The Hastings College Rodeo Club, co-founded four years ago by Bobby Gottsch and honorary trustee Jack Osborne '63, has attracted nearly 20 top-notch competitors and established a solid reputation in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. During the 2011-12 season, several Hastings College competitors ranked in the top 10 regionally in individual events. A steer wrestler qualified for nationals.

Rodeo Club participants major in fields from biology and pre-veterinary science to agribusiness and accounting. These hard-working young men and women embody the values of the farming and ranching communities of the Great Plains. They are anxious to attend an excellent liberal arts school like Hastings but do not want to leave their cherished horses and rodeo competition behind.

Hastings College is the only private, liberal arts school competing in the Great Plains Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. The College offers rodeo scholarships, and students are responsible for rodeo entry fees and travel expenses and for feeding their animals. Team members use their own pickups and trailers and board their horses at the Adams County Fairgrounds.

The program benefits from superb coaching and a supportive community. Coach Justen Nokes, a McCook, Nebraska native and professional farrier and horse trainer, has led the team part-time since it began in 2008. Justen rodeoed at Southwestern Oklahoma State and qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo in steer wrestling and team roping from 1999 to 2001. After graduation, he rodeoed professionally and claimed several titles.

Your gift to the Difference Makers Campaign will strengthen a Rodeo Club that has been remarkably successful despite limited funding and will ensure the long-term sustainability of the program. Funds will be used for the following needs:

• Scholarships for difference-making rodeo competitors who otherwise could not afford to attend Hastings College, with the goal of increasing the number of rodeo participants from 17 to 30.
• Travel expenses and rodeo entry fees for competitors.
• Salary enhancements for coaching staff.
• Publicity, venue fees, etc., to host a National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association rodeo event at the Adams County Fairgrounds.