PUEBLO, Colo. – In what two-time World Champion and Nashville Stampede head coach Justin McBride called “one of the toughest decisions of his career,” he has decided to step back from the Team USA Eagles and pass the head coaching duties to Missouri Thunder co-coach Ross Coleman this year.
McBride not returning to the helm of the Eagles for the fifth PBR Global Cup was certainly the most shocking development of Wednesday’s 2022 PBR Global Cup USA coaching announcement. Regardless, the legendary coach with two Global Cup victories is not going to be too far away.
The 42-year-old wants to elevate the Global Cup for all countries, and he believes being a member of the CBS broadcast team will be the best way for him to help grow the international event.
“First off, that is one of my proudest and biggest honors to have done, coach the Global Cup team,” McBride told PBR.com. “It was a huge honor for me, and it was when I got to ride for the World Cup teams back when I was riding. That was a huge honor for me, and to be a small part of it, shoot, I loved it. At the same time, I love that event so much that I want to try and get across to people how great of an event it is on TV.
“I want to bring the same passion and emotion that I had as a coach for that event to the TV side of it. I want people to know how great of an event, and how great those guys are, and the team aspect of every country. I want people to know how awesome that is and why I loved coaching it so much and why those guys love being a part of it so much and why it means so much to teams to win it.”
2022 PBR Global Cup Coaches
Team Australia – Troy Dunn
Team Brazil – Robson Palermo
Team Canada – Tanner Byrne
Team Mexico – Gerado Venegas
Team USA Eagles – Ross Coleman
Team USA Wolves – Ryan Dirteater
The Eagles will be heading into AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 5 as the defending Global Cup champions after winning the last international team bull riding competition two years ago.
“I have to be honest with myself, and those guys, they can win this without me,” McBride said.
At the 2022 PBR Global Cup USA, each team will be comprised of five competing riders, all selected by the nation’s coach.
The one-day event will feature two rounds of competition, where three riders from each team will attempt one bull. Throughout those rounds, every rider from each team must attempt a minimum of one bull. Following the initial rounds, each team will select one rider to attempt the nation’s last bull in the bonus round. The 2022 PBR Global Cup USA Champion will be the team with the top combined score through their seven outs.
Coleman, who served as an assistant coach under McBride in 2020, will now be tasked with trying to lead the United States to back-to-back Global Cup/World Cup victories for the first time since winning the PBR World Cup in 2008-09 overseas in Chihuahua, Mexico, and Barretos, Brazil.
Additionally, in winning the 2020 PBR Global Cup USA, the Eagles joined Brazil as the only nations to win the event multiple times. Both countries are tied at four Global Cup/World Cup wins apiece.
McBride said it was a pretty easy decision to pass the reigns when he met with previous Team USA World Cup coach J.W. Hart and PBR Commissioner/CEO Sean Gleason to discuss a plan for Team USA this year.
“Ross will be great in a one-day thing, and he will be great at having those guys fired up to be there,” McBride said. “That is one thing about Ross. It is not something that he has to garner up. That is who he is. His attitude, his way of doing things, his personality. It is pretty dang infectious, and it bleeds through from guy to guy. He will be great at rallying the troops. This is a great chance for Ross to step out on his own.”
Coleman, a 2012 PBR Ring of Honor inductee, is one of only seven riders in PBR history to post more than 400 rides on the premier series (402). The 13-year PBR veteran qualified for the PBR World Finals 12 times. The Missouri Thunder recently announced Coleman and 2001 PBR World Finals event winner Luke Snyder as co-coaches for the upcoming PBR Team Series.
2016 World Champion Cooper Davis, who is expected to be named to the Eagles squad for the fifth time, has already been in contact with Coleman about figuring out who the Eagles may be considering for its five-person roster.
“Ross is going to be a great head coach,” Davis said. “He is going to bring a lot of intensity and grit to the locker room, and I think, in return, the guys are going to give it everything they’ve got and a little more.”
BLOCKBUSTER WEEKEND
A landmark partnership between PBR and Teton Ridge will bring The American to the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, March 6.
The American, the richest single-day rodeo in the world, features competitors in all eight rodeo disciplines: barrel racing, breakaway roping, steer wrestling, team roping (heading and heeling), tie-down roping, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding. Each qualifier who makes it to the 2022 finals will be eligible for their discipline’s $100,000 prize money and will also have their shot at the bonus millions.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media