The Mesa State rodeo team wants to have a successful semester even though they only have two athletes. The Mavs’ rodeo team has records that date back to 1976. They used to be a club team, but the last couple of years they fell under the Emerging Sport category along with cycling, hockey, and rugby.
This year, two first-year coaches lead the Rodeo Team. Tia Brannan is the women’s coach, Bryce Berentis is the men’s coach, and Kevin Bates is the Academic Advisor. As the team begins its first season, coaches only have to coach one athlete apiece. In the past, Mesa has never had a big team.
The size of the team is due to eligibility issues as well as former members transferring to other schools. The team has 10 rodeos a year, five in the fall and five in the spring. The first rodeo will be the third weekend in March.
Brannan attended Colorado Northwestern Community College and Laramie County Community College and has been competing in rodeos since she was six. She grew up on a ranch in Craig and has been a cowgirl her entire life.
“I would love to see our rodeo team grow because it would help us out a lot in finishing higher in the rodeos we compete in as a team,” Brannan said. “For example, in barrel racing there is usually close to 100 contestants and only 10 people get to compete in the short go rodeo (final rodeo) on the final day. This stinks for us because we are only going to have two people in the whole rodeo.”
The cowgirls can compete in four different events at the rodeos: barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat tying, and team roping. The cowboys can compete in six events: bareback riding, bulldogging, bull riding, calf roping, saddle bronc, and team roping.
“It’s a very intense sport, you are always putting your body out on the line,” Brannan said.
This is Mesa’s final year of being in the Central Rocky Mountain Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, which is one of eight regions across the United States. Junior colleges and four year colleges compete against each other. They will be moving into the Rocky Mountain Region.
“Moving into the Rocky Mountain Region will be a big deal for our team because Mesa State has the very best traveling cost for students in the region. They pay for half of the entry fees for the rodeos and the hotel rooms,” Brannan said.
They will now have more money and next year they will just be traveling to Utah and a small portion of Idaho.
“We are hoping the move will help out a lot with recruiting so we can convince more people into attending Mesa and get a big team together,” Brannan said.
Lindsay Jewell, a first year cowgirl for Mesa State out of Rifle, has been competing in rodeos since she can remember. She attended and was a member of Northeastern Junior College in Sterling the past two years on teams of around 30 people.
Jewell meets with her coach one time a week and practices on her own at the indoor facility at the Rifle Fairgrounds.
“I believe the biggest reason that Mesa doesn’t have a big team is because we don’t have a facility to practice and nowhere to keep horses. Potential students see that and don’t want to come to Mesa and be on the rodeo team and go elsewhere,” Jewell said. “Moving regions will help a lot with recruiting because we won’t have to travel as far, which is really hard on our horses, hard on our vehicles, and us.”
She believes it will be great for the program to grow and get more cowboys and cowgirls so they have a better chance at competing in the rodeos as a team. She knows with more people on the team they are going to need to raise more money.
One of the new ways that the rodeo team is raising money is through the Feedlot Restaurant in Fruita. Brannan works at the restaurant. Owners Russ and Tami Parker told her that on Tuesday evenings they would donate 10 percent of the profits that night to the rodeo team.
“It’s an incentive for the students to come out and support the rodeo team by coming in and spending some money here and having a good time. We are a steakhouse, but on Tuesday nights we have two for one jumbo wings as well as two for one alcoholic beverages,” Parker said.
The restaurant is a family restaurant with a cowboy theme. Country music plays, there are big screen TV’s, and cowboy decorations everywhere. The Parkers have owned the Feedlot name, which has been around for decades, since 1998, but made it a restaurant in 2009. The menu consists of family recipes and recipes from the old Feedlot restaurant that used to be in Grand Junction.
“We have a killer menu and have very, very good quality meat at an affordable price. So to help out your rodeo team boogie on down to the Feedlot on Tuesday nights and have some wings, prime rib, a couple of beers, and I guarantee you won’t regret it. It’s a great atmosphere here and it will be a fun time,” Parker said.
Bates and Brannan are not sure how much the Feedlot money amounts to yet, but they are sure it is going to help a lot and they encourage everyone to come have dinner at the Feedlot on Tuesday evenings.

afix@mesastate.edu