Posted 7/17/08

Tarleton ropes alum to lead rodeo program,
hopes to keep up ‘winning tradition’

By Hannah Scott
Texan News Service

STEPHENVILLE -- A National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Coach of the Year has accepted the head rodeo coaching job at Tarleton State University.
Mark Eakin will leave a successful coaching career and rodeo program at West Texas A&M University, which claimed the 2006 national championship men’s team title. A Tarleton alumnus and former Tarleton rodeo team member, the 34-year-old Eakin said he is looking forward to his new coaching position.
“It’s an honor to get to come back,” he said. “I was a part of the program and now I get to lead it.”
Eakin, who was named the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s Coach of the Year in 2003, said that leading one of the largest rodeo programs in the nation will be “a challenge and I’m very excited about it.”
Eakin added he hopes to “keep the winning tradition” established during Bob Doty’s tenure as head coach. Doty announced in the spring that he was stepping down as coach but would continue to teach.
Eakin said he believes Tarleton’s rodeo program “is going in the right direction and I want to keep it going.”
Eakin also hopes to integrate more community service projects into the program, as he has done at West Texas A&M.
“There’s a couple different types of community service programs I’d like to bring aboard,” he said.“ I want to give back to the community because they’re so behind the rodeo program -- give something back to them because they’ve given so much to us.”
A free, day-long rodeo clinic for children in the community, put on by members of the rodeo team, is among the programs Eakin plans to push.
Eakin said he looks forward to working with Tarleton’s existing rodeo staff, including assistant coach Raymond Hollabaugh, and wants to stay in contact with Doty.
Doty’s coaching career at Tarleton included winning the men’s and women’s national team titles in 2005, as well as being named the 2005 Coach of the Year by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.
Eakin, who was coached by Doty when he was an undergraduate at Tarleton, considers Doty a personal friend.
“Bob’s always been a mentor to me and he’s the reason I’m a coach now,” he said, “I’d like for him to be a part of this as long as he wants to be a part.”
Doty said he is “real pleased” about Tarleton’s choice for the new head rodeo coach.
“Mark is energetic, and he rodeoed under me and hopefully will continue to do some of the things I do, but also will bring a new perspective and new things,” Doty said.
Eakin said he hopes to help Tarleton students achieve their goals inside the arena as well as in the classroom. “We want tem to succeed in all aspects of their life,” he said. Joining Eakin in his move to Stephenville will be his wife, Kelly, daughter, Caitlin, and son, Coy.

The Texan News Service is a project of Tarleton State University’s journalism program. Contact us at texannews@tarleton.edu.