May 22, 2003
UWT has one student athlete, and that’s no bull
UW Tacoma’s first official athlete is a Husky who rides bulls.
Zach Holt is an environmental science student with his eye on a career in marine biology. He also competes in rodeo, and is the only person ever to compete for UWT in intercollegiate sports.
Holt, founder and president of the UWT Rodeo Club, part of the National Collegiate Rodeo Association, placed high in the northwest rodeo finals in Pendleton, Ore., and advanced to the western finals in Elko, Nevada last weekend. He was eliminated from the competition after being bucked.
“I hope to make the rodeo finals next year,” says Holt, a Port Orchard resident whose family has a long tradition of rodeo competition. Holt is the Rodeo Club’s only competitor and pays for competitions and practice out of his own pocket. The club’s lone rider must travel to Onalaska to train.
“It’s tough competing against the rodeo teams at other schools because they have arenas, coaches and stock (animals ridden in competition),” says Holt. “The closest arena for me is down south of Onalaska, the Lazy H K Arena,” he says.
Holt hopes the Rodeo Club provides an avenue for students to develop an interest in the sport.
“I am hoping for more student involvement, but they have to have some experience or be willing to learn,” he says.
Holt transferred to UW Tacoma from Olympic College and plans to study inter-tidal invasive species, a branch of marine biology, at the graduate level at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
“I don’t really consider myself a cowboy. I don’t live on a ranch and don’t live the lifestyle,” says Holt.
Mike Allen, professor of history at UW Tacoma, is the advisor to the Rodeo Club and author of Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination. He says Holt’s brand of sincere, polite modesty and steely determination remind him of characteristics consistently found in today’s rodeo cowboys.
“That’s an old debate, whether they are ranch trained or arena trained. Now, most are arena trained, so they are pretty much all called cowboys,” says Allen. “But it’s nice that Zach respects the distinction of the ranch-trained cowboy.”
He also says Holt is a courageous student athlete to compete in one of rodeo’s most dangerous events.
Among rodeo’s rich traditions is collaboration, sharing information about how a bull turns and bucks, even though that information may help the next competitor to win.
While collaboration is consistent with students and faculty expectations at UW Tacoma, the notion of a Rodeo Club on this urban, downtown campus is not.
“There is no small degree of irony here,” says Allen.
