LOGAN – Utah State University students get a chance to practice on their horses and go into professional rodeo.
USU Rodeo Club has students practicing Monday through Thursday. On Monday and Wednesday they practice calf roping. Tuesday and Thursday they practice steer roping. But they also practice barrel racing, goat tying and rough stock events.
Each student at the rodeo club needs to have competed for a year to get into the club and provide their own horse.
Colton Bair is the head rodeo coach at Utah State University.
“We do require that our student athletes compete for at least one year before joining the rodeo club. And then us, as coaches, we hope to take what they have already there, a foundation, and build upon that,” said Bair.
Bair and his wife Hilary work with each student in enhancing their techniques.
“Try to improve each and every day. We started out with something small to work on and tried to fix it here in the arena in practice. So when we get to the rodeos, things go well, you know, we have success,” said Bair.
The rodeo club competes in the Rocky Mountain region, which consists of 11 schools.
“All the schools in Utah, southern part of Idaho and western part of Colorado, and we travel to each of these schools throughout the year.”
Bair said Rodeo is a family-oriented sport and all about cheering each other on.
“The student athletes here on campus, they end up being our kids, too. And I just love how you can bring your family and everybody can be able to compete in one area and encourage everybody. We’re excited to see where it goes in the next few years.”
The rodeo club will be having a Stampede Rodeo on September 26 and 27th at the Cache County Fairgrounds in Logan.
“There’s so much excitement in the arena, and it’s a blast,” exclaimed Bair. “We fill the stands. The students, they just bring so much energy.”
Members of the rodeo club have also been riding out onto Merlin Olsen Field carrying USU flags, leading the football team onto the field for home games.