Some names carry their own weight into the box. When Trey Camarillo nodded for his steer at the inaugural Calgary Stampede First Nations Rodeo & Relay, he brought one of the most storied in team roping along with him.
Camarillo, son of the late Leo “The Lion” Camarillo, heeled his way to the team roping average title at the new event’s finals on June 13 at GMC Stadium in Calgary, Alberta. Roping behind header Jackson Louis, he stopped the clock at 16.67 seconds on two head to win the heeling. Louis matched him for the header title at the same 16.67, the two of them building the win on a 6.60 in the long go and a 10.07 that took the short round outright.
For anyone who followed Leo across four decades of arenas, the sight of a Camarillo facing up a winning run is a familiar kind of thrill. Trey, known around the ropings as “Cub,” has made a career of it in his own right, training rope horses and roping both ends out of the Maricopa and Casa Grande country of Arizona, where the family has made its home for years.
The roots, though, run through California. Trey’s grandfather, Ralph Camarillo, was the 1945 California State Rodeo Champion, the man who put ropes in the hands of Leo and his brother Jerold and drilled them until the Camarillo name became shorthand for a new style of heeling. Leo carried it to five world championships, four in the team roping in 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1983, plus the 1975 all-around, and into the inaugural 1979 class of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. When Leo passed in December 2020, he left behind a way of roping that his son is still carrying forward. That California thread ties back home every Labor Day, when the family honors Leo at the Leo Camarillo Memorial Roping during the Oakdale Ten Steer in the original Cowboy Capital of the World, where Trey learned much of his trade under his uncle Jerold, a Team Roping Hall of Famer himself.
“It was something I really wish my pops was still here to see.”
Trey Camarillo
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Team roping isn’t part of the main Calgary Stampede rodeo, so the First Nations event handed Camarillo his first chance to compete at Stampede Park, a stage he had imagined since he was a kid. “Getting to rope outside at Calgary was a dream come true,” he said. “It was also my first time being at Stampede Park. Growing up, I think all kids dream of being able to maybe get to run one at the big rodeos, especially Calgary, being they don’t have team roping in the main Stampede. It was something I really wish my pops was still here to see.”
The win landed as the highlight of his career to date. “I was very blessed to get the win,” Camarillo said. “It just seemed to be something that fell in our favor. Probably my favorite win of my career.”
The win came at an event writing its own first chapter. The Calgary Stampede First Nations Rodeo & Relay ran June 11 to 13, built in partnership with the Indian National Finals Rodeo as the INFR marks its 50th anniversary, and shaped with the guidance of Elbow River Camp Tipi Holder advisors from the Treaty 7 First Nations: the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut’ina. Stampede CEO Joel Cowley called it a gathering of community and cultures as much as a competition, and the night bore that out, pairing eight rodeo events and five heats of relay racing with drummers, dancers and a marketplace of First Nations vendors.
It drew like a marquee event from the start. More than 8,150 fans filled GMC Stadium for the Saturday finals, and the rodeo paid out $183,253 across its divisions, with senior and junior classes rounding out the open events. Kristina Barnes, the Stampede’s director of agriculture and western events, called the debut a success and pointed to the caliber of athleticism and horsemanship on display.
The winners came from all over the map, which said plenty about the reach of the field. Alberta’s own Ty Ferguson of Foremost took the bareback riding with an 80. Justine Begay of Fountain Hills, Arizona won the ladies breakaway at 5.27 on two head after a blistering 2.37 in the short round, roping, she said, for her family. JC Hawk of Scottsdale, Arizona claimed the ladies barrel racing at 35.033, and Jay Guerrero of Wadsworth, Nevada took the tie-down roping. Bull riding was the one title left vacant, with no rider covering his bull.
The relay, long a Calgary favorite, carried the highest stakes of the night. The Chief Enoch Lapotac team out of the Enoch Cree Nation posted the fastest run at 3:10.99 to win the title, and rider Tyrone Jackson spoke afterward of coming from a rough background and doing his best to strive and prosper. More than bragging rights were on the line. Four teams punched their tickets through the First Nations Relay into the 16-team ENMAX Relay Races at the main Stampede, sending the winners on to race nightly at the Rangeland Derby from July 3 to 12.
For Camarillo, the title carried a reward beyond the average check. The win sealed his qualification for his first Indian National Finals Rodeo, and it came in only his second year competing in Indian rodeo. “I’ve only Indian rodeo’d one year before this. It feels pretty special to make the finals my second year trying,” he said. “I just hope we can keep the momentum at the finals and hopefully get an Indian title.”
Trey wasn’t the only Camarillo on the grounds. His sister Cassie, the “Lioness” of the next generation, roped a 2.80 to place third in the ladies breakaway long go out of Maricopa, keeping two of Leo’s children in the same set of results and the family name in more than one column.
A brand-new tradition, a legendary name carried into it, and a heeler average that put a Camarillo back on top. The Lion would have loved this one.
“I just hope we can keep the momentum at the finals and hopefully get an Indian title.”
Trey Camarillo
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Trey Camarillo, known around the ropings as “Cub,” is a team roper and rope horse trainer based in the Maricopa and Casa Grande country of Arizona. He is the son of five-time world champion Leo “The Lion” Camarillo and the grandson of Ralph Camarillo, the 1945 California State Rodeo Champion.
Header Jackson Louis and heeler Trey Camarillo won the average at 16.67 seconds on two head, built on a 6.60 in the long go and a 10.07 that took the short round outright.
A new event that ran June 11 to 13, 2026, at GMC Stadium in Calgary, built in partnership with the Indian National Finals Rodeo as the INFR marks its 50th anniversary. It was shaped with guidance from Elbow River Camp Tipi Holder advisors of the Treaty 7 First Nations, and paired eight rodeo events and five h
Five. Four team roping world titles in 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1983, plus the 1975 all-around. He was part of the inaugural 1979 class of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and passed in December 2020.
A roping held every Labor Day during the Oakdale Ten Steer in Oakdale, California, honoring Leo Camarillo in the original Cowboy Capital of the World.
