Even at 40 Percent, Harris Expects to Qualify for Finals

RALEIGH, N.C. – J.W. Harris’ body is begging him for a break every Monday he returns home from a weekend of bull riding.

13-plus years of wear and tear has made it a little bit harder to bounce back than in years past, but, specifically, a torn left abdominal muscle and groin strain has been the biggest issue for Harris during the past six months.

“When I get home on Mondays, it will take me two days to get out of bed,” Harris said. “I am just so sore. It is tore right down low where it attaches to my pelvis. It is the ab on my left side. It hurts like a son of gun, but that is part of it.”

Harris heads into this weekend’s Frontier Communications Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Raleigh, North Carolina, ranked 37^th in the world standings.

The 31-year-old is within 33.34 points of the Top 35 following a 1-for-3 performance last weekend at the DeWALT Guaranteed Tough Invitational, presented by Ariat.

Harris’ season-high tying 87.25-point ride on Bullrito propelled him to a ninth-place finish (65 world points) to help keep alive the veterans hopes of qualifying for the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals after missing the Finals last year because of hip/knee surgeries.

 
If the ab muscle does not heal on its own, Harris will likely need to go undergo surgery after the season.

“It is going to be hard for it to heal on its own if I keep getting on, but we are right there,” Harris said. “I have to keep fighting. It just comes down to how bad I want it right now.”

Harris is only 7-for-34 (20.59 percent) in 14 BFTS events and has looked like a shell of his former self for the majority of the season as a nagging groin injury and this torn ab muscle only compounded his already slow start to the season.

“I’m 40 percent, but it is what it is,” Harris said. “I just need to get it done and over with. I know I can still ride them. I just have to pull my head out of my ass.”

Harris takes on Loan Shark in Round 1 Saturday night at PNC Arena. Loan Shark has been ridden in all three BFTS outs of his career, including for 87.25 points by Derek Kolbaba in Uniondale, New York.

“I don’t want to have to go to the Velocity Finals,” Harris said. “I want to go ahead and get this knocked out, so I can have them two to three extra days to chill out. If I have to go to the Velocity Finals, it is going to be a long week.”

The four-time PRCA champion would not be competing in Raleigh this weekend if not for his performance last weekend in Nampa, Idaho.

However, Harris almost didn’t even compete in Nampa.

Harris wasn’t supposed to be in Nampa for the Built Ford Tough Series event.

Quite frankly, Harris had no plans of leaving his couch and heading to any bull riding in the United States one week ago.

The Texas bull rider has been entrenched in a grueling battle at the bottom of the world standings as he tries to get past a jumbled group of riders ranked 32 to 42.  However, Harris was not going to head to Albany, New York, for the Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour event when he learned he had originally missed the cut for the BFTS.

Instead, Harris was going to take the week off as he tries to overcome the torn abdominal muscle he believes he may have first injured all the way back in March when he won first and second-place at the Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Touring Pro Division event.

“Honestly, I was trying to get right mentally,” Harris said. “I feel pretty decent physically. My stomach still bothers me every once in a while. I look at it as I am not that far out from making it.

Therefore, when his phone rang around 10 a.m. last Saturday, Harris was a little surprised there was a bull with his name on it waiting for him at the DeWALT Guaranteed Tough Invitational, presented by Ariat.

When the offer was put on the table seeing as Brock Radford had to opt out of the event, Harris looked at his wife, Jackie.

“She said, ‘Get your ass there,’” J.W. recalled. “I was packing. She was packing. She was ironing up a shirt, and I hauled ass up here (to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport) and I finally got one rode.”

J.W. was also thankful for a phone call from reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger.

Berger heard through Harris was struggling to find a flight to Nampa and was trying to see if he could find someone with a private plane to get Harris to the BFTS event.

Harris eventually found a flight to Nampa that landed less than an hour before the event started. Berger’s partner, Mike Heald of Heald Pro Bulls, then picked up Harris and hustled him to the Ford Idaho Center.

“It is pretty cool knowing you have that many people in your corner pulling for you,” Harris said. “You kind of don’t want to let them down either.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko