National bull ride qualifier has local ties

A national finalist bull rider has ties to Park Rapids and Jokela's ProWest bull ride and rodeo.

Brett Stall, 23, will be competing in the NFR National Finals Rodeo Dec. 6-15 in Las Vegas.

Jokela ProWest organizer Randy Jokela said he has known the Stall family for years through the bull riding circuit and watched Brett grow up.

"I could see from a young age that Brett had it in him," Jokela said. "He was driven to be a top rodeo athlete."

The Stalls have livestock and Jokela worked with them when he was working on the first bull rides.

"His dad, Brad, is a good friend, and his grandpa, Irv, was friends with my dad," he said.

Stall competed in the ProRodeo event in Park Rapids in July and many people in the area have watched him compete, Jokela said.

"It's rare to have someone from Minnesota in the finals," he said. "It's often the guys from Texas, Montana. This is great to see."

Jokela thinks Minnesota might start to see more of its bull riders make the finals in future years because the sport has really taken off lately. And, the riders are taking it seriously and more than just recreation.

"You either have that drive or you don't and Brett has it," he said.

After Stall competed in the Rapid City, S.D., PRCA Xtreme Bulls Tour event in January, he was pretty sure he'd be seeing the lights of Las Vegas in December. And he was right.

"I was really confident, especially coming off the first of the year, starting it out well in Rapid City. I was like No. 2 in the world right after that."

"I knew if I stayed healthy and kept going, I could make it," he added.

The Detroit Lakes man said it hasn't even sunk in yet that he's going to the biggest competition of his career thus far.

"I can't even put it into words really," he said.

The competition is 10 days long, and Stall will compete all 10 days -- riding "the best bucking stock in the United States."

The potential money to be won at this competition is pretty steep, too.

"This could set me up for my ranch someday."

Between the Rapid City Rodeo in January and the competition in a few days, Stall has been traveling throughout the United States, competing in multiple bull rides -- 110 this year actually.

There is a cap of 125 rodeos he's allowed to compete in a year. He said he and his traveling partner plan out their route, hit the higher payouts and fill in with the smaller rodeos along the way.

"Our Cowboy Christmas, we call it, is in July. Me and my traveling partner, we went to 12 rodeos in 10 days, or nine days or something."

That means a couple rodeos a day.

"They're close enough you just drive like heck to get there," he added. "It gets exhausting, especially when you got beat up on your first one and then you know you've got a bad (bull) drawn that a lot of guys don't like getting on because he's hard.

"You really got to start thinking positive about things, you know. That's what bull riding is about. You can't be negative in the rodeo world, in anything really."

Bull riding is all reaction, he said, so that's not the thoughts going through his head when he's sitting on the bull, waiting for the gate to open. Instead, he concentrates on good, positive thoughts to make it through his competition.

"I just pray to the good Lord upstairs -- pray we make it through it and then give him the glory when we're done."

When he's not traveling and competing, Stall runs a beef ranch with his dad just outside Detroit Lakes. They have several hundred beef cows and 30 horses, he said.

"I stay busy ranching, and I like to ice fish when I'm home in the winter."

He said that he has more time to spend at home in the winter because he can pick and choose what rodeos he competes in and then hit the road hard in the warmer months.

Stall said he's either riding bulls or driving to the next location to compete, so he doesn't practice at all. Besides, why risk getting hurt for a practice ride?

And Stall has been hurt plenty. He said he's broken quite a few bones, but it's a dream come true for him, so the broken bones are just part of what's going to happen.

"I'm sure that somebody who's about to reach the dream they've dreamed of since they were a kid and stuck to it, I'm sure they know what I'm talking about."

And it's a dream he has had all his life.

When he was young, his parents, Bradley and Sandee, sponsored rodeos and got him involved. He rode calves and ponies as a youngster.

"I was always getting on something that moved or bucked."

And now as an adult, he gets to live out his dream.

"I have fun and I love doing it. I figure, do something while you can."

But, that's not to say it consumes him and it's the only thing he plans to do with his life.

"For me, there's more to life than just riding bulls."

He understands and appreciates the obligations back home on the ranch. He plans to ride professionally about five or six more years and then settle down on a ranch and raise a family.

Until then though, he's got another competition to win.

"It's something I always knew I wanted to do since I can remember. I knew what I wanted to be and I stuck with it."