Student Rodeo Hoping to Rope ‘em In : Pierce College: Halted in 1986 when the school couldn’t get insurance, the Western event will resume with 150 contestants from Nevada and California.

Calf ropers, bareback bronc riders and steer wrestlers will take the place of quarterbacks and tight ends at the Pierce College football stadium May 11 and 12 when the intercollegiate rodeo returns after a four-year hiatus.

After being held on the Woodland Hills campus for 32 years, the rodeo was discontinued in 1986 because the college could not obtain liability insurance for the contestants.

Bill Norlund, vice president for administration at the college, said the district recently changed insurance companies and was able to obtain a rider to cover the rodeo.

In past years, rodeo profits went to the student association. This year they will be turned over to the college’s agriculture program. College instructor Ron Wechsler, the rodeo organizer, said they hope to make $8,000 this year. The money will help buy supplies for the horse program and pay for maintenance, such as re-fencing some of the campus’ pastures.

“There’s been very little upgrading since 1948,” Wechsler said.

Tickest are $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and $4 for students and children.

The rodeo will begin at 8 p.m. both evenings, with a Western barbecue before the performance on Saturday and a monster truck demonstration both nights. Wechsler describe the monster trucks as “trucks that drive over cars and squash them . . . we thought I might attract another type of person who normally wouldn’t come to just a rodeo.”

The events are being organized by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Assn. For men, there will be contests in bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, team roping and steer wrestling; for women, barrel racing, breakaway calf racing and team roping.

About 150 contestants are expected, all of them full-time students in Nevada or California. Wechsler said several Pierce College students plan to compete.

Rodeo has changed in the 17 years Wechsler has produced the Pierce College event. Training for events and the treatment of injuries has become more scientific. But most of all, he said, the pubic attitude toward rodeo has changed.

“People have realized it’s a sport,” Wechsler said. “They’ve realized the cowboys are truly athletes, not just crazy people who do crazy stunts.”