Speed Williams is an eight-time World Champion Team Roper who won his last Gold Buckle in 2004. It was the year that his first child, Hali, was born and it was the year that Speed decided he would stay home and raise his kids.
“It was a real struggle because I had about 200… $250,000 in sponsorships a year and where could I get that income and not rodeo. And then I figured out a way with speedroping.com to be able to teach people and raise my kids because teaching, it has to be fun, they have to want to,” Speed said.
Two kids that had the want to learn to rope and be the best are his children, Hali and Gabe.
“My dad has been a major part of anything I do. He’s always been, kind of, the supporting hand and he definitely has been a major part… but so has my mom. She’s been the silent supporter,” Hali said.
Hali’s 2023 season has been rolling since the beginning. With two third place finishes, one in Fort Worth and one in San Antonio, Hali sent herself to the No. 1 spot in the WPRA World Standings when she won RodeoHouston and it’s coveted $50,000 prize. If you ask Speed, Hali’s season so far has been a fairy tale.
“The only thing that I have a hard time with… is going on, the team roping. My daughter was a team roper from the time she could walk. She’d head, and I have a lot of hours invested in her heading and her heeling. And she has completely switched and become solely a breakaway roper,” Speed said.
As for Gabe, his effort in the arena is unlike any other. Speed says he eat, sleeps, breathes roping and it all started with $100 and a dummy roping in Las Vegas. Gabe won $160 at that dummy roping and spent the rest of the trip in Las Vegas roping Speed’s left leg. When they got home, it was game on for Gave.
“I’ll never forget it. We’re laying in the bed and it’s 8:30, we didn’t get home until one or two o’clock in the morning driving in all night from Vegas, my son walks in and says ‘dad, we’re going to rope today’. It’s a 12-year-old boy. He can’t do much, saddle. pen, water, arena, whole deal. I said yeah, I’ll pull the dummy for you and he says ‘no I want to rope steers’ and my wife kicks me under the covers… so I get up. It’s 30 degrees, it’s cold, for the next week I turn this boy steers. It was a dream come true,” Speed said.
Gabe says he tried to get his dad to rope with him since before he could even swing a rope and now, Gabe’s dreams are coming true as he enters ropings of all kind with his dad.
“He’s like my best friend. Every where we go, I’ve roped with him so long and everywhere we go, it’s no different heeling behind him here than at the practice pen because I’ve heeled so many steers behind him,” Gabe said.
Speed left his mark in rodeo history, Hali is shaping up to do the same this year and Gabe is not far behind, especially when his traveling partner, possible team roping partner and coach is none other than his dad.