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USU veterinary science professor coaches rodeo team By
Karina Fain WELLSVILLE -- When the coach of Utah State University's rodeo team moved to Cache Valley, it wasn't a house in Wellsville that caught his eye. It was the amenities around the house. "It had nothing to do with the house," Jeffrey O. Hall says. "The property had an arena, bucking chutes and a horse barn." Hall moved to Wellsville in October of 1996, after accepting a job at USU as an associate professor and forensic toxicologist at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. A doctor of veterinary medicine, his appointment is 60 percent diagnostic. He volunteered to help with the rodeo team, and after the coach resigned, he took over coaching duties, but not without experience. Hall coached the rodeo team at the University of Illinois for nine years and competed in rodeo for 19 years, riding bulls and bucking horses. As a coach, Hall makes sure students are aware of the rules and regulations. He takes care of the paperwork, enters members in rodeos, manages finances and helps with practices. Hall says he's even been known to tutor students while at rodeos to help them keep their grades up. Students are members of a larger organization, the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Members across the United States compete in separate regions, with the top students in each event qualifying for the National College Finals Rodeo, held annually in June. Hall and his wife, Cathy, say team members are always welcome at their home. They invite students to their house for Thanksgiving dinner. They have an annual Halloween party. Stalls in their barn are usually filled with horses belonging to students. "I do that in lieu of scholarship money," Hall said. "I do that to help them be able to go to school and rodeo." Cathy Hall, who works as a nurse for Heritage Brookside Home Health, says she puts every spare minute into the rodeo team. "I think the kids are so neat," she says. "Ninety percent of the population doesn't know they're out there, let alone how hard they work." The Halls say one of the highlights of their experiences with the rodeo team has been watching Nate Baldwin, a former team member, succeed in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Baldwin currently sits seventh in those standings, and will likely qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo held annually in December in Las Vegas, Nev. Current members of the rodeo team will compete Oct. 27 and 28 at the USU Stampede Rodeo in Logan. "It's good when the crowd comes out to support them," Cathy Hall says. "Support from the community is growing. "My goal would be to see the team be happy no matter where they end up placing at the rodeos," she says. "It's their self esteem that's important -- the drive, the ambition, the enjoyment of what they do."
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