Catawba College’s Baseball and Softball Teams are sponsoring the First Annual Catawba Grand Slam Professional Rodeo at 8 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, November 11 and 12. TheEvents will be held at the Cabarrus Arena and Event Center on Highway 49 North in Concord.
The event is sanctioned by the International Professional Rodeo Association and produced by KenJ Productions of Aiken, S.C. Proceeds from the event will be used to establish an annual scholarship for special needs students at Catawba and to supplement the annual budgets for both teams, according to Coaches Jim Gantt and Nan Whitley.
The Catawba Grand Slam Rodeo will feature World Champion bucking horses and bulls owned by Ken Treadway, two-time stock contractor of the year for the IPRA. World Champion cowboys and cowgirls will compete for points and dollars and try to land places in the International Finals Rodeo. Sanctioned ContestEvents include bareback riding, saddle bronco riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, cowgirl barrel racing, team roping and bull riding. There will also be rodeo specialty acts and some of the funniest clowns in the business at the venue which is billed as “the Greatest Show on Dirt.”
According to Coach Gantt, a coach at a competing institution spoke to him about successfully launching such an annual event with the help of an outside production company. It had a good turnout and offered spectators a chance to take in a different sort of entertainment. It has since grown into an event which supports close to a dozen annual scholarships for special needs students to attend a college or university of their choice.
Coach Whitley agreed noting that there’s a great interest in this area in western style ridingEvents. “Even though this is Indians territory,” she said, noting that Catawba’s athletic teams are called the Indians, “there’s a lot more cowboys around than you think.”
Both coaches hope that local area businesses which have consistently supported their teams will consider sponsoring some of the rodeoEvents or acts because those sponsorships will help underwrite costs.
Tickets are available in advance through Ticket Master at 704-522-6500 or on the day of the show at the gate. Costs are $13 in advance or $14 at the door for adults; $7 in advance or $8 at the door for children 12 and under; and free for children under two years of age. For more details on tickets for this event at the Cabarrus Arena and Event Center, visit www.goldevents.net.
