede, which opens to spectators Thursday and runs through Sunday. Tickets start at $13 for adults and $7 for children.

The top rodeo athletes will be in Logandale from April 10 to 13 for the Clark County Fair and Rodeo, which also is a ProRodeo Tour event.

• CIRCUIT FINALS -- Former Moapa Valley High School athlete Matt Shiozawa logged a 7.3-second time in his final run Saturday night to capture the calf roping event at the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Pocatello, Idaho.

The native of Idaho and part-time Las Vegas resident won $13,238 and use of a new truck. ...

Montana barrel racer Shelley Murphy had an emotional win in Pocatello. She won her event one day after her father, Scott Perrigo, died in a car crash.

• GRAVES OUT -- Steer wrestler Lee Graves, the 2005 PRCA world champion, saw his season end on Feb. 18 when the Canadian tore the patella tendon in his right knee during a rodeo in Tucson, Ariz.

• BIG 5-0 -- This year's National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center, scheduled for Dec. 4 to 13, will mark the event's 50th year.

The 2007 NFR, which was the 23rd held in Las Vegas, generated $60.6 million in economic impact for Southern Nevada, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0247.