CHEYENNE – Thad Trujillo first approached Brody Cress because he was trying to get a head count on how many of his Cheyenne East wrestlers were interested in competing at a national tournament.
Cress had already made two state finals appearances by then, and was the favorite to win his second consecutive state title.
College coaches were calling Trujillo to inquire about Cress, and the coach thought an event like the National High School Coaches Association tournament in Virginia Beach, Virginia, would be the perfect showcase for Cress.
Trujillo knew he would have to overcome one big hurdle: rodeo.
“To that point, he hadn’t done a ton with rodeo, but I knew he was starting to get serious about it,” Trujillo said. “I didn’t know how good he was at it.”
Cress skipped Virginia Beach and went to Wyoming High School Rodeo Association events instead. He clinched the first of two trips to the National High School Finals Rodeo that spring.
The 21-year-old has since competed at two College National Finals Rodeos and won the saddle bronc riding title at three of the sport’s most prestigious professional rodeos.
Cress will compete on rodeo’s biggest stage tonight when he competes in the first go-round of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
The 10-round event wraps up Saturday, Dec. 16.
“I could have been a pretty good college wrestler, I think,” said Cress, who enters the NFR ranked No. 6 in the world standings. “But college wrestling is a lot harder than high school wrestling, and rodeo is a lot more fun.
“There are more opportunities to move up in rodeo. I have loved rodeo my whole life, and I knew I could be great at it.”
Starting young
It was almost predestined that Cress and his older brother, Blaze, would compete in the rodeo arena.
Their mother, Lannette Cress, competed as a barrel racer, breakaway roper and team roper throughout her childhood in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
Their father, Tommy Cress, didn’t start competing in rodeo until his senior year of high school in Pagosa Springs. The elder Cress used the sport to pay for his education at Laramie County Community College and later the University of Wyoming.
Tommy Cress competed professionally within the Mountain States Circuit.
“I made the circuit finals a few times, but I didn’t have the talent my boys did,” he said. “There’s a big difference between what I did and being a guy who competes in the biggest rodeos.”
Tommy Cress hung up his rigging in his early 30s, but he competed long enough for his sons to be bitten by the rodeo bug.
“We always messed around on my dad’s saddle when we were little,” Brody Cress said. “Bronc riding was always our favorite event because we always had bronc riders like my dad and his friend, Colt Bruegman, around.”
Brody and Blaze got their first taste of competition by trying to ride sheep in mutton busting contests before moving up to calf riding.
Actual competitions weren’t enough to satisfy the brothers’ hunger for the sport. Tommy Cress and his friends spent many weekends opening the chutes at the Cresses’ Hillsdale home again and again so their sons could test themselves against each other.
“We had some kids who were regulars out here,” Tommy Cress said. “They used to put tally marks on the chute every time they had a successful ride.”
The Cress boys progressed to steer riding before taking a break from the sport.
“The boys didn’t want to, but I made them,” Tommy Cress said. “It got pretty serious after steers, and I didn’t think it was a very good idea to put 60-pound kids on 1,000-pound bucking bulls.”
The hiatus only lasted a few years. A friend of Tommy’s had a few horses he wanted to use as bucking stock, and he let the Cress brothers – who were in high school by then – practice on them.
Even though they were back on horses, Tommy made his sons wait until their junior years before they competed.
“Some of the greatest bucking horses in the world are raised in Wyoming,” Tommy said. “Those contractors don’t keep a lot of their lesser horses around because it is so expensive.
“So there are some really rank horses that end up at the high school rodeos. I thought our kids needed time to mature physically.”
The time away gave the Cresses time to learn how to really ride broncs. It also saved them a couple of years worth of wear and tear.
Wrestling for a reason
Tommy Cress thought two things held him back during his bronc riding career: his late introduction to the sport and his lack of wrestling experience.
“When I studied the best bareback and saddle bronc riders in the world, it was so common to see that they had wrestled in high school,” Tommy said. “All of my friends who were good in rodeo were wrestlers. I thought I was kind of average because I didn’t have that background.
“I got along fine, but the guys I rodeoed with who were wrestlers in high school were athletic, tough and strong.”
Blaze and Brody started wrestling as soon as they could. Blaze won a state title his junior year at East and was a two-time state runner-up. He placed third as a senior.
Brody won three prep state titles and was the runner-up his freshman season.
“I wish all of our guys brought that same aggressiveness and wrestled with the same mindset (Brody) did,” Trujillo said with a grin. “He was intense throughout the match and really pushed himself. He has a champion’s mindset.
“It’s one of the things that makes him so good at rodeo.”
Success on the wrestling mat was secondary to the lessons the sport provided.
“Wrestling and rodeo go hand in hand, because you have to be tough physically and mentally,” Brody Cress said. “All those years of wrestling didn’t just help with rodeo, they helped with life.
“You learn not to quit or back down when things get hard.”
Catching fire
Cress’ run to the pro rodeo world finals started late in his junior year at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.
He won three of the season’s final five rodeos to win the Southwest Region title.
Cress placed third in the aggregate standings and won the final go-round at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper.
He carried that success into the professional ranks and won the aggregate title at California Rodeo Salinas, which put him No. 17 in the world entering Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Cress placed no worse than a tie for fourth during any of CFD’s three rounds. He capitalized on a re-ride option and scored 88.5 points to win the final round and the aggregate title.
Cress would have placed fifth if he had kept the 79.5 score from his original ride.
“It was pretty exhilarating,” Lannette Cress said. “I was surrounded by all these people who were hugging me and grabbing me and congratulating me.
“His ride looked pretty good, but I wasn’t sure he had won it until they put it up on the scoreboard.”
Winning his hometown rodeo moved Cress up to 14th in the world. After that, Cress climbed up the rankings by winning checks at seemingly every rodeo he entered. His third big win came at the Pendleton (Oregon) Round-Up.
“It didn’t matter what stage I was on, it could be the short round in Cheyenne or Pendleton, or a small circuit rodeo, I tried to treat all the horses the same,” Brody Cress said. “I use the same process and do the same stuff, so I’m used to it and not out of my element. I’m not worried about the horse or the stage, I’m focused on making the best bronc ride I can.”
In all, Cress won 10 rodeos and was the co-champion at three more. The success made a string of 27 rodeos in 30 bearable.
“When you’re winning, you’re having a lot of fun, being positive and not having to worry about paying for your next rodeo,” Brody Cress said. “It’s a lot easier to go get on more bucking horses when you’re riding well.
“You can’t get on enough of them. Winning definitely makes going down the road a little bit better.”
Mature approach
Cress assessed his finances shortly after the 2017 rodeo season ended Sept. 30. He was surprised at how much of his more than $105,000 in earnings was still in his bank account, even after he had to book flights and hotels at several events late in the season.
“I haven’t really bought anything, or done anything too dumb with my money,” he said. “I won $22,000 my rookie year, and I thought that was a lot of money. But I went back down to college with nothing. I didn’t want to be back in that position again.”
Cress spent the summer traveling with fellow saddle bronc riders Nat Stratton and Jake Finley. Stratton owns a Sprinter van that gets good highway mileage and allowed the group to sleep as they were going from one rodeo to the next.
The cowboys also carried a propane camp stove they used to cook food they bought at grocery stores.
“The food is healthier, it costs less and you can cook things you like,” Cress said with a laugh.
In the days leading up to his CFD win, Cress talked to his father about wanting to win as much money as he could so he could buy a house and some land. Those are pretty heady topics for 21-year-olds, but they didn’t surprise Tommy Cress.
“That maturity comes from my wife,” Tommy said with a laugh. “She always worked with the kids on budgets and things while they were raising livestock.
“They always had to budget and take care of their animals.”
The younger Cress has the big picture in mind.
“I have to keep doing well in rodeo, because I can go from winning all that money to getting hurt and not having the opportunity to win any more money in an instant,” Brody said. “It’s good to do something that will help you later on in life while you have the money. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Brody Cress isn’t just mature with his money. He also is mature in the classroom, earning his bachelor’s degree in agriculture business in 3½ years.
The NFR will keep him from walking in Tarleton’s commencement ceremony next weekend, however.
In the hunt
Cress enters the NFR more than $78,000 behind world No. 1 Jacobs Crawley of Boerne, Texas.
Crawley – the 2015 world champion – has a big lead, but it’s not insurmountable.
The winner of each of the NFR’s 10 rounds takes home nearly $26,000. The contestant with the best aggregate score gets another big paycheck.
“I can close the gap if I have a handful of good nights,” Brody Cress said. “All of us who make it to Las Vegas have a chance. But I can’t worry about that; I just have to go out there and ride bucking horses.
“Regardless of whether it’s going good or bad, you have to get on 10 horses and focus on what you’ve been doing all year. If I do those things, I’ll be fine.”
Experience has taught Trujillo to trust in Cress.
“When Brody Cress tells you he is going to do something, or he is going to be really good at something, he will,” the wrestling coach said. “That’s just who Brody Cress is.”
Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.
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