Local cowboy champ sets another record

Shane Proctor has done it again.

This time Proctor picked up the 2016 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo "average championship" this past weekend after 10 days of competition in Las Vegas, a feat he didn't accomplish back in 2011, when he won the national bull riding championship.

If his 2011 national title was the crown, then the "average championship" is the "jewel" in the crown.

The event "average winner" Proctor soared to third from 15th in the final Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association world standings.

Shane's parents, Gordon and Kathy Proctor, were there to watch.

"It is rather amazing he did this by competing in only 55 rodeos, where most of the competing cowboys had been in at least 100," Kathy said Tuesday.

Shane was out of competition most of May and June after doctors removed a metal plate that was put in after an earlier bull riding injury. He was back at it in July, gaining strength as the year rolled on.

Shane Proctor was the first cowboy to gain $1 million in earnings in both the PRCA and Professional Bull Riders.

Proctor winning the "average" title last weekend was good for $67,209, and gave him a total of $192,064 for the Las Vegas event. His third place PRCA standing pushed his total earnings to $272,365, surpassed only by two other overall competitors, whose totals were $311,451 and $287,803.

Proctor rode his first seven bulls, an achievement seldom reached by any competitor.

Then the tide turned, and Proctor was bucked off with his last three bulls.

Yet Proctor was candid about the whole thing.

"I would have liked to have gone 10 for 10 and put my name in the history books, but it didn't turn out that way. But I did my job and I won the average," Shane said.

The average is determined by adding up all the scores and dividing by the number of rides.

Proctor showed his mettle by riding Midnight Bender, the 2016 bull of the year, which had only been ridden once in PRCA competition in the past three years. Proctor earned a score of 91 for eight seconds of torture.

The native Grand Coulee cowboy will get needed rest - three weeks - before the 2017 Built Ford Tough season begins in Madison Square Garden, Jan. 6-8.

The 2003 Lake Roosevelt High School graduate averages 180 outs a year.

The "average" champion summed it up nicely, when he said, "This is a week I will always remember."

While Proctor will always be known as being from Grand Coulee, he actually now makes his home in North Carolina.

"He called to say he got home OK and is looking forward to the start of the next year," Kathy Proctor stated.