Breakaway Roper Keeps Family-First Priorities as 2025 Gets Off to Fast Start

Joey Williams has jumped out to be among the WPRA leaders early in the season, but that won’t change her focus or strategy for the upcoming season

Breakaway roper Joey Williams has only run at two events for the 2025 schedule but already has nearly $12,100 in earnings and sits among the WPRA leaders. / Fernando Sam-Sin/@fsamsin

If not for social media, Joey Williams would still be completely unaware. 

A few days ago, the Volberg, Mont., native was scrolling through Facebook when she noticed a post about the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association World Breakaway Roping Standings. The last thing she expected to see was her own name, yet there it was, atop the leaderboard. 

“I have three kids, two of them are in school, and they’re doing wrestling and I felt like I barely had time to get the circuit finals in. So it’s kind of surreal. I haven’t even put a lot of thought into it to be honest,” Williams said with a laugh. 

After Tuesday’s update to the WPRA rankings, Williams finds herself sitting second with $12,095.18 to her credit. Brooke Ladner overtook her after last weekend’s results, but the Poplarville, Miss., native needed seven rodeos to pull ahead. Since the 2025 campaign started, Williams has only competed at two events – the NILE ProRodeo Breakaway Roping back in October and the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals in mid-January. 

It’s a limited schedule but one that has worked well. She won the October event then placed in two rounds at the circuit finals before sharing the average championship with Shelby Boisjoli-Meged. That approach won’t change as the 2025 schedule ramps up. 

Joey Williams, green shirt, shared the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals average title with Shelby Boisjoli-Meged after they each finished with an aggregate total of 7.1 seconds on three runs. / Courtesy of the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals Facebook

Last year, Williams made the decision to let the outcomes of the early season dictate what her summer and fall would look like. After a less-than-stellar winter, she picked up some considerable earnings in early July, made a small midseason push but decided to ease off the pace in September when it became apparent she was a longshot to make the National Finals Breakaway Roping. 

“It was looking like I was going to have to be gone all of September to even have a chance because I was kind of outside looking in. I decided I wasn’t going to do that. I wanted to go to my kids' flag football games and things like that,” Williams said. She finished 19th in the WPRA standings last year, missing out on her fourth straight NFBR qualification. “It might not look like it to most people, but I was thrilled with how last year went because it wasn’t even in the plan and it almost worked out. I was bummed when Vegas rolled around and I wasn’t there, but I was really at peace with it honestly.”

While she finds herself among the WPRA leaders early on, Williams isn’t letting that success determine how she approaches the season. For her it’s business – or better yet, family – as usual. 

Her two oldest kids are wrestling this winter and all three kids will be her priority. She intends to make her runs at ProRodeo’s big winter events, including the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo early next week. 

Those results in the coming months will set the tone for how hard she pushes this summer and into the fall. And no outcome, no matter how big, is going to change her top priority – being a mom. 

“Going into this year, the game plan is not much different. I’m just going to take it one day at a time and if the winter rodeos go well, I’ll probably try to make a run for Vegas and if they don’t I’m probably going to be OK with that,” Williams said.