ProFile: Brandi Hollenbeck

Brandi Hollenbeck finished out her second and final year at Garden State Community College winning the Central Plains region in the breakaway and was honored with being female athlete of the year for the college. “We were honored to have Brandi on our women’s team,” said her coach, Jim Boy Hash. “She’s talented enough to go anywhere to compete in the breakaway and team roping. She is a quiet and humble person, and we’re going to miss her.” She graduated with high honors and is part of the Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, she drove all night to go enter a roping. After that, she headed home to pick up her breakaway horse and head to another rodeo.
“The year is just starting,” she said. “Hopefully this summer and fall will continue to be good.” Brandi is going to be a junior, and she’s headed to Alva to Northwest State University to study ag business and get her degree in that and rodeo for the team.” She is looking into real estate appraisal. “I’m really interested in that. It’s something that is flexible with the lifestyle that I live.”
Brandi, from Hutch, went to Pretty Prairie High School, making the High School National Finals all four years. She won it in 2011, her freshman year, and again in eighth grade. Her fastest time ever is a 1.9 – and she’s done it twice. Her secret to success is the horse power. “That’s one of the key things in my opinion; one that can get from point A to point B in a short amount of time. One that gives me the same shot every time.” Brandi has competed on five different horses since she started roping when she was 6. “I rode my dad’s calf horses then. I pretty much took over my dad’s horses for the first two I rode, them my grandpa (Junior Lewis) trained one  and Jerome Schneeberger rode him, one day he told me to (Junior Lewis) get on him and that was that. I rode him until the middle of my sophomore year, and I borrowed my Uncle’s calf horse, and then we came across this horse that my dad knew about. We called the people about a year ago, and they said no, and then they changed their mind. I took him home that day …and the rest is history.”
Brandi learned how to rope from her grandfather and her dad, Shawn. Her whole family will be cheering her on at her second CNFR, Mom, Mardee, little sister, Blair, and grandma, Gaynell Lewis. “She always comes to every rodeo to watch me,” said Brandi. Brandi had the college finals made before the final two rodeos in the season. She was also trying to make it in the team roping, but the #4 header admits she and her partner “had heck. We actually switched ends the last two rodeos. We’re going to work on it this summer and hopefully go in the team roping next year to the college finals.”
She plans to go to the CNFR for the rest of her years in college. “It’s a field that I want to go back to. It’s the NFR for college kids – it’s something you definitely want to be a part of. I went last year and had a blast. It is like a reunion from the high school finals. My parents were out there the whole week and we went up to Casper Mountain. I’m very honored to represent my school and my region.”
“Balancing school and rodeo is hard – for me, school is first. The coaches have scheduled practices every day and it helps to have the classes scheduled to be done at noon, then I can study and then go to practice. I made the Presidents Honor Roll and the Deans Honor Roll.” Biology was the toughest class for her. It wasn’t an everyday class, you had two labs per week at 7:30 and the hybrid part was on your own. I don’t go to the gym, I have really bad burcitis in my shoulder, and I get it injected two or three times a year … main thing is make sure my horse is in tip top shape  and make sure he gets out of his pen everyday, and I rope everyday.”