By Rich Winter

605 Sport

DES MOINES, Iowa —- JJ Sterkel’s rodeo season could have ended in early May.

Competing in the goat tying at a regional rodeo in Huron, Sterkel’s run looked just like any other run. As she was getting ready to finish her run her legs got twisted in the rope and took an awkward twist that produced an audible pop to those close to her.

“She tore her ACL,” Raychel Sterkel, JJ’s mom said. “It was a freak accident and looked like any other run.

The goat tying was only Sterkel’s second event and she still had four to contest. Fortunately the Sterkel’s packed well and had a brace that JJ put on.

Sterkel said the ACL tear didn’t hurt that much and she had no doubts about finishing the job at hand. 

“That was just my second event and I still had four more events that day,” she said. “The next day we put the brace on and taped it up good and I was able to compete in all six of my events.”

The injury did slow Sterkel down but it also didn’t hinder her and team roping partner Addison Byrne from finishing fourth in the South Dakota state finals and advancing to the Junior High National Finals Rodeo. 

The injury occured in early May and Sterkel had summer plans of going to the Junior High National Finals Rodeo and the Little Britches National Finals Rodeo.

“We went home and  took her to urgent care,” Raychel Sterkel said. “The doctor does a lot of sports medicine and he kinda knew what was at stake because JJ had already qualified for the Little Britches finals.” 

Sterkel was given clearance to contest any event she wanted. She will have surgery on the ACL in July and doctors think she could be playing basketball and running track at Cody-Kilgore, Nebraska as early as January. 

Having been cleared by her doctor, Sterkel started practicing again and taking care of the fleet of horses she uses for multiple events.

“My horses' names are Cowboy, Harvey, Cash, Wrangler, Tea Wagon, Mr. T, Seven, Shaw and Bacon,” JJ Sterkel said. 

JJ Sterkel is an all-around cowgirl that competes in six events. After the Jr. High National Finals she and her family will head to the Little Britches National Finals in Oklahoma - Photo courtesy of Jerry Peacock.

Sterkel lives in Merriman, Nebraska, which is 18 miles south of Martin where she and her partner often practice. Sterkel is the header and Byrne is the heeler.

“It’s kind of a blur and I don’t think much about what I’m doing before a team roping run,” she said. “Addison is pretty calm and collected. She gives me a head not to let me know she’s ready. You never know what the calves are going to do and that adds another element to deal with.” 

And Sterkel puts in the work

“We traveled this week with three dummies,” Raychel Sterkel said. “At home she’s tying goats before school and after school. She stands on hay bales and ropes and on occasion she will sit on a 55-gallon barrel and rope while she is sitting.” 

Sterkel qualified for the goat-tying as a seventh grader in the Junior High National Finals Rodeo. Even though she has experience she still feels the nerves. 

“I get butterflies in my stomach,” she said. “The bigger the rodeo is I start feeling the nerves a couple days before the rodeo.” 

Following the Junior High National Finals Rodeo the Sterkels, along with father Craig, will head to Guthrie, Oklahoma where Sterkel will compete in the Little Britches National Finals Rodeo. 

Not everyone would go on competing with a torn ACL, but Sterkel is as tough as they come in junior high rodeo. 

“I think between her and her brother there is absolutely no quit no matter what,” Raychel Sterkel said. “She’s trained all of her horses and it’s just an awesome thing to see.”