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UAM Rodeo Enthusiasts Compete

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Will Collins
Sports Editor

   Jolyn Wells has been coaching five years at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, but the sport she coaches is one that gets little attention when it comes to looking her up on the athletics homepage.

   Wells came from Summerville, Ga. She competed as a student at Tennessee-Martin, where she participated in the College National Finals Rodeo four years. Today she is still active on the competitive rodeo circuit. You won't find any links or pictures for any of the things involved with rodeo on the site, www.uamsports.com. Only two rodeo teams exist in Arkansas: Southern Arkansas University and the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Everyone else has independent programs.

   Just like NCAA sports, the competitors must be enrolled in a least 12 hours at an institution, and must maintain a 2.0 GPA at all times. The 16 team members includes six cowboys and 10 cowgirls: seniors Chris Kyle, Lindsey Nixon, Sara Parker, Lacee Smith and Brandi Waller; juniors Megan Fisher, Jared Hall, Bryan Hobson, John Ryan House and Brad Johnston; sophomores Katie Bandy, Bud Bogan, Page Bolin and Jennifer Llewellyn; and first-year students Ashley Evans, Jessica Harris and J.P. McCorkle.

   The UAM program is a member of the Ozark Region, one of 11 different regions governed by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association that a member institution may enter. The Ozark regions contains members from the following states: Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

   Most members of the NIRA compete in as many as 10 events a year. UAM has five events this current semester, including two in Mississippi, two in Arkansas and one in Tennessee. The team hosts a rodeo March 31 and April 1 at Hestand Stadium in Pine Bluff beginning at 7:30 p.m. each night. The cost will be $8 each night but those who show UAM identification will only pay $5.

   Coach Wells has 10 students on scholarship; however the rodeo team does not get full. She always looks for volunteered talent; of the nine events offered, UAM competes in only six: calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying. The team still needs participants for bareback riding, saddle bronc and the almost ever-so-popular bull riding.

Photo by Will Collins

Equestrians - (from left) Coach Jolyn Wells and senior Lindsey Nixon stand between 4-year-old gelding Bar B Q and 17-year-old mare Lena.

   Last year the women placed second in the region while the men placed fifth among the 15 member institutions.

   They have competed in events this past fall, including one at Southern Arkansas that Bee Branch native Lindsey Nixon will not forget. Nixon was Champion breakaway roper in 2002 and 2003. In 2004 she was the women's all around champion, which means you must compete in two or more events. She competed in the breakaway roping, barrel racing and goat tying. She has finished as high as seventh in the nation in breakaway roping, and last year finished 11th nationally.

   Nixon, whose father is legendary bass fisherman Larry Nixon, was in the goat tying event this fall in a rodeo in Magnolia, Ark., when she tore her ACL. Nixon came to school here along with a lot of the girls that she had rodeoed with in high school. The senior physical education major has an eye set out to become a helpful asset to the women's basketball program next year. After this semester, Nixon will have used up her four years rodeo eligibility but will still be attending school.