Tuesday, April 12, 2016

New NMSU rodeo coach preps team for regional finals

Logan Corbett readily admits he’s got "huge boots to fill." Corbett took over as New Mexico State University’s rodeo coach this semester — midway through the rodeo season. For the past 14 years, the team was coached by Jim Dewey Brown, who Corbett calls “one of the best coaches in the nation.” Brown started working at NMSU as the rodeo coach in August 2002 — the first coach the rodeo team ever had since it was formed in 1942 — and molded the program into one of the country's best. In 2007, Brown was named Coach of the Year by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. He coached the women's team to nine Grand Canyon Regional Championships; the men's team has won eight championships under Brown. Since 2005, six members of the rodeo team have won national championships. Corbett, 27, graduated from Murray State University in Kentucky in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in animal science. He competed on the collegiate rodeo team at MSU for four years in bareback riding, as well as some bull riding and team roping. Corbett competed at the College National Finals Rodeo in bareback riding in 2012 and 2013. “I started my master’s there in Agricultural Events Production — putting on rodeos, bull-riding events, horse shows, that sort of thing,” Corbett said. While working on his master’s degree, he got a graduate assistantship to be an assistant coach of the rodeo team, learning under Van Hooser, his old coach. “He did a lot for me,” Corbett recalls. “I didn’t know much when I started college, and he took me in and changed my life. After I got to know him, and after all he did for me, I decided that this is what I want to give my life to — investing in young men and women. I love rodeo, and I love helping kids, so what better way to do both?”...more

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