Cavenders Boots
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday
To look at these guys in street clothes, you figure them both to be athletic.
Dave Jantzi of Sugarcreek, Ohio, is tall and lanky, built like a small forward in basketball. Toby Inman of Davis Junction, Ill., is tall with a powerful build. He could be a tight end or linebacker in football.
But they prefer the dangers and athletic fate that comes with bullfighting, which is why they make up the No. 3 team in the standings leading into the Professional Bullfighters Daisy Protection Bullfight World Championships that are part of the SandHills Stock Show and Rodeo at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa, Texas.
“To go up against these guys, it literally puts you up against the best,” said Inman, 25, a four-year veteran. “It doesn't bring me down; it builds me up.”
Through the tough, 20-event Daisy Protection Bullfight Tour in 2008, Inman and Jantzi finished with 4,010 points. At the Miller Lite Bull Blowout in August in Denton, Texas, the tandem finished second in the final standings.
“Not everybody else can do it,” he said. “It’s exciting. It’s just one of those things. Some people like to bike. Some people like to throw horseshoes. Some people like to skydive.
“I don’t see jumping out of a perfectly good airplane as a rush, but I do like to step out in the arena and help people. I’m just having a good time.”
Jantzi was crowned the MVP after winning the PBF event in Durango, Colo., in early August. He knows there’s a lot of detail to be good at protection bullfighting, and his passion for the sport has carried him to this level.
“It’s clean fun. It’s a clean adrenaline rush,” he said. “I love doing it, and I love the respect you get for a job well done, whether it’s from the bull riders or my fellow bullfighters.”