Collegiate varsity sports and sports clubs typically create bonds with their communities, and Central’s rodeo club has an upcoming opportunity to show its connection to the rodeo culture of Ellensburg.

From Friday through Sunday, the 2016 Todd Anderson Memorial Rodeo will take place at Ellensburg’s Rodeo Arena. The rodeo is put together by the Rodeo Club at Central as a way to memorialize Todd Anderson, an important figure in the team’s history.

Anderson was a 22-year old student at Central who died in a house fire on Jan. 5, 2003. He was a four-year member of the team, as well as the club’s president that school year.

“He was very involved with the rodeo club and rodeo,” said 35-year old Noah Wagner, who was one of Anderson’s friends and roommates at the time of the fire. “He was one of the reasons I got involved in the club, he lived and died for that stuff.”

The rodeo is an important event for the Central students who compete, as it serves as their yearly home meet and an attempt to qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo.

“We have a certain set of regional rodeos that we compete in to qualify for nationals,” said Jonnie Crossland, senior public relations major who serves as the current Rodeo Club president. “That can be done individually or as a four member team.”

The contributions by the Ellensburg community and Anderson’s family and friends creates an atmosphere appreciated by the competing students.

“We receive a lot of support from the Andersons,” Crossland said. “[The Andersons] and the community are main reasons we can even have the rodeo. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very rewarding.”

While the rodeo serves as a stepping stone towards higher goals for the Rodeo Club, with events such as barrel racing, goat tying and bull riding, there are also events held to memorialize Anderson’s impact on the local rodeo.

One is a silent auction that begins Friday night, with the proceeds going towards the Todd Anderson Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is received by a Rodeo Club member each year.

The other is a riderless horse tribute, an event taken on by Wagner and Anderson’s other former roommate at the time of his passing, James Whitescarver. The ceremony consists of Wagner, Whitescarver, and their sons riding their horses.

“A pony or horse follows us without a rider, symbolizing a horse for Todd,” Wagner said.

The tribute is somber, and an important personal moment for Wagner and Whitescarver, the latter of which has named his son after Anderson.

Wagner partakes in the event hoping to maintain the rodeo and Anderson’s memory for many years to come.

“We named [the rodeo] after a tragedy,” Wagner said. “But it’s become a great memorialization of who he was. It’s James’ and I’s goal one day to pass this tribute onto our kids, to one day take over what we do.”