story by Ruth Nicolaus
Dalton Kunkee knows you’re only as good as how you practice.
In fact, that goes along with his motto: “Don’t practice till you get it right, practice till you can’t get it wrong.”
The fourteen year old cowboy lives thirteen miles west of Eddyville, Nebraska, and competes in the tie-down roping, saddle bronc steer riding, chute dogging, team roping (heading for Frazier Kaelin), and ribbon roping (roping for Emalee Glendy), in the Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo Association.
He is an eighth grade student at Callaway Public School, where the best part of the day is lunch. He loves the school cafeteria’s hamburgers and pizza. As soon as he’s home from school, he dives into a bowl of cereal and milk, usually Life or Frosted Flakes. Dalton loves to eat, including his favorite food his mom makes, tacos and nachos, and the chicken fried steak with gravy from Tub’s Pub in Sumner, Nebraska.
In school, Dalton plays football, wrestles, and is student manager for the high school football team. He is a member of FFA and is on the All A Honor Roll for his school.
For fun, Dalton loves to help with brandings in the springtime, and take care of livestock. His favorite book and movie is Lonesome Dove.
In the summertime, he works at Bar J Cattle Co., doing anything that needs to be done: fixing fence, chopping thistles, picking up bales, and working cattle. He saves his paychecks for entry fees, and fun stuff like ropes, tack and (more) food.
Last year, at the state finals, Dalton finished seventh in the team roping and fourth in the breakaway. He went on to compete at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo in the breakaway. After the fall run of rodeos, he sits in the top ten in all of his events except the ribbon roping.
When he grows up, he’d like to be a PRCA cowboy and a nutritionist or
veterinarian.
He has two older brothers, Wyatt, who is eighteen, and Weston, who is sixteen.
He is the son of Dean and Angie Kunkee.
