The college rodeo season is here, and the Northwest College program is set to continue its tradition of hosting the first in the Big Sky Region this weekend on Friday and Saturday.

Coach Del Nose said the Trappers have just begun practices, and he knows there is plenty of work to do in the early season.

“The kids are a work in progress,” Nose said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

He said there are plenty of competitors, and following trends within collegiate rodeo across the nation, there are more cowgirls than cowboys on the team this
season.

New to the region this year will be Dickinson State College, who Nose said joined the Big Sky Conference.

“We’ll have some new competition. It looks like it’ll be a good rodeo,” Nose said.

He said the Trappers recently hosted some clinics with a professional team roper, and he hopes  they learned from another source in the early season.

“It helps to have someone else tell them,” he said.

Starting the year, the rodeo kicks off at the Cody Stampede Grounds with a performance on Friday night at 7 followed by slack at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The final performance of the Trapper rodeo will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

“I really don’t know what it’s going to be like until after the first rodeo,” Nose said. “Hopefully we can put something together better than last year.”