Youngest roping duo looking for repeat performance at Agribition Rodeo

Kavis Drake, 18, and Denim Ross, 20, won the average in last year’s Maple Leaf Finals Rodeo team roping event at Agribition. The two were the youngest competitors in 2023 and are once again in their event this year.

The two both fell in love with roping at a young age.

“It’s all I ever wanted to do. My mom has pictures from when I was six months old dragging the rope behind me, crawling, couldn’t even walk yet,” Drake shared.

“My dad was a roper, my mom was a barrel racer. So I grew up around rodeo and roping. So right from a little guy, I’ve been a roper,” Ross added.

Drake hails from Moose Jaw but Ross is from Stettler, Alta. The two actually met one another at Agribition about a decade ago.

“My first memory of Denim was here actually, dummy roping. We were roping against each other. We kind of knew who each other were our whole lives but that is kind of my first memory of Denim,” Drake said.

“It was kind of a domino effect from there. We’ve been friends since. Roped when we could at the Jackpots and stuff and decided to start rodeoing together this time last year,” Ross explained.

The duo teaming up quickly paid off at last year’s Agribition Rodeo when their average time over the four-day event landed them in first place.

“It was really exciting. When we first started roping, to getting a big win is always a good start. Reminds you that it’s a good decision to rope [together] I guess,” Ross joked.

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“It was pretty surreal for me at the time. I was against the best guys in all of Canada. Guys that I looked up to my whole life. It makes you feel good for making it. It’s hard to explain. The atmosphere is incredible, the people, the announcer,” Drake said.

That win helped them qualify for the Canadian Finals Rodeo as a pair. That was Ross’ third time qualifying for CFR but the first for Drake.

Drake has spent the last two summers living with Ross in his neck of the woods back in Alberta. The two train together and say they run between 50-100 steers a day when they aren’t on the road competing in rodeos across Canada and the United States.

Although they are once again the youngest competitors at this year’s event, to them age is just a number.

“I don’t want to say we’re equal but we’re all just out there trying to do our jobs,” Drake shared.

“We’re just coming to do our jobs but it’s obviously fun,” echoed Ross.

The two did not get off to their best start in night one this week but did manage to record a time.

“No luck last night but try to win the next three go arounds. We still got time so hopefully that can help us try and win the average,” Ross said.