Tragic end for young rodeo rider

A promising bull rider from the Okanagan First Nations died at a rodeo in Valemount in early July.

Makwala Derickson-Hall was killed on July 9 when he was stomped on by a bull after being bucked off at the Valemount Rodeo. He was 18.

Derickson-Hall’s cousin Chad Eneas, who was also competing in the same rodeo, was the lone family member who witnessed the incident.

Eneas, 33, said Derickson-Hall was more like a little brother to him. The pair were living together in Penticton at the time of his death.

“It was just a freak thing,” Eneas said of the way Derickson-Hall fell and ended up in front of the bull.” “You have no control in bull riding. That’s how it is in life, too. We think we have control, but we don’t.”

Eneas said he didn’t immediately know Derickson-Hall’s fate.

“He jumped up and ran to the chute,” he said, estimating Derickson-Hall ran about 15 feet, in all likelihood on adrenaline alone. “He jumped up and got to the top of the chute. But then he fell off the top of the chute.”

On-site emergency personnel quickly came to help Derickson-Hall, but there wasn’t much they could do. “It wasn’t very long,” Eneas said. “They were working on him, but I don’t think there was anything they could have done. They were just chasing their tails. He still had vital signs, but he just wasn’t responding to anything when they were working on him.”

Derickson-Hall was transported to the Valemount Health Centre where he was pronounced. Eneas then had the tough job of making a pair of phone calls to Derickson-Hall’s parents. His mother lives in Westbank while his father is an Oliver resident.

“I was the one who called them both,” Eneas said. “You just have to say it the way it is. That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do outside of watching my little ‘bro die.”

Derickson-Hall had graduated from Mount Boucherie Secondary School this past June. And he was keen on making a living in rodeo.

“He was living with me for a couple of months,” Eneas said. “We were training for this every day. He wanted it bad.”

Eneas added that being a bull rider is something that Derickson-Hall had wanted for a long time.

“It’s what he talked about doing since he was 12 or 13 or maybe even earlier,” he said. “He just wanted to ride bulls.”

Eneas believes his cousin would have gone on to a stellar career had his life not abruptly ended.

“He would have been a champ,” he said. “He had all the signs of being a world champ.”

Derickson-Hall’s father Ron also believes his son might have gone on to be the world’s best.

“I would say that’s a fair statement,” he said. “He trained very hard. And he was a naturally gifted athlete.”

Derickson-Hall was only in his first year of competing in bull riding events. His father had seen him take part in two rodeos and was not planning to watch any more.
“I watched him twice,” he said. “But I couldn’t bear to watch him.”

But he did not try to dissuade his son from bull riding.
“It’s a dangerous sport,” he said. “But you try to support your children. You try to support their dreams.”