And this afternoon, his first season concluded with Reese Cates winning the title of Daisy Rookie of the Year.

“Rookie of the Year is great,” Cates said, “but, as I’ve told people all week, I was here to win the Finals. I got one of the two.”

The rookie honor is determined by total dollars earned. During the course of the Finals he more than doubled his season earnings from $80,923.49 to $161,590.17. Cates, who was ranked 23rd at the start of the Finals, came to Vegas with only a slim lead over Pistol Robinson, who had won $75,093.55.

Cates finished the 2008 PBR World Finals event in fifth place, behind the likes of J.B. Mauney, Chris Shivers, Guilherme Marchi and event winner Robson Palermo.

The first-time Finals qualifier covered six of 8 bulls and made it to the short go with a legitimate chance for the average title. In any case, after an impressive week in Las Vegas, he wound up finishing 11th in the world standings.

“I’m happy with the Finals I had,” said Cates, who brought with him a large contingency of family and friends to the Thomas & Mack Center. Along with his mom, Gina, and her fiancé, his younger brother was in town along with his grandparents, his mom’s sister as well as some childhood friends from Arkansas.

With Cates - who attends Panola County Community College in Carthage, Texas, on a rodeo scholarship - having made today’s short go, the Class of 2008 has had at least one rider in all but four championship rounds this season, making this one of the deepest rookie talent pools in recent memory.

All season long it was a hard-fought rookie battle between Cates, Robinson and Kolt Donaldson, with Ryan Dirteater and Leonil Santos emerging late in the season. Even Vince Northrop eventually made an appearance in Round 7 of the Finals, as an alternate.

Robinson, Donaldson - who incidentally tied Cates two years ago for fifth place at the High School Nationals their senior year - and Santos all earned qualified rides in the opening round of the Finals, while Cates, unfortunately, had his hand come out of the rope .03 seconds before the whistle.

There was a record 33 qualified rides in the opening round of the Finals, and the near-score only served to motivate Cates, who then reeled off six consecutive qualified rides in Rounds 2 through 7 before bucking off Avalanche in 3.3 seconds to close out his run at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“I came in here and had a really great Finals,” Cates said, “and picked some really great bulls that I’ve been on or bulls that I’ve wanted to be on.

“Coming in…there was supposed to be a lot of pressure and, I don’t know, maybe I ride good under pressure. Maybe it seems to take all the worries of everything else off my mind, just focus on riding my bulls and doing the best that I can.”

He certainly was focused and, of course, there was the fact that his younger brother Colt was with him all week.

The 11-year-old was wearing his lucky shoes – a blue pair of women’s New Balance that are actually still too big for his feet – a good luck charm that apparently helped Clayton Williams and Colby Yates in an earlier round.

“Maybe (Colt) should have been down here whenever I found out what I rode in the short go,” said Cates, who spent a majority of his free time with his family, “but it’s all right. It’s all good.”

—by Keith Ryan Cartwright