by Lily Weinacht
Travis Goad has more than a dozen amateur titles under his belt from winning the all-around and team roping in associations like the KPRA and TCRA, but 2016 marked his first year-end title with the M-SRA. The 41-year-old heeler from Reydon, Oklahoma, pocketed the M-SRA team roping title with header Justen Nokes. “I was sure hoping to win it – we went in winning it the year before and took reserve, but this year we did better at the finals,” says Travis, who also won the average. His wife, Tanya, won reserve in the mixed team roping, which the husband and wife enter in the M-SRA and NSRA. “I thought the 2016 finals were really good, and probably one of the largest crowds for an association’s finals. I’ve been rodeoing a long time, and those were by far the best amateur finals I’ve been to.”
Travis started competing in sixth or seventh grade, following after his dad and granddad, both ropers. He steer wrestled, tie-down and team roped in high school, as well as competing on the rodeo team at Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell. He and Brian Dunning won the team roping at the 1998 CNFR, and they’re teaming up to rope again for the 2017 season. “We haven’t roped together in a long time, so it’ll be like a reunion,” says Travis. He also met his wife in college, where she competed in breakaway and team roping.
Since childhood, Travis has looked up to his dad, Mike Goad, who roped calves and continues to heel. “My brother, Shane, also team ropes, and when he was heading, we roped together in high school and college. He switched to heeling recently and goes to the KPRA rodeos.” Travis and Tanya’s children, Kyler (11) and Kynlee (7), also enjoy riding, and Kyler has started roping at home.
The past two summers, the family has packed their RV, hitched the horse trailer to the back, and traveled primarily in Nebraska to rodeo for several months. “Since I’m a school teacher, I have the summer off, so we’re able to stay in Kansas and Nebraska all summer,” Travis explains. “I teach computer and PE, and I coach junior high and high school basketball. I’ve been doing that seventeen years, and the flexibility is really nice. The neatest part of my job is watching the kids get better and succeed in their sports.”
During special occasions like Christmas break, the Goads enjoy skiing, but Travis is more likely to be riding horses or helping Kyler work with the goats he shows in 4-H. “My main heel horse is a sorrel named Frank. He’s eleven and real athletic. His previous owners had tracked some steers on him, but he’d never been in a roping arena, so I took him from just-broke to finished heel horse. We just bought a house outside of Reydon this last year and I built an arena we’ve been roping in.”
Every December for the last five years, Travis has competed in the WSTR Finale in Las Vegas. He often competes in the 15 and 13, and plans to qualify again this year. “Sometimes I can spend more time there, but this last time I had to get home for basketball games, so it was a pretty fast trip,” he says. “Tanya and I are going to enter the mixed team roping again, and Brian and I plan to do the Kansas, Nebraska, and Mid-States rodeo again and try to win the year-end in all of those.”
