Eight seconds: One cowboy and one bull makes for one heck of an adrenaline rush

Bull riding might be the only sport where even the most popular competitors are rooted against.

On a cool May night in Port Charlotte, Carl Sellitti Jr. proves this point.

"How many of you are for the riders?," he asks to middling applause.

"Now, how many of you are for the bulls?"

The crowd of a couple hundred erupts. They stomp on the bleachers, catcall and clap.

Sellitti knowingly shakes his head. In his 15 years of being in the bull-riding game, rising up from bullfighter to his current post as president of the Southern States Bull Riding Series, some things don't change.

As electrifying as it can be to see a competitor conjure the right amount of strength and balance to stay atop 2,000 pounds of muscular fury for eight seconds, it's a bigger rush when the bull wins.

It almost happens in slow motion, which makes those eight seconds seem like an eternity. A simple nod of the head from the bull rider and the metal chute keeping the hulking beast in check opens.

Then it's all about instinct, says 18-year-old Tim Plunkett.

"If you think about it, you fall off," he says. "It's all feel and muscle memory. Just reaction."

On this night, Plunkett didn't react quick enough when his championship round bull, affectionately named Hells Bells, slung his head back and smashed into Plunkett's jaw, throwing him headfirst to the ground.

X-rays the next day revealed his jaw was just dislocated, not broken, leaving Plunkett ready to ride again the next week.

"I'm not really thinking about it anymore," Plunkett says a few days after the incident.

That's probably for the best. If you thought about it too much, you probably wouldn't get on the bull anyway.

The Charlotte County Fairgrounds Expo Center isn't much of a venue. Really its just an open air barn with a bull riding ring set up in the middle and some bleacher seats on the sides.

Heck, the honky-tonk next door, Mavericks, is bigger.

Sellitti paces the middle of the ring with his microphone, waiting for the bulls to make their way into the small holding chutes. He's in the cowboy uniform: a chambray work shirt, Wranglers, boots and a cowboy hat that he alternates between low over his eyes and propped up on his head.

He's slim in the same way Hank Williams was slim — all arms and legs, that could easily fold up. He talks with a deep Southern accent, more twang than drawl. He talks a lot.

Each time a rider and bull are getting ready for a run, he runs through the bulls qualifications, the rider's history and occasionally gives up predictions.

"He guaranteed me before the event that he'd ride his bulls," he tells the crowd of Ricky Ringer, who wins the event with an 86-point ride later. "I'll think he'll get this one rode."

Tired of not seeing enough Florida riders on the national scene, Sellitti and some Southwest Florida bull riding enthusiasts formed the Southern States Bull Riding Series a few years ago to help increase awareness of the sport in the state and into the rest of the Southeast.

"We are way behind the rest of the country in terms of the sport," he says.

Sellitti says his series is similar to minor league baseball, giving young athletes an arena to hone their skills and work their way up to the big time, the Professional Bull Riders series. Last year the series held events throughout Florida, including monthly shows in Port Charlotte. This summer, they've increased the shows to a weekly occurrence, pairing them with country music concerts at Mavericks. So far, anywhere from 200 to 500 people have shown up each week to watch the bulls and then catch the show.

"It's a good match," says Maverick's manager Steve Tatone.

For now, the bull riding is the main event.

Although prize money won at an SSBR event doesn't count toward getting a PBR tour card, you have to earn $2,500 to get a card, the experience is invaluable. Sellitti uses some of the same bulls used on the PBR tours, and the rules and scoring are the same.

"You learn by doing," Plunkett says.

Plunkett, an Alva native, started watching bull riding as a kid and was immediately transfixed. About three years ago, at age 15, he decided to give it a try. Since then he hasn't stopped.

"It's an adrenaline rush," he says. "You are sitting on 2,000 pounds of bull that wants to get rid of you."

There's almost a zen to bull riding, Plunkett says. It's not a competition between the cowboys, but between one cowboy and one bull.

Because half of the score is based on the bull, a rider is at the mercy of the animal. It needs to buck hard enough to make the ride difficult, but not so hard the rider can't keep himself upright.

"My goal is to ride for eight seconds. That's it," Plunkett says. "After that it's up to the judges."

Even at the low-level events like the SSBR's Coors Light Shootout, the judging is tough. In the May 27 event, the second of the series, only Ringer's two rides scored in the 80s.

The bulls are tough, too. Ringer was the only rider to manage to stay on for a full ride both times. And only three other riders managed to get one clean ride, including Plunkett, who took home $200 for finishing third.

In his second year on the circuit, Plunkett feels like he's making headway. He's got a job as a painter. But because he still lives with his parents, he doesn't have to worry about job security yet.

So he can keep chasing his bull riding dreams.

Plunkett says he figures he's got a couple more years to make it to the big time before the responsibilities of life catch up with him.

"And if I can make it to the big time and have a career, then I'll do it," he says. "Otherwise, I'll just keep doing it on the weekends for fun."

He's hoping to get a chance to show his stuff on a bigger stage tonight at Germain Arena. Although he doesn't have a spot guaranteed in the PBR's Discovery Series event, there's a chance someone could drop out and create an opening.

"I'm going to be there to help out a friend who's riding," he says. "And hopefully something will happen and I'll get a chance to ride."