Photo by Matt Breneman
Article by Keith Ryan Cartwright
Rocky McDonald: International man of mystery
After storming Australia, Team Mexico captain looks ahead to World Cup
PUEBLO, Colo. (June 11, 2009) – Rocky McDonald was born in Mexico, competes primarily in the United States, recently won two PBR events in Australia, and will once again lead a team of fellow Mexicans down to Brazil for the World Cup.As the international popularity of the PBR continues to grow, McDonald is yet another face of its widespread reach.“The way I look at bull riding is pretty simple,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what part of the world you’re in or where you’re at, they’re all going to go pick their front feet up, move ‘em and kick.“Some do it a little bit faster and some do it a little bit higher.”A year ago, an injury-depleted Mexican team was no match for the Americans, Canadians or the Brazilians. So this year, it’s no surprise to McDonald that there’s little fanfare behind the Mexican team he’ll captain come August.In fact, he’d just as soon not deal with any media coverage.The Americans and Brazilians continue to dominate the headlines. The Canadians, with strong second-place finishes in back-to-back Cup events, have long since proved their team mentality is ready-made for the World Cup. But McDonald said it’s still a series of individual feats of “man against beast.”“You can have all the teammates in the world behind the bucking chute pulling your rope,” said McDonald, the only Mexican member of the Cup team with any substantial experience on the Built Ford Tough Series. “But when you nod your head, there’s only one person trying to stay on one animal.“It’s still the simple basics of riding bulls, and the guys who do it the best are going to win.”In a recent interview, McDonald also noted the pressures that both the Americans and Brazilians will face in Barretos.The Americans are faced with defending last year’s Cup win, while McDonald can attest to the pressures Brazil will face – in spite of the home country support of 80,000 people in the stadium – when it comes to living up to expectations on your home soil.“It’s just you,” he said. “You either do it or you don’t.”With the World Cup a little more than two months away, McDonald talked about the challenges that lie ahead for all five countries – Mexico, the U.S., Brazil, Canada and Australia – competing for the win, while feeling the pride of representing their countrymen.Do you find it disrespectful that until now all the talk about the World Cup has been about the rivalry between the Americans and the Brazilians, along with whether or not the Canadians have what it takes to be the surprising team again? I mean, there’s been no talk about the Mexican team until right now.Actually, I think it’s better for me and my team. I mean, everybody’s got big expectations for them other guys. All we gotta do is show up and ride. … If we stay on the most bulls at the end of the World Cup, I mean, we’ll be the winners. I mean, that’s what it amounts to. … It doesn’t matter what bull riding you’re at; if you stay on the most bulls and you do the best, then you’re going to win. You know what I mean?Are you going to call on certain guys to fill specific role,s or will you keep it as simple as, “We just need to ride our bulls and we’ll have a chance to win?”Every day is a different day, and just because you were a World Champ today don’t mean you’re going to stay on tomorrow. … That’s the great thing about our sport—it’s real humbling. You can be the greatest rider in the world and you get just one jump. … As long as we go to Brazil and our team does good and we ride good.Adriano (Moraes) said that he thought it was disadvantage trying to work as the captain and ride for the Brazilians at the same time. What are your thoughts on that, because you’re going to do just that again this year?It’s a little bit of a pain. … You gotta go in and talk about everything you’re going to do and make sure everything is right, draw the bulls for your team, figure out all the rules and that stuff. Your team members, all they gotta do is show up and ride bulls. You know what I mean? You do what you do every day. … It puts a little more responsibility on a guy, but hopefully I do a good job.We’re a lot less familiar with your team than we are with the others, so how much better is your team this year than it was last year? You’re going to have to be better if you hope to come in and ride more bulls than some of the others and have any chance of being successful.Yeah, like you said earlier, I’ve been on my team every year, and I think I only stayed on one or two bulls. I think our biggest deal is if I can keep our team healthy. Gerardo (Venegas) was injured last year and he didn’t get to compete, and neither did Hugo Pedrero, and both of those guys ride very, very well. Neither of them got to ride, and those are two superstars from Mexico. If both of those guys can stay healthy and I can stay healthy, and then there’s a young kid, Nile LeBaron, that’s riding really good right now, and Francisco (Morales) is doing pretty good right now too. If we can stay healthy, I think we have a chance just as well as anybody else, I figure.
—by Keith Ryan Cartwright
