story by Brandon Volker
Four-time CePRA finals qualifier, Brandon Volker dominated the steer wrestling in the 2014 season and walked away as the year-end champion with over $5,000 in year-end winnings. While the 28-year-old cowboy didn’t have quite the finals he was hoping for, he still managed to split the second go-round and best his closest opponent by over $2,000 in the final standings. “The Crowthers put on good rodeos all year long, they are all close to home, which works particularly well for me, and there is always a good, fun finals,” Brandon said of what has kept him returning to the organization for five years.
Having gotten his start through his bull doggin’ uncle and hazing father, Brandon has been getting after it for approximately 14 years. “I started practicing with them and liked it so much that I just kept doing it,” he said. Brandon’s love for the event has allowed him to compete in additional associations such as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, where he qualified for his first Prairie Circuit Finals and finished fifth in the 2014 year-end standings, and the Kansas Professional Rodeo Association (KPRA), where he also qualified for his first finals and finished third in the 2014 year-end standings. “It was a good year for me,” he said.
Adding to his good fortune, Brandon and his wife (Lacey) celebrated the birth of their first daughter (Karsyn Ann) in September. “She absolutely controls my life in a good way,” he said of the addition to his family. The residents of Alva, Okla., have been married for almost three years and the couple have shared the rig in that time, as Lacey also competes within the CePRA and KPRA in the barrel racing and breakaway roping, but was sidelined in the past season due to her pregnancy. “She was so very supportive in the past year. I look forward to continuing to go with my wife this year,” Brandon said. Outside of the arena, Brandon works as a truck driver, delivering supplies in the oil field for Hampel Oil. “I’ve been there for about a year and a half and really like it. It works really good with my rodeo schedule,” he said. In the meantime, Lacey is an ER nurse in Alva.
As the upcoming rodeo season creeps up, Brandon hopes to continue to hit the road with his additional traveling partners Colt Stern and Luke Blanton, whom he says he has been traveling with, one or both, for approximately five years. With a growing family, his goal for the year is to stay a little closer to home, but is still out to win. “I’d like to go back to the CePRA, KPRA and Circuit finals this year,” he added.