While CMU may not be well known for its rodeo team, CMU coaches are looking to change that by hosting their first regional championship at the Mesa County Fairgrounds in April.

“There are a lot of schools we run into, a lot of kids we run into as we get around to state finals, that don’t even know we have a rodeo team,” coach Advisor Kevin Bates said. “And we’ve had a rodeo team here since 1976.”

During the weekend of April 12-13, CMU will host the 10 rodeo teams that comprise the Rocky Mountain region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. For two days, male and female members of the 10 teams will compete in various events like bareback riding, bull riding, steer wrestling and calf roping.

In calf roping, the horse and its rider wait behind the gates even after a calf is released, patiently building up energy and drive, only to take off like a bullet when the time is right. Likewise, the CMU rodeo team has been quietly but steadily working its way toward the April event.

In the fall of 2012, the team was given a parcel of land and accompanying arena and stables in which to practice and board their animals. The property, which lies just outside Grand Junction on 22 Road, was a welcome change from the team’s previous arrangement. Coach Jimmy Allen had been allowing rodeo team members, some 19 students, to practice and keep their horses at his personal property outside of Loma since he joined the team in 2011.

“Having 20 or 25 horses at my house was a lot,” Allen said. “Having practice is tough. It’s not a set schedule or anything. Now they can come out whenever they want, feed them, ride them, whatever.”

In addition to the newly-acquired practice space, the team has seen a steady increase in membership. According to coaches Allen and Bates, the team only had about six steady members last year. Now the roster is at 20.

In 2011, the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association encouraged the CMU rodeo team to move from the Central Rocky Mountain Region to the Rocky Mountain Region. The coaches obliged, eventually saving the team thousands of miles of travel each year as well as considerable savings in travel expenses.

“Coaching rodeo isn’t like coaching anything else,” Allen said. “We don’t just all get on one bus and go where we need to go. We’ve got four or five rigs going to each rodeo.”

The switch from one region to another has also proven beneficial in that potential Rodeo Team members who otherwise would have had to go to other schools can now stay close to home.

“There’s a lot of rodeo talent right here on the Western Slope,” Bates said. “As a longtime rodeo judge, I’ve seen a lot of local kids leave to go to Wyoming or Oklahoma. If we can just keep them here at home, we can do very well.”

cblackme@mavs.coloradomesa.edu