Coaches
Aukai Kaai
Roughstock Coach
Phone: 808-294-9485
Email: kaaik@mpcc.edu
Aukai Kaai is entering his fourth year at the helm of the Mid-Plains Community College Rodeo Team.
Kaai is originally from Waimānalo, Hawaii. The four-time National High School Finals Rodeo qualifier and three-time state champion was recruited by former MPCC Rodeo Team Coach Dustin Elliott to ride bulls for Mid-Plains.
Kaai subsequently competed for MPCC from 2014-16 in both the bull riding and team roping events. During that time, he finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Great Plains Region bull riding standings.
Kaai graduated from MPCC with an Associate of Science degree in 2016 then continued his education and collegiate rodeo career at Colorado State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business.
He returned to North Platte in 2018 and became the assistant coach for the MPCC Rodeo Team in the summer of 2020. He began working primarily with the team’s roughstock competitors at that point, taking over for Elliott, and by the fall of 2021 had completely assumed the role of the team’s roughstock coach.
Kaai has carried a pro card with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association since 2014, but for the past couple of years, competing has taken a backseat to his focus on buying bucking bulls and supplying them to area rodeos.
Cody Hollenbeck
Timed Events Coach
Phone: 308-440-0432
Email: hollenbeckc@mpcc.edu
Cody Hollenbeck returns for his second season as the timed events coach at Mid-Plains Community College. Hollenbeck brings over 12 years of pickup man experience at rodeos and rough stock events.
A native of Long Pine, Nebraska, Hollenbeck began competing in amateur rodeos in 2009. He is a seven-time Mid-States Rodeo Association Pickup Man of the Year and a four-time Nebraska State and South Dakota Rodeo Association Pickup Man of the Year.
In 2020, he was voted the Mid-States, Nebraska State and South Dakota State Rodeo Pickup Man of the Year. Hollenbeck has carried a pro card with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association since 2023.
Quade Potter
Assistant Coach
Email: potterq@mpcc.edu
Quade Potter is from Stockville, Nebraska. A graduate of Medicine Valley High School in Curtis, he qualified for the High School National Finals Rodeo three times during his high school career.
From 2020 to 2022, he attended Mid-Plains Community College in McCook, competing in steer wrestling, calf roping, and team roping under the guidance of Garrett Nokes and Wyatt Clark. In his second year, he qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) in steer wrestling.
He then transferred to Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma, earning a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business. During his two years competing for NWOSU, he focused exclusively on steer wrestling, finishing in the top 10 in the Central Plains Region his first year and 5th in the region his second year.
Now competing professionally in the PRCA, he spends the majority of the summer on the rodeo circuit. When he's not on the road, he can be found working alongside his family on their ranch, Frontier Angus, just outside of Stockville.
