The Fresno State Bulldoggers club rodeo team will host the West Coast Region’s top talent at its home rodeo Friday, Nov. 8, at the Clovis Rodeo Grounds (748 Rodeo Dr.).
The team’s only local event of the season opens at 8 a.m. with a slack round that features action in the 10 men’s and women’s events.
The evening final round starts at 6 p.m., and general admission is $15 for tickets available online or in person. Fresno State students with a campus ID can get tickets for $10, and the event is free to veterans and youth ages 5 and younger.
Fresno State men’s and women’s club teams currently rank first and third, respectively, in the region after the fall’s opening events hosted by Feather River College in Quincy in early October.
Two Bulldoggers lead their respective West Coast Region standings, Tyler Jones (team roping header) and Brayden Liberio (bull riding).
Two others rank top three – senior Wilson Redfeairn (steer wrestling, second; team roping rodeo header, second) and sophomore Sage Pearce (breakaway roping, third).
The team will also compete at Bakersfield College on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 9 and 10, to complete the fall schedule.
After their regular season finale IN May, the top two men’s and women’s teams from each region earn automatic invitations to the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming, June 15 through 21.
Students ranked top three in their events can also qualify individually from the 11 regions across the nation.
Jones (of Friant) was a College National Finals Rodeo qualifier in team roping in 2023 and 2024. Pearce (Santa Maria) also competed at the same event in 2024 in breakaway roping as did Maddie Biglow (Clements) in goat tying.
The team is coached by Uhuru Adem, a two-time, collegiate national finals saddle bronc qualifier for Fresno State. He guided the men’s team to a 13th-place finish in 2022, its highest finish in recent history. The women’s team also placed 19th in 2022, and qualified again last season after placing second in the region.
The program started in 1946 and officially became a club in 1949 — the same year the first collegiate national finals were held in San Francisco.
More information on the team is available on the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
