“Eight seconds to make money”: Getting to know USU Rodeo
In bull riding and other events in rodeo, each rider has to stay on for at least eight seconds to be able to score points for the event. In the words of USU rodeo club member Kylen Jones, “You have eight seconds to make money.”
Of the 26 different club sports Utah State University has to offer, rodeo could be one of the most unique.
The USU rodeo team hosted its annual stampede event on Sept. 29 and 30, which included events such as bareback riding, barrel racing, breakaway roping, bull riding, tie-down roping, goat tying, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and team roping.
Paden Woolstenhulme is a senior from Oakley, Utah the current club president. He is majoring in animal and dairy vet science.
“My favorite part about rodeo is probably got to be working with the animals and the friends you make,” Woolstenhulme said. “It’s not your typical competition that you’d see in football where you show up and one person’s rooting against another team, you know. Here we’re all rooting for each other to do their best.”
The club has approximately 20 members who compete in a variety of events at rodeo competitions, and other members who are learning and practicing with the team.
The USU Stampede is one of many rodeo competitions the team will be taking part in during the school year. Woolstenhulme explained how the rodeo system works.
© CWild Photography USU Rodeo Club riding into the arena at the USU Rodeo Stampede, Sept. 29, 2023.
“We compete in what’s called the NIRA, the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, and it is nationwide,” he said. “We are part of what’s called the Rocky Mountain region, which is schools in Utah, Western Colorado and Southern Idaho. There are probably like 10 or 12 schools that compete in our region. We go to 10 rodeos a year, and we are lucky enough to be able to host our own here in Logan. Each of those rodeos, we compete to get points to be able to qualify to go to nationals next summer.”
Nationals are held every June in Casper, Wyoming where teams from Texas, Colorado and others from across the nation come to compete.
For Woolstenhulme, rodeo has been a major part of his life; it’s a family ordeal. The same can be said for club member Payt Goodey.
“I was probably not even old enough to talk the first time I sat [on a horse],” Goodey said.
Goodey is a native of Cache Valley, growing up in nearby Clarkston. He is a sophomore at USU studying animal and dairy science, and he has been on the team for two years. Goodey is following a family tradition of being a part of the rodeo roping team.
“My older brother rodeoed for Utah State, and sometimes I would bring the cattle to the practice and I got to be around a little bit before I was a student. I just kind of saw the camaraderie in the community that the rodeo was, and I knew I wanted to be part of that,” Goodey said. “When I was old enough to start school, I started school here, and those people have come and gone but the new people that are in the club are just as good or better. And it’s a lot of fun just to rub shoulders with them.”
Just like many of the club sports on campus, students have to pay their own fees for registration, travel and other expenses. Like many of his fellow teammates, Goodey has a lot going on behind the scenes.
“You’re a full-time student in order to rodeo,” he said, “You have all your classes and homework and everything and then you got to practice for your rodeo. And then there’s no scholarships offered at Utah State for rodeo. Most of us have jobs and we work on top of that.”
That is only part of the commitment these athletes give to their sport. Both Woolstenhulme and Goodey talked about many things the athletes do behind the scenes those unfamiliar with rodeo would never know.
When asked what he would tell someone who doesn’t know much about rodeo, Woolstenhulme emphasized the importance of people educating themselves.
“I would say get to know the sport. There’s a lot of opinions out there, and a lot of people have their idea of what the sport is, but people don’t understand what kind of work we put into this sport,” he said. “We’re not your typical football team, basketball team or whatever team has practice every day at four o’clock. We have practice twice a week, three times a week if we can find a place to practice.”
Rodeo members not only care for themselves as athletes but for their animals as well.
“We have animals that we’re taking care of that need to be in shape, need to be able to compete to the best of their abilities as well as take care of ourselves. There’s a whole other aspect to the sport than just us,” Woolstenhulme said.
Anyone interested can get involved in the rodeo team. First-year student Kylen Jones from Gilbert, Arizona recently joined this year. Jones had a different path in joining the team.
“I always wanted to be in the rodeo, but I lived in the city of Phoenix with 5 million people, so I never had the opportunity to know horses until about the end of high school. The last year of high school, my family moved and we bought horses,” Jones said. “From there I’ve fallen in love with it.”
Jones is currently a member of the team but is not yet competing in rodeo competitions. Right now, he is enjoying learning from each of the different members and being a part of the team.
“Ninety-five percent of life is just showing up,” he said. “And just fall in love with it. I think as they mentioned, like not many people know much about rodeo, but it’s the coolest sport.”
For more information on how to join the USU rodeo team, visit their homepage on the Campus Rec website usu.edu/campusrec/competitive-sports/club-sports/rodeo.