story by Lily Weinacht
“A man with a microphone can make or break a rodeo – it can be like watching paint dry, or it can be a well oiled machine.” Brent Davenport, a rodeo announcer in the SPRA, PCA, SRA, and numerous junior high and high school rodeos, took up the microphone roughly 10 years ago. The 45-year-old from Clanton, Alabama, grew up riding horses and farming, later becoming a rodeo dad and serving on rodeo boards while his daughter, Brooke, competed. When the AJRA needed an announcer for their state finals at the last minute, Brent was coaxed into the announcer’s stand. “The first day, I was scared to death, and the second day I was thinking, ‘We can do this,’” Brent recalls. “By the third day, I was ready to roll. It was sheer luck! I’ve worked in sales with people my whole life, so a lot of it did come pretty naturally. The association asked me to do all their rodeos the next season, and halfway through that, the high school association approached me about doing their events. Soon I had the SPRA and PCA contacting me, and it evolved into a thirty to forty weekends a year deal.”
Rodeo announcer Rowdy Pope from Florida was very helpful to Brent with making adjustments to equipment and computer programs. “Another person I think highly of is Mr. Luke Lummus of Lummus Rodeo Productions in West Point, Mississippi. He was one of the first stock contractors to give me a pro rodeo contract, and he still sends me every rodeo he does.” Brent also announces multi-state and regular high school rodeos further east, along with one of the NIRA’s Ozark Region rodeos. So far he has worked events in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
“I claim to have the most diverse rodeo playlists from Pitbull to Hank Williams and all things in between. I pride myself on a very up to date and broad spectrum playlist, and I try to look at the whole deal as the announcer. It’s absolutely important to a rodeo for it to run smoothly in production, but at the same time, I’m trying to focus on everyone sitting in the stands so they understand exactly what’s happening and why.” On the occasion that he works with another announcer, they will sometimes trade off announcing horseback, but Brent prefers the stands so he can run music. “My wife, Kerri, and my daughter both actively compete in barrel races and rodeos, and if they’re not competing, they’re usually sitting beside me secretarying or timing. I work much better on the fly and non-scripted, and you do get into a subconscious mind where you don’t think about it that much. But when you say you’ve seen it all in rodeo, you witness something you’ve never seen. You can’t prepare for a two-year-old kid running under the fence to the second barrel while the barrel racer is turning the first, or having the power go off in an indoor arena in the middle of a barrel run, but I pride myself in being able to handle those situations.”
During the week, Brent works in retail and commercial flooring sales, balancing his full-time job with his full-time weekend job. “I tackle one thing at a time and have tunnel vision so I start something and finish it before starting something else,” he says. Any other time is happily spent fishing with his two-year-old grandson, Kase, while his daughter, Brooke, and son-in-law, Grey, are expecting their second child, Kolsyn, in September. The only part of announcing Brent dislikes is the occasions he misses with family.
“The rodeo business is not about the money for me – it’s my therapy and gets me through the week knowing I have a rodeo to go to,” Brent finishes. “Watching cowboys and cowgirls compete, and the camaraderie and fellowship and sportsmanship of the rodeo world never ceases to amaze me. It makes me proud to consider myself a cowboy.”
