FORT WORTH, Texas – If there’s one team that knows how to appreciate success, it’s the Kansas City Outlaws.

In 2022, the Outlaws finished the regular season No. 7 overall with a record of 12-16 before being swept at the 2022 PBR Teams Championship in Las Vegas, going 0-2. They were the only team not to win an event all season.

In 2023, the picture couldn’t be more different. The Outlaws have not only won an event, but won three. They’ve improved to No. 2 in the regular-season standings at 17-10 with just one game left to play. They have the No. 2 contender in the MVP race in rookie phenom Cassio Dias.

And on Saturday at Rattler Days in Fort Worth, Texas, the Kansas City Outlaws clinched a first-round bye at the 2023 PBR Teams Championship (Oct. 20-22 in Las Vegas), defeating the Missouri Thunder 260-175.

“We don’t have to compete Friday night in Las Vegas,” head coach J.W. Hart announced to his team in the locker room following the win, assistant coach Guilherme Marchi translating for the Brazilian riders. “We get a first-round bye because you sum bitches are the best in the world. The other thing you accomplished today is you added so much pressure to Austin’s back. They have to go perform now to try to stay away from us. And that is very, very key in competition. Congratulations, men. I’m proud of you.”

Indeed, the No. 1 Austin Gamblers (18-9) were looking to clinch the regular-season title with a win over the hometown Texas Rattlers immediately after Kansas City’s win. But the Gamblers stumbled in their second attempt at a clinch this weekend, falling to the Rattlers 260.25-89.25.

The Kansas City locker room dimmed the lights to watch the Austin/Texas game, as Austin’s loss has serious implications for Sunday (3 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network). If Austin beats the Thunder, they clinch the No. 1 seed. But if Austin loses and Kansas City beats the Oklahoma Freedom, the Outlaws move into the No. 1 spot and head into Vegas as the regular-season champions.

As far as celebrations go, things were muted despite the accomplishment.

“It relieves a little bit of stress, but it’s not over,” Hart said. “And the message that we conveyed to our guys is it’s not over. It’s not over until Sunday in Las Vegas. Though we’re thankful and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished to get the bye, we also know that the job’s not done and that we have a job to finish.”

That nose-to-the-grindstone mentality has been key for the Outlaws as they’ve gone from almost worst to almost first in the last year.

“Just the consistency and the culture that we build in this team, and the discipline that we have, and the discipline that we make mandatory out of them,” Hart said of the magic ingredient this season. “If they’re not disciplined, we move them. But it’s no secret: this team is very disciplined, and their work ethic is second to none.”

It’s been clear from the beginning, since the Outlaws notched their first event win on their home turf at Outlaw Days in Kansas City, that the buy-in runs from the top of the roster to the bottom.

“We just preach that, if they buy into our system and trust our decisions and our focus and our direction, that it’ll pay off,” Hart said. “And every single guy in that locker room right there, and the guys that are in Tryon, North Carolina, this weekend and sitting at home, every one of them buys into it. Every single one of them bought in. They trust the system, they trust what we do, they trust our trainers, they trust our decisions, and we trust them. That’s another big part of it, that we trust them. When we pick a bull to put them on, we trust that they can handle it, and they’ve been forging through.”

Last year’s Outlaws roster was very young, and Hart acknowledges that the team isn’t spending as much as some others, so it was a building process to where they are now. Part of that process was the addition of several Brazilian riders, aided by the hiring of 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi as assistant coach.

“Getting Guilherme Marchi and having that bridge to Brazil, to know the guys, to speak the language, and see those guys down there on their home turf,” Hart said. “We have a guy beating the bush down there, so to speak, finding the young kids that are impressionable, that when you get them here and you tell them something, they believe you still. And it’s worked.”

One of those riders is Dias, who Marchi was adamant the Outlaws select in the 2023 PBR Teams Draft in May. Hart and Marchi polished his technique in the practice pen, and he’s gone a stunning 18-for-24 (75%) in his debut season. He rode Pickle Moonshine for 88.5 points to clinch the win and the first-round bye for Kansas City and is just two bulls behind two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme in the MVP race.

“(Guilherme and I) are a team. I trust him, he trusts me, and he was real adamant that we take Cassio,” Hart said. “I met Cassio for the first time the morning of the draft, so I’ve got to credit Guilherme for going and finding him.

“Our headquarters, our practice facility, is at my house. Guilherme is so dedicated, he moved up from Brazil, he bought a home here in my hometown, and he’s at my house at 8:30 every morning, and we train. And just the dedication that he’s brought, the dedication that everybody’s brought on the team, is really, really unprecedented.”

Cassio Dias, Sandro Batista, Leonardo Castro Ferreira and Julio Cesar Marques – the O brothers, as Hart refers to them fondly – all live at his ranch in Marietta, Oklahoma, and they train every single day. They’re up early Monday mornings after events, loading bulls, practicing and working out. They’ll do the same this week when they get home from Fort Worth as they prepare for Las Vegas, staying true to their hallmark consistency and discipline.

Whether the Outlaws are the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, they’ll chase their first championship as a juggernaut. But Hart says that losing makes winning so much sweeter.

“Believe it or not, the ups and the downs make it fun,” Hart said. ‘Because you get to experience a low when you lose a game by a quarter of a point, and one of your true leaders gets hurt and he’s out for the rest of the season. To come back and be able to find a guy like Sandro and pick him up, and him take that place for Marcus (Mast), and to deliver – I think it still speaks a lot for the culture that we’ve built in Kansas City.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media