Bulldoggers: Fresno State Rodeo Team

By: Sydney Morgan

Fresno State’s Rodeo team, the Bulldoggers, is ranked in the top five out of all West Coast Regional rodeo teams. Many of the members have been doing rodeo for years.

“It’s my life,” said Elizabeth Stewart, who has been in rodeo since she was seven years old. “I wouldn’t be me without rodeo. I can’t identify myself any other way.”

The vice president of the team, Hailey Wilbur, was Bulldog born and Bulldog bred into a family who attended Fresno State.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to be a Bulldog,” said Wilbur.

She said that she got accepted into Cal Poly, Fresno State’s rival school. However, she turned that down because being a Bulldog was more important to her than prestige.

“We work for everything that we have. Some schools have more support than we do,” said Stewart.

She went on to explain that unlike Cal Poly, which is the most expensive California State University, Fresno State teams don’t get a lot of financial support. As a result, any money that they get comes from events like banquets or donations.

Stewart says her team’s strengths are “hard work and resilience.”

Wilbur can testify to that as she recently broke her nose during their home rodeo at Clovis Rodeo Grounds on March 5th and 6th.

“I was in the breakaway roping and I went across the line and there was a bit of a malfunction with the barrier route, and my face was the impact of the barrier route going wrong,” said Wilbur.

That didn’t stop her, though, as she said that right after she broke her nose, she ran her calf again and then “went back to the goat and made the short go.”

By the day of the rodeo competition in Coalinga, she had already undergone surgery and was ready to perform her events again.

“You just got to tough it out because we’re not quitters,” said Wilbur.

Wilbur and Stewart are not the only members who feel proud of being a Bulldogger.

The team’s President, Machaela Sinclair, said she feels like being a Bulldogger is a blessing.

“Earlier this week was my four-year celebration of being denied from what my dream college was back in high school, and I was denied this week four years ago, and it could not have been any more of a blessing,” said Sinclair.

All three female athletes have been part of the team since they got a new coach, Uhuru Adem. They say the coach was at least half the reason they chose to be part of the team.

“I knew that coach previously and it was going to be his first year coaching and it was going to be close to home,” said Stewart.

As for Sinclair, she said that regardless of both the coach and herself being new to the team, it ended up being everything she could’ve hoped for.

“Our team holds our own and we’re doing pretty good this season,” said Sinclair.

This statement couldn’t be any more true as the men’s team is in second place and the women’s team is in fourth.

However, at the end of the day, it’s not about the ranking as much as it is about the team and how they support each other during all seasons of rodeo.

“The sport is more than just a single event,” said Sinclair. “It’s everything in between. It’s a mental game. It’s the preparation. It’s taking care of your horses. It’s the being on this team, actually.”