Teen Sensation Moria Novakoski Aims to Make PBR History at 15

As the Velocity Tour launches its season in St. Louis, fearless Michigan teen is hoping to carve a path for women in the most unforgiving sport

Jody N

The PBR Velocity Tour opens its new season in St. Louis this weekend (Dec. 6-7) with a new twist – a youth bull riding showcase during the man vs. beast showdowns.

“Man vs. Beast,” however, isn’t exactly right. A young woman will be putting it on the line, too, pursuing her dream to be the first female rider to make it into the PBR.

On Saturday night, Moria Novakoski, 15, along with seven other riders ages 8-17, will be competing in a “NextGen” showcase PBR is bringing to the Velocity Tour as part of its fledgling rider development program. The St. Louis exhibition opens a 12-stop NextGen showcase featuring youth from around the country.

Novakoski is only a year into the sport she wants to make her career. She has been a quick study, competing nationally at the International Mini Bull Riders Association Finals and winning a round at the PBR Touring Pro Bull Fest’s NextGen Youth Ride-Off in Shipshewana, Indiana in early November. Riding in the Enterprise Center matched against a bull named Cookie will be her biggest test so far.

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Before riding bulls, she was a gymnast, making it to national events through excelling in the floor and vault power events.

But then she caught the bull riding bug…in a most unconventional way.  

At her great-grandmother’s funeral in Michigan, she met a second cousin who spent the entire reception talking about riding bulls. Three weeks later, Moria – whom her mother, Jody, calls “an adrenaline hunter,” a fitting label for someone who once scored a 9.7 on vault at the 2022 AAU Gymnastics National Championship at Disney World – took a ten-minute lesson on a practice barrel and then climbed onto a real bull.

Some rider origin stories begin spectacularly – maybe a good old-fashioned dirt sandwich, the proverbial trip to the hospital, questioning when the cast will come off for a shot at another bull.

This one was “a nice little walk-hop bull,” according to Jody Novakoski. “Moria got a little bunny ride.”

“It was honestly just like sitting on a bareback horse,” Moria said. “First one was a little blurry. They all kind of blur together.”

At a time when too many youths are coddled to grow into entitled princes and princesses, Moria (pronounced “Moh-REE-ah”) is the rare kid who hunts challenges. The harder, the better. She’s happiest hunting for something she hasn’t perfected.  

At 115 pounds, crawling aboard bulls up to 1,000 pounds, her new calling should keep her happy. Even the two-time PBR World Champion J.B. Mauney, who conquered Bushwacker along with every world champion bull during an illustrious 825-ride career, said he’s never achieved the perfect bull ride.

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Mother and daughter have fully thrown themselves into a difficult, punishing sport.  

When Moria, the middle child of five, isn’t riding or talking about riding or building her body (a private trainer from Champion Living Fitness guides her physical regimen heavy on exercise bands and stretching) she can likely be found watching bull riding on television…while standing on a basketball.

Convinced her daughter was serious in her pursuit, Jody, a single mom who has successfully built companies, began to thoroughly research the sport, like how she analyzes intriguing entrepreneurial business opportunities. 

Scaling a business’s operations is central to growing any Series A company, something Jody excels at. There was a parallel in making her daughter’s bull-riding journey sustainable.

Early on, she realized that getting matched with the right animal stock would make all the difference. It wasn’t only a mother’s protective instinct; it was the pragmatic insight that success in an unforgiving sport depends on keeping riders healthy and confident, able to learn and improve.

“Every great bull riding story I’ve heard of is the result of going slow – not getting on the rank stuff busting her up,” Jody said. “Being paired with the right stock and progressing along the correct path is so important in any young rider’s career.”

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Jody and Moria were fortunate to find Denny Count and the Next Generation Bull Riding organization at the Grand Rapids PBR Velocity Tour event last year. The growing youth organization, which aims to safely develop upcoming bull riders, age 6 and up, while providing appropriate stock for each athlete, has made all the difference in Moria’s budding bull riding career, her mom says. 

Moria rides at practices organized in Nashville, Mich. by Jake Morinec, a 22-year-old bull rider from Illinois, who became her mentor and teacher within the NextGen organization. In addition to competing, Morinec operates Cross Branded Productions, producing rodeo events in the region.

At a practice pen behind his house in Nashville, he welcomes young riders to free summer camps “putting the gospel and bull riding together, mentoring kids and helping them with not just bull riding but with life,” he said.  

Despite a string of injuries – a bull’s hoof tore through the muscle in his arm this past summer – Morinec has shown elite potential, qualifying for the PBR World Finals in 2023. He planned to compete at this weekend’s Velocity Tour event in St. Louis but recently broke his fibula riding in Missouri when the get-off hurt more than coming within a tenth of a second of a score. Morinec’s spur caught the loop of the bull rope, dragging him up the back of the bull, creating enough torque to snap the bone like a dry branch.

Moria’s coach and mentor Jake Morinec at his Bible Bull Riding Camp | Jake Morinec

A believer in NextGen as coach of the Mud Creek Honey Badgers and taking a special interest in Novakoski, he’ll be in St. Louis helping young riders including Moria. 

“She’s been doing really good as a young bull rider,” Morinec said. “She’s gotten on some long rounders, bulls who will lope across the arena, and has done well on a few of the buckier ones. The stuff she struggles with, she listens well and learns. She’s really started to put things together.”

Novakoski is resolute about becoming the first girl in PBR. The goal is far from outlandish. There’s precedent for elite female bull riders. Jonnie Jonckowski, also of sturdy Polish descent, was invited to ride against men at the Justin World Bull Riding Championship in 1992 and returned in 1993 as the only female invitee.  

Her mentor, Morinec, who’s been on the rankest bulls under the brightest lights at PBR World Finals, points out that girls with biologically different muscle composition may have unheralded advantages early on in learning to stay on explosive four-legged beasts.  

“It teaches her how to ride,” he said. “A lot of guys her age try to hunker down and muscle through. She understands she can’t just hunker down – nobody can. Being a girl teaches her to stand up on her legs and ride correctly. Once she makes the step to open bulls, it will be a lot more of struggle, and she’ll have to work twice as hard. She’ll have to keep making the commitment and decide how bad she wants it. Time will tell.”  

The young Michigander’s curiosity for absorbing the culture around bull riding is a huge plus, according to Morinec.

“She is interested and takes time to learn about the cattle, working them, doctoring the cattle, seeing what goes into the feed. That helps her because it makes the bulls less intimidating. You see the whole process and the whole bull athlete, and therefore you respect him. There’s a lot to be said for being bull savvy – understanding and being comfortable with them.”

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Jody knows the stakes will get higher as her daughter’s career progresses.

The first time her adrenaline-hunting thirdborn climbed on top of a larger adult novice bull, Jody’s hands were shaking vigorously. She struggled to hold the phone still to tape the out.

“She didn’t cover, but she came out clean and came off clean,” Jody said. “As a mom, that’s the thing that tells me she can get to the next level. She has the skills to stay safe; now she has to develop the skills to stay on the bulls.”  

Riders have been accepting the girl with the long golden braided ponytail swinging from her helmet. There have been jokes, but Moria shrugs them off as boys being boys in a sport they’ve always dominated.

Some of the ribbing is she doesn’t want to get dirty. Jody has a simple explanation: “She almost always lands on her feet and keeps herself safe. Those gymnastic skills suit her well.”

The rare ugly landings haven’t resulted in major injury. But Novakoski is pretty sure she had one concussion after a heartbreaking 7.87-second trip. The bull stutter-stepped, froze, then decided to charge through the bullfighters. She bounced off his hump and the side of his head.

“I didn’t black out. The lights were on, but nobody was home,” she said.

She was back on a week later – a spinner away from her hand. Bucked off at 7.7-seconds – sticking another Simone Biles-worthy landing – meant there was no score. In her mind, it was a great ride nonetheless.

Achieving the goal to summit a very steep mountain and compete in PBR is a mother-daughter team effort.  

“I’m a single mom of five kids putting all my pennies into this dream and trying to figure out how to get her to next level,” Jody said. “Her dream is so big we’re putting everything we have into it.”

Jody N

Moria has abundant love and try; Jody brings financial and emotional support, and a strategic mind now applied to developing a professional athlete. Recognizing her business prowess, NextGen founder Denny Count appointed Jody to an executive role to expand the organization, including cultivating investors and savvy brand partners.

In partnering with NextGen, PBR’s Rider Development initiative under Joe Ernst is creating the first nationwide bull riding program that focuses more on training than competing.

Jody has the elevator pitch down cold.

“This is a growing national organization that provides safe stock, consistent training, and whole-child growth in physical, spiritual and mental areas to prepare them for a career in bull riding and success in life,” she said. “Rodeo has always been about finding a barn and a guy with bulls and figuring it out. NextGen is trying to change that – giving every child who wants to ride bulls a pathway to PBR.”

Fans can catch the NextGen showcase on PBR RidePass, the home of the Velocity Tour coverage. It can be accessed for free through the PBR App.

After St. Louis, Moria’s path will include NextGen qualifier events for the Velocity Tour stops in Grand Rapids, Mich. in late January and Youngstown, Ohio the following month.

“Every time I get on, I get better,” she said. “I want to keep getting on. I don’t want to take a break; I want to keep going and get better.”

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