To see rodeo pros holding on tight in events such as bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing and local folks letting loose in the calf scramble and brand-new wheelbarrow races, fans should buy tickets in advance for next weekend’s – April 28 and 29 – 2023 Statesboro Kiwanis Rodeo.
This will be the 12th appearance of the Kiwanis Rodeo in 13 years and the third time it has been held at the Bulloch County Agricultural Arena, 44 Arena Blvd., off U.S. Highways 25 and 301 South. After last year’s sold-out shows, no ticket sales at the gate are planned. Gates open 5 p.m. – with vendors and some pre-show attractions in place – before the show starts at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.
“There are no tickets at the gate,” said Bobby Turner, 2023 rodeo chair for the Kiwanis Club of Statesboro. “For advance tickets, go to our website, or we have some local tickets being sold at McKeithen’s Hardware.”
That website is www.statesborokiwanisrodeo.com. McKeithen’s True Value Hardware is at 58 Independence Way, off Fair Road. Ticket prices are $16 for adults, $14 for youth ages 4-14, and free for children 3 years old and younger.
Statesboro Kiwanis continues its dozen-year relationship with Hedrick Rodeo Company of Madisonville, Tennessee, which produces the rodeo, brings in personnel such as the rodeo clowns, announcers and pick-up men, as well as rodeo-rated livestock, and schedules the pro-level ropers and riders.
For those competitors, the events each night include saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, barrel racing and bull riding.
“We’ll have competitors coming in from all over the United States and Canada, and they’ll be competing in seven events for world championship points,” said rodeo company founder Danny Hedrick. “In January they’ll send the top 15 money winners in each event to Guthrie, Oklahoma, for the world finals.”
That will be the IFR, or International Finals Rodeo, an International Professional Rodeo Association, or IPRA, event.
This year, Statesboro Kiwanis has upped its prize pool some, Turner said, and hopes to draw more contestants than in the past.
Hedrick’s outfit has lead rodeo clown and “barrel man” Ty “Stormin Norman” Stewart from Nebraska and announcer Robert Blue Jeanes from Texas coming to Statesboro.
“And we’ve got trick riders and all kinds of fun stuff happening during the rodeo and lots of action happening outside the arena before the rodeo starts,” Hedrick said.
Wheelbarrow races
For local family and group participation during the intermissions, the children’s calf scramble will be back, and team wheelbarrow racing debuts this year.
“Basically, two blindfolded folks push somebody in a wheelbarrow who’s trying to direct them, and they race against other teams,” Turner said. “We have several local businesses that have signed up for that, and it’s going to be lots of fun.”
With teenagers and adults forming the wheelbarrow teams, this new event replaces “steer dressing,” out of concern over the risk of injury that it posed, he said. That event featured in past rodeos had people race to put clothes on cattle.
“We kind of went a different direction with that,” Turner said. “We always have safety in mind.”
So far reportedly six three-person teams have signed up for the wheelbarrow races, providing three teams for each night’s race.
Children can be signed up for the calf scramble upon arrival at the rodeo.
Food and gear
New and returning vendors will offer food and other items for purchase after the gates open each night and throughout the rodeo. These include Hunter Cattle Company, Baby CJ’s Rib Shack, God Made Chef T, Wavee Shavee Ice, Boro Sno and La Hacienda Western Wear. Some nonprofit organizations, such as American Heritage Girls and the Gideons, will also have booths.
Statesboro Exchange Club will again hand out American flags for waving during the rodeo.
Miss Rodeo USA 2023 Anna Woolsey is scheduled to be in Statesboro through next week, representing the IPRA and meeting local residents before and during the rodeo nights.
Two sponsors, JC Lewis Ford of Statesboro and Aspen Aerogels, are donating 40 tickets for Fostering Bulloch’s 7th Mile Farm to send children to the rodeo, and a special recognition is planned for Thursday’s Kiwanis Club meeting.
The rodeo is the Kiwanis Club of Statesboro’s second-biggest fundraising event of the year, behind the Kiwanis Ogeechee Fair, and helps to fund the club’s gifts in support of youth organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Club and 4-H Clubs, and various charitable programs.