**For Immediate Release**
Rodeo Team Ready for Action
-released by OPSU Campus Communications 09-27-05
by Laura Dahl
Oklahoma Panhandle State University’s fall rodeo
season gets underway October 7 and 8 at Pratt Community
College in Pratt, Kansas, a rodeo the OPSU men’s
team won last year. Like a prancing barrel horse in front
of a closed gate, the OPSU rodeo team is poised for a speedy
start in the 2005-2006 season.
The men’s and women’s team both produced outstanding
individual and team results during the 2004-2005 season,
with six men’s team wins and four women’s team
wins. After the dust stettled at the final spring rodeo,
the men’s team was named the Central Plains Championship
team.
Success continued at the College National Finals Rodeo
in Casper, Wyoming this past June. Sophomore Trell Etbauer
of Goodwell, Oklahoma, split first and second in the steer
wrestling and senior Erica Brown of Pocatello, Idaho won
the breakaway roping.
Never one to bask in the glow of victory or take anything
for granted, Coach Craig Latham plans to build on that
success. He recruited Tyrel Turner, the bull dogger who
split first and second with Etbauer at CNFR. Turner finished
his education at Central Wyoming College in Riverton last
spring and will be a great addition to the team.
After graduating a number of students
last year, Latham has a young team overall this fall
with several freshmen. He recruited students who were
successful in high school and expects them to be very
competitive. In addition, Lacy Jones and Misty Poteet,
two of the women’s volleyball
team members, plan to rodeo in the spring.
Returning team members include Trell
Etbauer and senior Buster Holland of Sublette, Kansas,
who placed 10th in the average in the steer wrestling
at CNFR. Weston Ireland returns to the roster after taking
a year off, and Latham expects him to add team points
in the saddle bronc. Logan Hodson, Jordan Furnish, Eli
Eastman, Chance Hays, Tyler Olsen and Leander Thomas
also return to the Aggie men’s
team.
On the women’s side, senior
Chancy Etbauer will be back to compete breakaway, goat
tying, and barrel racing. Latham has added several women
to the roster and expects to win points in every event.
Rodeo remains the only American sport
in which student athletes may compete professionally
at the same time they compete at the college level. Students
who combine coursework, college rodeo, and professional
rodeo must be committed, disciplined, and mature. With
six student leaders with those traits on the men’s team, the OPSU Rodeo Team
hopes to add a men’s and women’s national team
title in 2006.
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