Bull rider, all-around contender Schalla caps big first year with trip to NFR

In one night, Wacey Schalla was hooked.

About five years ago, the Arapaho, Okla., native got the chance to visit Las Vegas and attend a performance of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. He had been to other professional competitions before and taken part in youth rodeos himself.

But the energy inside the Thomas &Mack Center was far different from anything else he had ever seen. And what he saw changed everything.

“I’ve watched one round I think, when I was 14, and that’s when I knew that’s where I needed to be,” Schalla said.

Since that day, Schalla has been on a mission to get back. And in impressive fashion, he accomplished that goal in his rookie year.

Schalla finished the 2024 regular season with slightly more than $194,000 in earnings as a bull rider, good for seventh in the PRCA world standings. He also nabbed more than $65,000 in earnings as a bareback rider, leading to a top-30 finish in that event as well. Between the two events, Schalla stood fourth in the race for for the all-around world title.

Unfortunately, it has been a bumpy run through six rounds of the Wrangler NFR, with Schalla getting bucked off each bull this week. Still, he’s ninth in the bull riding world standings at $204,096 and remains No. 4 in the all-around chase. That’s a pretty solid season for a rookie rider.

Schalla’s journey to his first NFR featured a lot of milestones. He won the all-around title at 21 rodeos, while securing the outright or co-champion bull rider at 13 events. He also nabbed five bareback riding wins over the course of the year.

His big surge started in late July. He made the finals at the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days in both events, momentum that carried over into August. Bull rides in Lovington, N.M., ultimately pushed him to a strong finish, as Schalla won the Lea County PRCA Rodeo Xtreme Bulls and the Lea County PRCA Rodeo. Between the two events, he took home more than $23,000 in a span of five days. For the month of August, he finished with nearly $80,000 in bull riding earnings alone, propelling him from on the bubble to make the NFR into contending world title.

“At the beginning of the year, things seemed a little slow, until we hit August,” Schalla said. “That’s when I hit my little hot streak and I was able to keep it going for quite a while that month. That’s basically what got me to where I’m at.”

In a year when defending all-around world champion Stetson Wright was sidelined, Schalla did his part to make sure a roughstock competitor remains in the fight. The three cowboys ahead of him in the world all-around standings are all timed-event athletes, with tie-down roper Shad Mayfield setting the pace, followed by team ropers Junior Nogueira and Coleman Proctor. In fact, Schalla is the only roughstock cowboy inside the top 20 of the all-around world standings.

Schalla isn’t the only rookie making waves. Jeter Lawrence finished as the Resistol Rookie Bull Rider of the Year, with slightly more than $206,000 in earnings, while Cooper James also made the NFR in his first year. James is fourth ($266,438), and Lawrence is fifth ($256,341) in the bull riding world standings, and as noted above. Schalla is ninth.

How this season’s story finishes is yet to be determined. Schalla has certainly made a statement of what he brings to professional rodeo right out of the gate, with no intent of slowing down. When the 2024 regular season wrapped up at the end of September, Schalla kept riding. He’s already put nearly $15,000 in the bank for the 2025 season, thanks to a pair of wins in Texas back in October.

It’s a rookie season that ends at the NFR. But more importantly, Schalla believes it’s the start of something. And coming back to Las Vegas each December remains what he wants to continue doing.

“It’s a lot of people’s ultimate goal, and doing that my first year is very rewarding. I’m pretty blessed to be able to do what I love to do,” said Schalla, who will try to make a run at the all-around title again in 2025. “(That) has definitely been one of my goals, but it ain’t over until it’s over. There’s always more goals to chase.”