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| Junior Nogueira |
Full Name: Lucinei Nunes Nogueira Jr. | Current Status: Active PRCA team roping heeler, partnered with Kaleb Driggers, competing into the 2026 season after finishing runner-up in the 2025 world standings.
He was five years old the first time he watched his father die on a horse. Twenty-six years later, Junior Nogueira had become the first Brazilian-born athlete to win a PRCA world championship — and he wasn't finished. Two more gold buckles, a tied world record, and a fractured tibia later, he's still chasing the one title that's slipped through his fingers five times.
Biography Summary
Junior Nogueira didn't grow up dreaming about the Thomas & Mack Center. He grew up on a Brazilian ranch, roping muleys with his mother and father, studying grainy VCR tapes of Jake Barnes and Allen Bach and wondering if a kid from Presidente Prudente could ever rope on that stage.
He got his answer faster than anyone expected. A chance meeting with Barnes a week before the 2013 Wrangler NFR turned into a rookie-year qualification, a Resistol Rookie of the Year award, and eventually three PRCA gold buckles — the first ever won by a Brazilian-born cowboy.
What immediately stood out to me while cross-checking his 2022 season against the PRCA record book was how far past "impressive" it went: he and header Kaleb Driggers didn't just win back-to-back world titles, they rewrote the regular-season earnings record book while doing it.
Early Life
Nogueira started roping at four years old, taught by a father, Lucinei Nogueira Sr., who was himself an accomplished tie-down roper in Brazil. A year later, that same father suffered a fatal heart attack while backing his horse into a roping box. Nogueira was five.
His mother, Eliziane, a breakaway roper and team roping header, raised him alongside his grandfather and younger sister, Ludmila, keeping the family in the sport that had just taken so much from them. Nogueira turned professional in Brazil at 14, and over the next several years he won his home country's biggest roping competition seven times, a run that netted him nine cars, 54 motorcycles, and two horse trailers in prize winnings.
By his early twenties he was a genuine star in Brazilian rodeo — famous enough at home, but a complete unknown in the United States. He didn't originally plan to stay.
Professional Career
Nogueira's career splits cleanly into three acts: the mentorship years with Jake Barnes that got him to America, the Kaleb Driggers partnership that turned him into a champion, and the current stretch where injury and age have tested whether the magic still holds.
An Unknown Kid and a Seven-Time Champion
Nogueira met Barnes through a mutual friend, roper Robert Reynoso, roughly a week before the 2013 NFR. Barnes — a seven-time world champion header — invited Nogueira to live with him and his wife in Arizona and travel the rodeo circuit together. Nogueira didn't speak English and had never crossed the U.S. border. He qualified for the NFR anyway, in his rookie season, becoming the first Brazilian team roper to reach rodeo's Super Bowl. He won the PRCA Resistol Team Roping Heeler Rookie of the Year award in 2014.
The partnership hit a wall in 2015, when Barnes suffered a traumatic brain injury that sidelined him mid-season. JoJo LeMond stepped in as Nogueira's NFR partner that year — a reminder of how fragile even a hot streak in rodeo can be.
The First Brazilian World Champion
In 2016, still roping with Barnes, Nogueira put together a season that changed his sport's history books. He won the PRCA All-Around World Championship with $231,728 in earnings, edging Clayton Hass by less than $4,000 — the first Brazilian-born athlete to win any PRCA world title. He also finished second in team roping that year, a runner-up finish he'd repeat three more times before finally breaking through.
Driggers and Nogueira: The 3.3-Second Run
Somewhere around 2016–17, Nogueira partnered with Kaleb Driggers, and the two quickly became one of the most electric teams in the sport. In 2017, they tied the NFR/world arena record at 3.3 seconds in Round 9 — matching the mark set by Chad Masters and Jade Corkill, and by Brock Hanson and Ryan Motes. Nogueira was so excited he fell off his horse mid-celebration. "I was happy and starting to celebrate, and next thing I know I'm looking up at the roof of the Thomas & Mack," he said afterward, laughing that at least he landed on his feet.
By September 2018, he'd crossed $1 million in career PRCA earnings. In 2019, he and Driggers finished seventh in the average at the NFR, with Nogueira taking second in the world standings for the third time.
Back-to-Back Gold Buckles
Nogueira finally broke through in 2021, winning his first PRCA world championship in team roping with $277,612 in season earnings. What followed in 2022 was, by any measure, the best season a heeler has ever put together. Driggers and Nogueira shattered the regular-season earnings record, each banking $227,877.85 before the NFR even started — nearly $80,000 clear of the previous mark. They rode into Las Vegas with such a lead that catching them looked almost mathematically impossible, and they closed it out, setting a single-season team roping earnings record of $340,708.23 each.
What most blogs miss when recapping that stretch is how close it came to falling apart. Nogueira roped a leg in back-to-back rounds mid-Finals and swapped horses on the fly, from Timon to Lucky Bucky, just to change the feel of his swing. He and Driggers still walked away with the gold buckles.
A Fractured Leg and a Runner-Up Finish
2023 brought a sixth-place world finish ($214,471) and wins at Reno, Farm-City, Summit County, and Ellensburg. Then came 2025 — a season that tested Nogueira in a way three world titles hadn't. After a hot spring that included a second straight Bob Feist Invitational win ($154,000 each) and an American Rodeo title ($100,000 each, Nogueira's third), he fractured his right tibia and damaged the ligaments around his knee in a horse accident during practice on May 12, 2025.
He and Driggers still closed the regular season No. 1 in the world, at $198,497.72, riding into the 2025 NFR as favorites. Round 10 didn't go their way. Andrew Ward and Jake Long — a team that entered the night with the longest odds of the four contenders — split the round win with Nogueira and Driggers and stole the world championship on the final steer. Nogueira finished second in the world for the year, just short of a third gold buckle.
Career Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2004 | Turns professional in Brazil at age 14 |
| 2013 | Meets Jake Barnes roughly a week before the NFR; relocates to the U.S. |
| 2014 | PRCA rookie season with Barnes; first Brazilian team roper to qualify for the NFR; Resistol Rookie of the Year Heeler |
| 2015 | Ropes with JoJo LeMond at the NFR after Barnes suffers a traumatic brain injury |
| 2016 | Wins PRCA All-Around World Championship — first Brazilian-born PRCA world champion ($231,728) |
| 2017 | Ties the 3.3-second NFR/world arena record with Kaleb Driggers |
| 2018 | Career PRCA earnings surpass $1 million |
| 2019 | Finishes 2nd in the world; $238,243 in season earnings |
| 2020 | Wins AQHA World Championship, Senior Heading, on Apache R Hali |
| 2021 | First PRCA World Champion Team Roping Heeler title ($277,612) |
| 2022 | Back-to-back world champion; sets single-season team roping earnings record ($340,708.23) |
| 2023 | Finishes 6th in the world ($214,471); wins Reno Rodeo and three other rodeos |
| 2025 | Wins Bob Feist Invitational and The American; fractures tibia in May; finishes 2nd in the world at the NFR |
Major Achievements
Across a decade in the PRCA, Nogueira has stacked up a résumé few heelers can match:
- Three PRCA world championships (2016 All-Around; 2021 & 2022 Team Roping Heeler)
- Twelve consecutive NFR qualifications, 2014 through 2025
- Tied the NFR/world arena team roping record at 3.3 seconds (2017)
- Co-holder of the team roping regular-season earnings record, set in 2022
- Co-holder of the single-season team roping earnings record, set in 2022
- Multiple wins at The American, the Bob Feist Invitational, and the U.S. Open to the World
- AQHA World Champion, Senior Heading (2020)
Awards and Honors
- 2014 PRCA Resistol Team Roping Heeler Rookie of the Year
- 2016 PRCA All-Around World Champion Cowboy
- 2020 AQHA World Champion, Senior Heading; Reserve World Champion, Senior Heeling
- 2021 PRCA World Champion Team Roping Heeler
- 2022 PRCA World Champion Team Roping Heeler
Career Statistics (Selected PRCA Seasons)
| Year | World Rank (Heeler) | Season Earnings |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 7th | $136,036 |
| 2016 | 2nd (Team Roping) / 1st (All-Around) | $231,728 (All-Around) |
| 2019 | 2nd | $238,243 |
| 2021 | 1st (World Champion) | $277,612 |
| 2022 | 1st (World Champion) | $340,708.23 |
| 2023 | 6th | $214,471 |
| 2025 | 2nd | $367,885 (with Driggers) |
Records
- Tied the NFR/world arena team roping record of 3.3 seconds (Round 9, 2017), matching Chad Masters/Jade Corkill and Brock Hanson/Ryan Motes
- Has recorded more 3.3-second competitive runs than any heeler in team roping history
- Co-holder, PRCA team roping regular-season earnings record: $227,877.85 (2022)
- Co-holder, PRCA single-season team roping earnings record: $340,708.23 (2022)
Net Worth
Nogueira's publicly documented PRCA competition earnings surpassed the $2 million mark in September 2022 and have continued climbing through 2025. His broader net worth — factoring in endorsements, horse sales, and invitational/jackpot winnings outside official PRCA standings — is not publicly disclosed, so any total beyond confirmed rodeo earnings should be treated as unverified.
Gear and Equipment
Nogueira has campaigned on three primary horses in recent years: Apache R Hali ("Hali"), the AQHA World Champion mare he purchased from two-time world champion Kollin VonAhn in 2016; Green Card, registered as Peppers Homespun Kid; and Timon, registered as Kiehnes Frosty Pepto, the gelding he rode to win both the 2023 world title and the 2025 American Rodeo. He is sponsored in part by Equinety, alongside fellow world champions Kaleb Driggers, Paul Eaves, and Taylor Munsell.
Playing Style
Nogueira heels with an aggressive, high-percentage swing built for speed rather than caution — the same instinct that produced the tied 3.3-second world record. His signature move, which he calls "Pullback for Jesus," involves rearing so far back after a clean two-foot catch that he taps his head on his horse's hindquarters. He picked up the habit watching a roper in Brazil, and saves it now for runs he knows he's already won.
Injuries and Challenges
On May 12, 2025, Nogueira fractured his right tibia and damaged the surrounding knee ligaments in a horse accident during practice. He missed part of the summer rodeo run before returning that June, still visibly compromised, to help close out a regular-season title with Driggers just months later.
Training and Fitness
Nogueira's training centers on horsemanship as much as roping mechanics — daily practice sessions with Driggers several days a week, balanced against deliberately slower, lower-intensity work on his own herd of "loper" horses at home to keep both horse and rider fresh across a demanding season.
Personal Life
Nogueira is married to Jaqueline; the couple has a daughter, Isabella, and a son born in 2021. He and his family split time between the U.S. rodeo circuit and visits back to Brazil, though he's said the travel schedule leaves little time with his mother and sister still there. He has spoken openly about his Christian faith as central to how he approaches both roping and daily life.
Official Social Media Profiles
- Instagram: @junior_nogueira101
- Facebook: Junior Nogueira
Legacy
Nogueira didn't just become the first Brazilian-born PRCA world champion — he opened a door that's since brought a wave of Brazilian and international ropers into American rodeo's biggest arenas. What began as an unknown kid living with Jake Barnes because he had nowhere else to stay turned into three gold buckles, a tied world record, and a partnership with Driggers that's still, even after a broken leg and a heartbreaking Round 10 in 2025, one of the sport's defining acts.
Interesting Facts
- He started roping at age four, taught by his father in Brazil.
- His father died of a heart attack while backing a horse into a roping box when Junior was five.
- He turned professional in Brazil at just 14 years old.
- He won Brazil's biggest roping competition seven times, earning nine cars and 54 motorcycles along the way.
- He didn't speak English when he first moved to the U.S. to rope with Jake Barnes.
- He's the first Brazilian-born athlete to win any PRCA world championship.
- He fell off his horse celebrating immediately after tying a world-record 3.3-second run in 2017.
- His trademark "Pullback for Jesus" celebration involves tapping his head on his horse's hindquarters.
- He's also an AQHA World Champion in horse showing, not just rodeo competition.
- He returned to competition within weeks of fracturing his tibia in 2025.
- His mother is a breakaway roper and team roping header in her own right.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Junior Nogueira from?
He was born September 6, 1990, in Presidente Prudente, São Paulo, Brazil, and now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
How many PRCA world titles has Junior Nogueira won?
Three: the 2016 PRCA All-Around World Championship, and back-to-back PRCA World Champion Team Roping Heeler titles in 2021 and 2022.
Who is Junior Nogueira's team roping partner?
He has roped with Kaleb Driggers since around 2016–17, forming one of the most successful partnerships in modern team roping.
What injury did Junior Nogueira suffer in 2025?
He fractured his right tibia and damaged knee ligaments in a horse accident during practice on May 12, 2025, but returned to competition that summer.
Did Junior Nogueira win a world championship in 2025?
No — he and Driggers entered the 2025 NFR ranked No. 1 in the world but finished second, losing the title to Andrew Ward and Jake Long on the final night.
How did Junior Nogueira get his start in American rodeo?
Seven-time world champion Jake Barnes met him about a week before the 2013 NFR and invited him to live with his family and travel the U.S. circuit.
What is Junior Nogueira's career PRCA earnings total?
His PRCA competition earnings passed $2 million in September 2022 and have continued climbing through the 2025 season.
The Final Verdict
From a five-year-old who watched his father die in a roping box to the first Brazilian world champion in PRCA history, Junior Nogueira's story was never going to be a straight line. Three gold buckles, a tied world record, and a fractured leg later, he's still backing into the box every week, still chasing the title that got away in 2025.
Do you think Junior Nogueira and Kaleb Driggers will reclaim the world championship in 2026? Let us know in the comments below.