25 of the 35 members of the Olds College Broncos rodeo team will be heading to Rimbey this weekend.
Emily Pugsley, Women’s Rodeo Coach at Olds College, says 17 of their female student athletes will be competing at the final event of the season.
She points out that Wacey Nickel – who is in her first year with the Broncos – has a really good chance to win at the Canadian Collegiate Rodeo Association Finals. Pugsley says Nickel is a multi event qualifier in the barrel racing and the team roping and “she is one of those competitors that is incredibly mentally tough. You know, she’ll just look at you and say ‘I feel I’m ready to win’ and you just kind of (go) ‘alrighty’ and there she goes and she executes it.”
What is really important to highlight is that they are all “the most hard working kids that you will ever find, and they are just good people, they are good students, they are good athletes” and Pugsley says she is “really, really proud of the women this year.”
Tanner Girletz, Olds College’s Head Rodeo Coach and the Coach of the Men’s Team, says they’ve got nine guys among the 25 total student athletes they will have competing at the finals.
Girletz says Cohen Larson won the CCA Finals last year in Saskatchewan and this is his third year at Olds College. He believes Larson is not only the top saddle bronc rider in college rodeo but one of the top up and comers in Canada. Girletz says “Cohen and I have become great friends. He got his butt kicked for a long-time in the bronc riding. He didn’t stay on very many for a really long time and then one day the light bulb just turned on and he got it. He has been hurt a few times. He keeps coming back from injury and keeps getting better. He is kind of a nose to the grind stone kid. He is always working at getting better.” However, Girletz adds “it is hard for me to highlight just one. The whole team this year has really, really worked really hard. It is crazy the work ethic these kids have. So I’m super, super proud of the whole group of guys that I’ve got and the girls that Emily is coaching. It has been a great year and it has been fun to watch them excel.”
Girletz will be riding off into the sunset after the finals. He is in his eight and final season of coaching at Olds College. He says “life has got busy. I have a seven year old and ten year old daughter – seven year old boy. It is just getting busier. I’m raising other people’s kids instead of my own in the evenings and it is time to go home and take care of family.” Girletz says he steps aside on May 31st and Emily Pugsley will take over as the Head Rodeo Coach at Olds College and they will be looking for another men’s coach to team up with her.
The CCRA’s Finals Rodeo in Rimbey at the Co-operators Agrim Centre includes performances at 6pm today and tomorrow, plus the finale on Sunday at noon.
