GLENDALE, Ariz. – Austin Gamblers coach Michael Gaffney still smiles when thinking back to the PBR Team Series season-opener in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Team captain Jose Vitor Leme stood before his teammates with an important message.

“This is a conscious choice,” Gaffney recalls the two-time World Champion telling his teammates. “You’ve got to choose if you want to be a winner or be somebody that just tags along.”

And if the Gamblers had a bunch of followers, well, they were going to be losers.

Leme despises losing, and that would never be an option for him.

The 26-year-old sets his expectations for his teammates extremely high, but that is only because the bar he sets for himself is nothing short of perfection.

“He expects a lot from himself,” Gaffney explained. “So when he doesn’t see that same – all the verbiage we use – the dedication, the focus, the hard work. And it’s fine, because he likes to joke around and stuff, too, but there’s a certain time and place for that. But he’s not very tolerant when it comes to haphazardly going about this, because that’s just not the way he lives. He thinks and breathes it.

“He’s just a perfectionist. That’s the best thing to say about him, and his focus on doing all those almost menial tasks. It’s kind of cool to watch, and in our own selfish way, good for us. He’s everything and more. Everything he does is very meticulous. He’s very meticulous about everything. Even just the crease in his hat to the way he dresses.”

It is why it came as no surprise that Leme clinched the league’s inaugural $50,000 MVP award on Saturday night at Rattler Days via his 85-point ride on Chainsaw in the team’s 263.25-257 victory over the Kansas City Outlaws (12-15, Ridge Rider Days 1-1).

“It’s always a goal of mine to win something,” Leme said. “If you have a prize and you can win that, I always want to win that. I want to win everything I can, but MVP is not my first goal, of course. My first goal is to help the team and win with the team. Of course, I am so happy to be the first one ever to win this prize. It’s another great accomplishment for my career.”

The ride was also fitting because it accomplished Leme’s priority: leading the Austin Gamblers to victory. Leme’s ride on Saturday night pushed Austin back into the lead against Kansas City, and it became the difference-maker in Austin earning the crucial win once 2022 Rookie of the Year Bob Mitchell failed to reach the 8-second mark on Off Campus and Koltin Hevalow bucked off South Paw.

“I’m glad he’s on our team,” Gaffney said with a laugh. “What he brings to the locker room, just being beside him makes our guys better.”

The Gamblers have now won four of their past five games to surge to No. 1 in the PBR Team Series ahead of the regular-season finale on Sunday at Desert Diamond Arena (5 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network).

Austin will clinch the No. 1 seed for the 2022 PBR Team Series Championship (Nov. 4-6) with a victory over the No. 4 Arizona Ridge Riders (14-12-1). A loss against Arizona could push Austin to as low as No. 5 in the standings if the No. 2 Texas Rattlers (15-12), No. 3 Oklahoma Freedom (15-12) and No. 5 Carolina Cowboys (14-13) all are victorious on Sunday afternoon. (Editor’s note: Ties in the PBR Team Series standings are broken via Bonus Round points).

The Top 2 teams in the regular season get a first-round bye for the PBR Team Series Championship and automatically advance to the second round of the postseason competition at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“It’s important to get a bye because you’ve got one step ahead of the other teams,” Leme said. “Of course, everybody wants to be in that first or second spot. We’re just going to try to do our job and try to ride our bulls and do what we’ve been doing.”

The MVP is awarded to the rider who finishes the regular season leading the PBR Team Series in total aggregate score. Leme is 19-for-24 (79.16%), and No. 2 Daylon Swearingen (16-for-27) will be unable to catch Leme on the final day of the regular season on Sunday.

It was an extremely close battle between the two riders who also competed for the 2022 World Championship inside Dickies Arena this past May.

“It’s always hard to compete against somebody when you cannot control what they do,” Leme said. “But he didn’t ride all his bulls and he had some trouble in some events, and that helped me.”

Austin has had quite the rollercoaster of a season.

The team began the year 9-4 before Leme broke his ribs on Labor Day weekend playing soccer. Austin went 1-5 without Leme in the lineup for two events and eventually stumbled to 11-11 before its late-season turnaround. Despite the ups and downs, Austin never fell back below .500 since beginning the season 1-3.

The turnaround was sparked not only by Leme’s return from injury but also by the addition of 2019 PBR Rookie of the Year Dalton Kasel at the Oct. 6 PBR Team Series Trade Deadline. On Saturday night, Kasel (91.25 points on WSM’s Time In A Bottle) teamed with Leme and Lucas Divino (87 points on Milk Mustache) to lead the Gamblers to victory.

“We’ve been working hard, and now, with Dalton on the team, I think that was the piece that was missing, and we’re coming hot,” Leme said. “We’ve been doing so good. We did great last weekend in Fort Worth. We won the game last night here, start good this weekend too. Everybody’s fired up to finish the regular season and go to the Finals in the first or second spot.”

SUNDAY GAME SCHEDULE (5 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network)

Kansas City (12-15, Ridge Rider Days 1-1) at Oklahoma (15-12, Ridge Rider Days 0-2) Carolina (14-13, Ridge Rider Days 0-2) at Nashville (7-19-1, Ridge Rider Days 2-0) Texas (15-12, Ridge Rider Days 2-0) at Missouri (13-14, Ridge Rider Days 1-1) Austin (15-12, Ridge Rider Days 2-0) at Arizona (14-12-1, Ridge Rider Days 1-1)

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media