All In: Nebraska’s Felycia Kerkman excels at wrestling, rodeo

Felycia Kerkman has two different wardrobes. 

One includes cowboy boots, a hat, and a sash that proclaims her as Miss Nebraska High School Rodeo queen. The second one is her wrestling singlet, head gear, and a medal as runner-up in the 125 lb. division for girls wrestling, Class B, at the Nebraska High School State Wrestling Tournament.  

And she wears them both well. 

The 16-year-old cowgirl, a resident of Atkinson, Neb., just finished her sophomore year second in her weight class, after three years of wrestling.  

Whatever she does, she’s all in. 

She played junior high school basketball, but she fouled too often and got benched for it.  

“I was a little too aggressive in basketball,” she said. When coaches benched her, “they told me I needed to figure out what I was doing wrong. I never figured it out and when I figured it out, I figured I was doing the wrong sport.” 

So in eighth grade, she switched to wrestling.  

It fits her well. “The part I enjoy is I can beat someone up without getting in trouble for it,” she said.  

When she started high school wrestling, her goal was to medal (medals are awarded to the top six in each weight division). Her freshman year, she finished fifth at districts; the top four go on to state. 

She doesn’t write her goals down, but thinks about them when she’s lying in bed.  

“I’m the type of person who thinks a lot when I’m in bed. That’s the time I’m not doing anything and everything slows down.” 

The night before state wrestling, she was awake much of the night, thinking about the moves she’d make. But she wasn’t tired the next day. “I guess I had enough adrenaline and energy.”  

Rodeo queening is on the other end of the spectrum.

Kerkman’s mother, Andrea, got her daughter involved in queen pageants six years ago. Kerkman has won four titles: 2019 Central Nebraska Rodeo Princess, 2021 Frontier County (Neb.) Rodeo Queen, 2023 Clearwater (Neb.) Rodeo Queen, and her current role as the state high school queen.  

At the high school pageant last June, she won the categories of horsemanship, appearance, personality, congeniality, and speech/modeling. 

Now Kerkman’s eyes are on the next goal: winning the National High School Queen title. Last year, she placed seventh at the national contest.  

When the situation warrants, she loves to get dressed up. “I just love doing my makeup and hair,” Kerkman said. “I have my moments when I want to look good, and then I’ll have moments where I just don’t really care.”  

In addition to rodeo queening and wrestling, she competes in high school rodeo in goat tying, barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping and team roping. She runs cross country and track (in the 4x800m, the 800m, the one-mile and the two-mile), and participates in FFA, dance team, and in 4-H, showing horses, pigs, and cattle.  

Kerkman qualified for state twice in cross country (2023 and 2024) and with this year’s dance team, but dance competition was the same days as wrestling, so she wrestled. She’s made it to state high school finals rodeo, too,  

Coach Randy Schroeder, the head girls wrestling coach, loves having her as an athlete.   

“She’s a great kid,” he said. “She listens to me well and always has a positive attitude, whether she wins or loses. She’s a great kid to coach.”  

She’s a team leader, along with several other girl wrestlers who feed off each other, Schroeder said. “They want each other to succeed, and it shows on the mat.”  

She’s tall, which appears to be a disadvantage in wrestling, but Coach says it isn’t.  

“She has the build” to wrestle, he said. “She knows how to use her leverage, and it helps her.”  

Schroeder said her involvement in a variety of activities is helpful to her, too. “That makes a well-rounded athlete. The more you’re involved in, the better you are. It gives kids a lot of opportunities to try different things and figure out what they want to do with life.”  

Her mom Andrea said she’s determined. 

“She works very hard,” Andrea said. “For wrestling, after practice, she might come home and run on the treadmill for 45 minutes, or she might go to extra practices that aren’t mandatory.” 

Kerkman would like to run for the title of Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska in a couple of years. She hopes to attend college in Texas, compete in college rodeo, and become an equine physical therapist. 

But before that, she has goals to slay. She wants to qualify for the state high school track meet in the one-mile, and win a gold medal at the 2026 state high school wrestling meet.  

“When she sets her mind to it, when she sets goals, she knocks them out of the park,” her mom said. 

In addition to her mom, Felycia’s family includes her dad, Korey Kerkman and her two younger siblings: a brother, Maddox, and a sister, Finley.