SAN ANGELO, Texas — Cowboy culture is a staple of West Texas.
In San Angelo, the annual rodeo is one of the biggest events of the year, bringing in thousands of attendees to Foster Communications Coliseum.
For the first time ever, Angelo State University introduced a new rodeo team for students of all ages. As the new school year is underway, so is the competitive season.
"It's brand new, brand new," ASU Rams Rodeo head coach Casey Sisk said. "Essentially the rodeo team itself is gonna be a first time deal we've actually had a coach and full team."
Sisk himself recruited seven team members from Florida, California and of course, Texas.
Since June, the team has been practicing in an arena near the coliseum, riding their personal horses and preparing for the first rodeo Sept. 14 at Eastern New Mexico University.
"They have their own horses, they have their own rigs that they do so it's a lot of preparation," Sisk said.
As ASU's first-ever rodeo coach, Sisk faces a unique stress to create a team from scratch.
"There's a little bit of pressure on, you know, coming into your first year with a brand new program that you get to build from the bottom up which is awesome," he said. "But you know, the team aspect of it is very crucial and not only performing but academics and winning and it all kind of goes hand-in-hand, so I try to keep it tight knit and have everybody a family type thing where everybody knows everybody and everybody does their thing together."
The team will participate in five rodeos throughout the fall season: three in September and two in October.
Each member will be judged individually but also as a unit, sharing San Angelo's cowboy legacy with universities throughout the west.
"San Angelo's rodeo rich anyways, it's a rodeo town so everybody's pretty excited about the new rodeo program in Texas so it's pretty neat to be a part of that," Sisk said.
Go to Angelo State Rodeo for the team's full schedule or to learn more.
