Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce steps in to help rodeo

The Pahrump Valley High School Rodeo Club received some much-needed help with its upcoming rodeo in February.

Chris Erwin, chief executive officer of the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce, decided to step in and help the club with this year’s funding for their rodeo. Erwin said the chamber would be paying around $10,000.

Erwin said the decision to help the rodeo club out was not a hard one.

“It is all about bringing positive changes to the community,” Erwin said. “Positive incentives like this one help kids. These incentives will help with the graduation rates and giving kids something to do in town. This is in the best interest of the town.”

He said the rodeo will be paired up with next year’s Balloon Festival, which will run from Feb. 23-Feb. 25.

For Buddy Krebs, Pahrump Valley High School rodeo director, this is a big relief. He said he spent much of last year getting things ready to go for this season and his main concern was trying to figure out how to raise the $20,000 to put on a high school rodeo. During the year the team has already had several rodeo fundraisers.

“I am not going to lie to you, I have been sweating bullets over that,” Krebs said. “And really it wasn’t until two weeks ago that we got the good news. They basically are paying for it. It was a win-win for us and the town.”

Judy Groene was on the rodeo committee for the Fall Festival and feels this is a positive partnership.

“I see where Chris Erwin is going with this,” she said. “This will give people something to do in addition to the balloons. It’s fun to watch the kids perform at the rodeo. You will get some great rodeo from these kids. It definitely is a good thing.”

Carlton McCaslin, a longtime resident of Pahrump who ran the rodeo for two years in the early 90s, was all for what the chamber was doing.

“This is a positive thing,” he said.

He said this can lead to other rodeos, like the PRCA, coming back.

How is the rodeo team doing?

Krebs said his team has gone to five rodeos through Nov. 11 and feels that they are doing fine for being in their first year back.

Freshman Tye Hardy, a Pahrump bull rider, is number two in the state after these first five rodeos.

“If he can maintain this standing he will go to nationals this year,” Krebs said.

The team will be in Las Vegas this weekend and then memebs have a long break for the holiday season. High school rodeo returns Feb. 10-11 and then Pahrump Feb. 23-25.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@Pvtimes.com