story by Michele Toberer
Since its inaugural year, Zachary Wilson has held a card with the Southeast Professional Rodeo Association, and he left the first-ever SPRA finals in 2011 with the shiny Champion Calf Roper buckle and saddle, after a season full of success. Zac has been to every SPRA season finals since, other than in 2014, when he was recovering from a serious injury. While practicing, an unfortunate accident resulted in his horse falling on him, and left Zac out of the roping game for most of a season. “My horse stumbled and fell on me when I was warming him up, breaking every bone in my foot; my big toe was touching my heel. It took surgery and months therapy before I could step off a horse again. After nearly a year, they had to re-break all the toes on my foot, so they’d heal properly.” Although the cowboy loves hunting, fishing, and mountain biking, getting back to roping was foremost on his mind as he spent those months building back to the full use of his foot.
Roping has been a part of Zac’s life since he was 7 years old, living in his hometown of Billingsley, Alabama where he is surrounded by family, and watching his dad team rope with friends that would come over to rope. He and Nelson Wyatt began team roping together during those days, as their dads roped, and what started out as just fun for Zac, soon became a passion. Zac’s parents, Keith and Vicki Wilson recognized the strong interest he had, and although Keith started Zac out with his roping skills, he made it a priority to get him the best instruction he could. “My dad helped me a tremendous amount and made sure to get me to the best roping clinics he could, always making sure I had the best help in front of me. I went to clinics with Colter and Cody Prescott in Florida, and Cash Meyers in Texas, and he always had the best people he could come to practice with me.”
Zac is 24 years old, the eldest of the three Wilson siblings, and the only one to immerse himself in the rodeo lifestyle. His sister Giorgia, 23 is a RN at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his sister, Abby, 18, just moved in with Giorgia to begin her studies at UAB. Zac currently lives at home after graduating from the University of West Alabama with a degree in business administration. He works for Steel Built Systems, based out of Maplesville, Alabama, and hopes to increase his position with the company, utilizing his business degree to maximize the growth of the company. But, Zac is not set on his own plans for the future, “We’ll just have to see which way God points me.”
While Zac was at UWA, he competed on the college rodeo team in steer wrestling, team roping and calf roping, and in 2013 was the NIRA Champion Calf Roper. He attributes his success in college rodeo to the help of Mike Gould. He purchased a 16-year old bay gelding, named Magic, from Mike his freshman year, and spent as much time at Mike’s arena as he did in his classes. “I basically lived there with Mike, I practiced and roped with him every day. The year I won the college finals, we were practicing three times each day. We’d get up and flank and tie calves before breakfast, then we’d rope calves in the afternoon, and flank and tie again in the evening. Mike shaved at least 2-seconds off my times, he really turned my roping around. I appreciate his help more than I can say.”
Zac appreciates his sponsor, Willard Rope Company, supporting his rodeo ambitions and plans to continue hitting as many of the SPRA rodeos as he can. “The SPRA is a great association full of friendly, down-to-earth people that takes care of their contestants and helps them any way they can. He feels that staying sharp and winning has a lot to do with your mind. “It can be a struggle, it’s a big mind game keeping yourself focused and telling yourself you are going to make the same run at the rodeo as you did in the practice pen.”
