Not your ordinary rodeo club

Bulldogger Rodeo Club gives Fresno State students a second home

By Morgan Steger
The Collegian

A FEW EXPLOSIVE stomps from an enraged 2,200 pound bull was all it took for Darren Church to incur the kinds of injuries usually associated with a massive car wreck.

Church, a bull rider and member of Fresno State’s Bulldogger Rodeo Team, was seven seconds into his ride at Cal Poly’s 2003 rodeo when his bull, never ridden on the college circuit, threw him to the ground and performed a bovine ballet on his 180 pound body, sending him to the emergency room with a broken vertebrae, dislocated spine, gored groin, split left knee-cap, and dislocated riding arm, Church said.

His extensive injuries kept him out of the shoots for five months but didn’t convince him to give up bull riding, the one thing which takes his mind off his troubles, Church said. Church began bull riding when he was 19 as a way to get his mind off his mother’s battle with breast cancer, he said. All his stress, “everything from school, to work, to mom” dissipated when he was on the back of a bull, he said.

Church’s mother passed away in 2003 without ever seeing him ride a bull in competition. Today, his father and grandparents are his biggest supporters, Church said. “They’re all about me trying to chase a dream.”

Fresno State’s 2004 rodeo was the stage for Church’s bull riding comeback. He was thrown from his first ride before the mandatory eight seconds had passed but said he took it in stride.

“I got bucked off but I got on another one,” he said.

Church, a senior animal science major, is in his last year of college rodeo eligibility at Fresno State, but has already laid the groundwork for continuing to the professional circuit once he graduates, he said. He plans to travel across the country riding bulls while he’s still young and able to bounce back from injuries, he said.

He said he recognizes the inherent risk in his career of choice, “It’s not if you get hurt, it’s just when and how bad,” but says that won’t keep him from digging his spurs into another bull. “This is the one thing I’ve found in my life that if I were to die doing it I would die happy,” said Church.

Church is the only bull rider in the Bulldogger Rodeo Club, which has 14 members this season, said club president Marti Gianolini. The club has representatives in all college rodeo events: bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, calf roping, steer wresting, barrel racing, breakaway roping, and goat tying, Gianolini said.

The club was formed at Fresno State in 1960 with the goal of increasing and maintaining interest among college students in rodeo and western life, she said.

The club participates in ten rodeos a year as part of the West Coast Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), along with others schools such as UNLV, West Hills College in Coalinga, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Gianolini said.

The club requires members to maintain a 2.0 GPA and carry at least 12 academic units for each semester of their four years of eligibility, she said.

Gianolini, who was raised on a ranch in Greenville, Calif., said rodeo is in her blood. “I’ve been in rodeo since I was two,” she said.

Rodeo is a family affair for Gianolini, she and her sister, Amanda, a student at Cuesta College near San Louis Obispo, compete in team roping together, she said.

The event requires two riders on horseback to ensnare a running steer with their ropes in the shortest amount of time possible. Gianolini said she competes as the header- roping the head of the steer, and her sister acts as the healer- catching the steer’s hind legs with her rope.

At Cuesta College’s 2005 rodeo, the sisters tied for fourth and fifth place in team roping, the only event that allows cowboys and cowgirls to compete directly against one another, with a time of 7.8 seconds, she said.

Gianolini, who also participates in barrel racing, said being raised on a ranch and learning to rodeo has made her who she is today. “Without it I wouldn’t have as much of a work ethic,” she said.

Rodeo is about working hard and gaining skills, she said, “It’s not just about huge rigs and $50,000 horses.”

More than anything else, what makes rodeo so enjoyable is the people involved, Gianolini said, “People are always cheering each other on.”

The people in the Bulldogger Rodeo Club are one of the primary reasons why junior Garrett Boekenoogen decided to come to Fresno State. Boekenoogen said he has competed with many of the club’s members since they were in high school, “I know everybody.”

Boekenoogen, who serves as the student director for the West Coast Region of NIRA, competes in steer wrestling, calf roping and team roping, he said.

Boekenoogen’s strongest event is steer wrestling, which requires him to hurl himself off the back of his horse, grab a running steer around the neck, and force it to the ground, while a second rider, the “hazer,” rides his horse alongside the steer to keep it traveling in a strait line, he said.

At Lassen Community College’s 2005 rodeo, Boekenoogen won the steer wrestling event with a combined time of 8.6 seconds on two runs, one of which was clocked at 4.1 seconds, he said.

Professional steer wrestlers aim to finish within 4.6 seconds, he said. “You’ve got to be doing something right to get a 4.1.”

Wins like that keep expanding his collection of belt buckles, Boekenoogen said. He estimated that he has won 30 to 40 buckles in his life, “The newest one I won is the one I always wear,” he said.

However, Boekenoogen has had his share of rodeo mishaps too.

At Cal Poly’s 2005 rodeo he got “hoola-handed” when he dropped down too hard on his steer, causing it to flip over on him, momentarily knocking him out, he said. With the clock still running, he scrambled up to finish laying the steer down, only to be trampled by his hazer’s horse, knocking him unconscious for a second time and sending him to the hospital with a broken hand, he said.

This season Boekenoogen hopes to perform well enough in the upcoming West Coast Region events to land a spot in the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming, he said.

The Bulldogger Rodeo Club will be attending four rodeos this spring, and hosting one of their own, Gianolini said.

Fresno State’s rodeo will be held May 5-6 at the Clovis Rodeo Grounds, Gianolini said.

“Students should come out and witness Fresno State’s rodeo team competing in their home town,” she said.

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