Bullring Memorial for Brooke Ann Coats Grows as Mourners Prepare To Gather at Stowers Funeral Home

Friends and family will gather tonight, Feb. 23, at Stowers Funeral Home in Brandon to pay their respects to Riverview High School student Brooke Ann Coats, who died after a bull-riding accident five days earlier in a Greater Brandon bullring.

Before the final bell rang at Riverview High School on Feb. 21, two groups of students had already gathered at a makeshift memorial outside the entrance to the bullring, which now has a sign announcing “Crosstown Arena Bullriding,” the first and third Fridays of the month.

Grief-stricken teens and others continue to gather at the site on U.S. 301, just north of the  Crosstown Expressway, and just miles from where Coats attended Riverview as a junior.

"It just didn't seem real to me," said classmate Cody Dennis. "I wouldn't believe it if I didn't come here and see all this."

"All this" included a white cross with Brooke's name written across it in black, more recently adorned with a lasso rope and a bull stuffed animal. A white sign with permanent markers hangs, on which people have written their thoughts and notes to Brooke and her family. There are many bouquets of flowers, burnt-out candles and decorated T-Shirts in memory of Brooke and in her favorite color, pink. There are numbers she wore during her competitions. And a blue-ribbon from the Florida State Fair, where she showed her pigs days before her death.

"Coming here really helped relieve some grief," Dennis said. "And being here with the right people helps as well.”

Coats died in surgery Feb. 18 at Tampa General Hospital after walking away from a bull-riding accident some 90 minutes earlier at the Remington Rough Stock rodeo. She had been thrown from the bull and kicked and moments after walking away from the ring complained of not being able to breathe.

"She was just a wonderful person. Her smile was brighter than the sun and anytime you saw her she was smiling," said Maggie Gundlach, a student at Riverview High. "She loved riding bulls and loved everything about it and knew what she was getting into. She decided to live her life the way she wanted and that's what she did."

At the makeshift memorial teens who knew her well and in passing vowed never to forget her.

Ever.

"My kids are going to hear stories about her, my grandkids are going to hear stories about her," said Nick Valadez. "She's going to live on forever.”

Parent Nancy Surface was at the memorial with her daughter, Kristen.

“This was a girl who wanted to get on a bull and ride. She loved what she was doing,” Nancy Surface said. "She was out here at the rodeo on a Friday night, not going out partying and getting drunk and stupid. She was out here riding a bull.  Some people want to run their mouths off on Facebook, where the family is grieving. knowing a mother just lost a child. Let it be.” 

Coats’ online obituary notes that she was a lifelong resident of Hillsborough County and a junior at Riverview High, where she was a member of Future Farmers of America and both the swim and tennis teams.

Funeral services will be held Feb. 24 at 10 a.m., in the chapel of, at 401 West Brandon Blvd.

Internment will follow in the family lot at in Brandon, at 2323 West Brandon Boulevard.

The family will receive friends Feb. 23, at the funeral home for visitation, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Flowers will be accepted and memorial contributions can be made in Brooke’s memory to the Humane Society.

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