story by Michele Toberer
The Southeastern Professional Rodeo Association has been a great rodeo home for first-generation cowboy, Cody Stubbs, of Odenville, Alabama. Cody is the son of Dale Stubbs, a retired Birmingham fireman, and Shawn Stubbs, a chiropractor. Although rodeo was not a part of his family history, when Cody saw a youth rodeo flyer in Tractor Supply when he was in the 6th grade, he convinced his parents to let him go. “I wanted to ride a bull, steer wrestle, and do the calf scramble. My parents were supportive of my rodeo dreams and I got a horse and some help, and it has led to where I am now. Not having a parent in rodeo already, made me work harder to figure things out on my own since I wasn’t born into it. But it also showed me how much I wanted to rodeo. I had to cowboy up and figure it out.”
Cody competed in the Alabama Junior High School Rodeo Association in 7th and 8th grade, and also competed in the high school division his junior and senior year of high school before graduating from Briarwood Christian High School in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the 2016 AHSRA Champion Header and 2017 AHSRA Reserve Champion Heeler. Cody traveled to Shawnee, Oklahoma for the International Youth Finals Rodeo and to Gillette, Wyoming for the National High School Finals Rodeo his junior and senior year. He placed in the top 20 in the world as a junior in team roping at the 2016 NHSFR and split 5th in the first round of team roping at the IFYR in 2017.
Cody is currently in his junior year at the University of West Alabama in Livingston, Alabama, where he is a student athlete on the rodeo team. He currently team ropes, mainly heading at rodeos but also heeling at jackpots on the weekends. Cody’s heeler is J.T. Ellison, and the team not only competes in college rodeos, but also all of the SPRA rodeos they can fit in their schedule. This is Cody’s second season with the SPRA, and he is hopeful to qualify for the season finals. “There are some really good teams in the SPRA so every rodeo you compete against them it makes you better. Everyone there is super nice and easy to talk to, it’s really like one big family. The SPRA has offered a lot of very good rodeos at good locations.”
Cody has been competing on a big 13-year-old bay gelding named Jeffrey for a little over a year and recently added two sorrel geldings, Mayhem and WeeMan to his lineup for practice and jackpots. Rodeo family has helped Cody get to where he is. Rodney and Will Sanders have helped him with team roping, “They started out as strangers but have turned into family.” Cody also gives credit to 9X WNFR Team Roping Qualifier, Tyler Magnus, who he lived with last summer. “I went to one of his clinics a couple years ago and he invited me to come stay when I could. Guys like Tyler eat, sleep, and breathe team roping; you can’t help but absorb knowledge being around him.” Cody is also appreciative to his rodeo teammates, his rodeo coaches, Alex Caudle and Daniel Poole, and his partner J.T. and his dad, Kenny Ellison, for their help with his roping.
“I thank God for the blessing of living this lifestyle that not everyone can. My parents have gone above and beyond to support me, always keeping good horses underneath me and giving me the opportunity to enter all that I can.”
Although he tries to deer hunt when he has free time from rodeo and school, Cody focuses most of his time on obtaining his degree in exercise science, so that once he graduates in 2021, he can transfer to a chiropractic school for nearly 4 more years of schooling. Once he has his chiropractic degree he plans to work with his mom in her Moody, Alabama chiropractic office, and eventually take over her practice.
