TWIN FALLS — CSI rodeo’s stipend from the athletic department covers the costs of the stock’s hay.
Not much else.
So, coach Steve Birnie and the program heavily rely on fundraising to cover everything between travel costs, scholarships and practice stock.
And the efforts continue at 7 p.m. Saturday with the third annual CSI rodeo Bull Bash at the Eldon Evans Expo Center. The open bull riding event will showcase riders from CSI’s Rocky Mountain Region champion Tyson Hirschi, Carson Simper (fellow College National Finals Rodeo qualifier) and Reid Otto to “anybody” who paid the entry fee, Birnie told the Times-News.
The event serves as the team’s first major fundraising event of the month with the annual CSI rodeo boxing smoker Jan. 27.
The program will also host the CSI Champions Rodeo School (Feb. 16-18 and Feb. 23-25). The first weekend teaches bull riding and bull fighting while the second week coaches bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and how to become a pickup man.
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“We are very good at spending money,” Birnie said. “We have got a big team. Twenty-eight kids and it is expensive to get them up and down the road. We will use that money to pay for book scholarships and other scholarships. It is really essential. I have always worried, ‘Oh, what if nobody shows up?’
Folks show up. Take 2022’s standing room only crowd as evidence. Or the program’s pivot to online ticket sales to avoid scenes of lengthy lines which Birnie referred to as a “madhouse.”
“The people, the community, always comes out and the support is great,” Birnie said. “We couldn’t operate the way we do without the money that is generated through these events.”
Clark Rodeo Ranches of Buhl will provide the stock and the arena staff added extra bleachers.
Birnie said a crowd of 1,000 to 1,500 “would be a huge turnout.”
CSI, with its top-ranked Rocky Mountain Region men’s team and eighth-ranked regional women’s squad, opens its second half of the season with its home rodeo March 8-9.
The men seek its eighth region title and boast a 1,085-point lead over second place Weber State while the women sit eighth in the region with 75 points.
CSI also returns five additional 2023 CNFR participants — Sage Allen and Darien Johnson (bareback riding), Jaspur Brower (bull riding), Hank Whitaker (saddle bronc riding) and Dane Haas (steer wrestling).
“The Magic Valley has really always supported the rodeo team very well,” Birnie said. “I think we are doing a good job of trying to reach those people who are maybe not traditional rodeo fans.”