Carly Stark will ride off to Graceland University in the fall.

The Fayette senior signed with the Yellowjackets' new rodeo program on Wednesday and will attend Graceland with a full academic scholarship.

When Stark started her college search, continuing in rodeo was a priority.

“I was looking colleges, and if they didn’t have a rodeo program, I wasn’t interested in going,” she said.

Graceland announced the creation of its rodeo program in April of 2019. Fenton Nelsen was hired as the head coach on Tuesday, the day before Stark’s signing. Nelsen, who was a four-time national finals qualifier at Missouri Valley, was previously the head coach at Northeast Community College. Graceland will compete in the Great Plains region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.

“It will be interesting, being the first people there that are actually part of this program,” Stark said.

Stark has been around horses her whole life and started competitive rodeo in the eighth grade.

“It’s been an amazing experience,” she said. “A lot of traveling, meeting new people, and doing my favorite things: riding horses and competition at the same time. I knew during my senior year that I couldn’t stop.”

Stark did barrel racing and pole bending at the high school level. She will continue barrel racing and will begin roping at Graceland. She’s taking along her Red Roan Quarter Horse named Classy.

“She’s the best horse, I’ve had her since eighth grade,” Stark said. “She’s really grown with me. She was the best to start off with, she stayed at my pace and we’ve just gotten better and better.”

Graceland University is located in Lamoni, Iowa.

“It’s a really pretty campus, it’s kind of in a town like this, there’s not a lot of people,” Stark said.

“Really nice people. Everybody that I talked to was a wonderful person to talk to and they were doing their best to make sure that I enjoyed the visit and that I would enjoy being on campus in the fall.”

Stark plans to major in Criminal Justice.