The Barometer Online

Issue date: 1/19/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Contributed Photo OSU student Tyrn Espelien barrel races at the 2006 St. Paul (Oregon) Rodeo. A group of OSU students hope to form a collegiate rodeo team.

Members of the OSU Rodeo Club are working toward representing the university as a club sports team as they saddle their horses for future collegiate rodeo competitions.

This week, President Tryn Espelien and Vice President Nick Arnold met with Assistant Director of Sports Club and Instruction David Fehring to review their constitution and bylaws and discuss what is left to do in order to become a club.

The idea for a Rodeo Club started when secretary Michelle Kennedy contacted Espelien saying that she was transferring to Oregon State University for fall term.

Kennedy competed in rodeo events independently for Eastern Oregon University and Espelien competed independently for OSU. They thought that if they started a club, they would be able to compete as a team representing OSU in collegiate rodeo competitions.

In order to become a club, they need to fill out an application with a cover letter stating their budget, their purpose and how many people are interested.

The group is planning to finish and submit their application by their next meeting on Feb. 21. After that, their application will be reviewed and a decision will be made in one to four weeks.

The club is still looking for a faculty adviser in order to meet a requirement.

"We're looking for someone in the department of animal science," Espelien said.

Arnold said they were able to track down and obtain a copy of the constitution and bylaws from a past rodeo club. The group has looked through both texts and edited them to fit standards of the new club.

"The next step we need to complete is to bring that to the university, and from there we go to the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association in order to become recognized by them as a team," Arnold said.

Espelien said the group wants to get members to join the club and represent OSU by competing as a team. In order to compete as a team, they need five members to apply and be certified by the NIRA. Espelien, Kennedy and Tory Boline are the only members of the club signed up through NIRA at the moment. Arnold is planning to apply.

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