By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

WILMINGTON, Ohio — If you want to learn the art of rodeo, you need to first “learn the ropes” of this sport.

That’s the real message Wilmington College rodeo club coach Don Hope gives to 14 students who have little-to-no experience at the sport. Rodeo competition at the collegiate level has been around 50 years. It is not an intercollegiate sport at this college in Clinton County, but Hope is striving to change all that in the next few years.

“Last year we started with just four participants; this year we have 15,” said Hope, who is an avid horseman, whose farm is a short distance from the college campus. “Our goal is to become an intercollegiate sport here at Wilmington College, but right now we’re in the club stage.”

In order to become accepted as a viable intercollegiate sport the club must show there is support for such a sport at the college; in other words, numbers are crucial. As far as number of horses is concerned, Wilmington College owns just seven in its Equine Horses Center. Others in the stables are owned by students who compete in Intercollegiate Horse Show Assoc. (IHSA) events held at the college.

These horses have no experience in the rodeo ring. For this reason, Hope (an avid rodeo enthusiast) brings some of his own stock to practices.

“It would be great to get some support or sponsorship for these kids, because it costs $250 per student just to get a rodeo card and if they compete independently rather than as a team, there’s a lot of expense with traveling,” he said.

There are 11 regions of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Assoc. (NIRA): Big Sky, Central Plains, Central Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon, Great Plains, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, West Coast and Ozark.

Once becoming an official sport of Wilmington College, the team would join the Ozark Region, which includes teams from Murray State (Ky.) University, Troy University, the University of West Alabama, Missouri State University, Northern Arkansas College, Missouri Valley College and the University of Tennessee-Martin.
“Murray State would be the closest to our college and that’s an eight-hour drive,” Hope said. “It’s a shame there isn’t a Northeast region.”

Intercollegiate rodeo teams compete in five events in the fall and five in the spring. The top three competitors in each event qualify for nationals held each year in Casper, Wyo., with a chance to compete for scholarships totaling more than $250,000.
Sophomore Adam Salyers of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, plays for the Wilmington football and wrestling teams. He’s hoping to earn a third varsity letter at his school.

“I’ve ridden horses before, but never been in a rodeo ring,” he said.

“I’m willing to give it a try.”

Katy Dasch, a sophomore from Midland, Mich., is president of the club. She grew up riding hunters and jumpers and English-style horses, but not rodeo horses.

“Last year was my first year in the rodeo ring,” she said. “I just don’t know if I have that hand-eye coordination thing down with the rope just yet, but I’ll keep trying.

But I know I want to try barrel racing. Right now it’s just something to do with my friends and I’m here to give it a try and have fun.”
Tyler Lovedahl of Hillsboro may bring the most experience to this young squad. In high school he was a four-time national qualifier.
“The rodeo is all I’ve ever done,” the freshman said. “My dad was involved in rodeo, so was my grandfather. We’re true cowboys.
I always wanted to do rodeo in college and this college is close to home. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough people doing this here.”

Of the 14 members of the Wilmington squad, just two have any experience in a rodeo ring. Practices are held once a week, either at the Wilmington College Equine Center or at Hope’s farm.