The University has hundreds of Registered Student Organizations that cater to all types of interests and passions. For those who feel passionate towards the sport of rodeo, the Rodeo Club is the club for you.

The club introduces and teaches the sport of rodeo through various events and clinics.

“We’re also a social club so we go out on trail rides — you get on a horse and you ride through the woods,” said Will Glazik, junior in ACES and president of the Rodeo Club. “We have bonfires and little fun parties. We have two barn dances a year. We go to rodeos sometimes and watch them.”

Though most of the members on board have been around rodeos their entire life, joining the club requires little more than an interest and willingness to learn about rodeo.

“Some of our members join and they don’t even know what it is and they kinda get sucked into it because it’s so much fun,” said Julie Novak, senior in LAS and vice president of the Rodeo Club.

Throughout the year, the club hosts several clinics to teach people the basic events of rodeo.

“One of our fall call-outs is a bull riding clinic, for anyone to try it,” Novak said.

Glazik, who’s been around rodeo all his life, provides the necessary safety outfits – a hockey-like helmet, a vest and leather chaps – so that members can actually get onto a bucking bull and ride it. For those still worried about safety, there is one extra safety measure the rodeo club takes.

“There’s a bullfighter out in the arena and his sole duty is to keep the cowboy as safe as possible,” Glazik said.

The club also combines the sport with philanthropy, as a lot of the events they hold raise money for various organizations throughout the Champaign-Urbana community.

One such event includes a trip to Camp Healing Heart where they take makeshift bull riding instruments and teach kids how to ride.

“It’s fun to teach them things they probably wouldn’t know and give them a day where they can just have fun,” Novak said.

However, the club’s biggest event takes place at the end of the year. The Rodeo Club spends the entire year working to put on a real rodeo. The rodeo will have seven competitive events which include bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, team roping and barrel racing, among others. In between the competitive events, smaller performances go on, such as trick riding.

Lindy Nealey, junior in ACES, will be performing again this year.

“I run around the arena on my fast-riding horse and I stand up, hang upside down, jump off, jump back on, do like handstands on him,” Nealey said. “It’s basically acrobatics on horseback.”

This year, the rodeo will be held on April 28 at 7 p.m. on the Champaign County Fair Grounds.