PUEBLO, Colo. – When the Kansas City Outlaws brought in Guilherme Marchi as assistant coach, the first name he brought up to head coach J.W. Hart was a surprising one.
Cassio Dias.
“We want this guy,” Hart recalls Marchi telling him. “We want this guy.”
Dias is the 2022 PBR Brazil Champion, but he was underwhelming in limited action in the United States. He’d made his U.S. debut at the 2022 Challenger Series Championship in November, where he failed to record a ride. He won one iteration of the Stockyards Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas, finished an impressive 11th in his Unleash The Beast debut, and placed eighth at the 2023 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals. But his competitive results were pretty unremarkable.
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“I trust him, he trusts me, and he was real adamant that we take Cassio,” Hart said of Marchi. “He said, ‘He’s in a slump right now, nobody’s looking at him, so we should be able to get him easily in the draft.’ And he was right.”
Hart met Dias for the first time on the morning of the 2023 PBR Teams Draft, drafting him later that evening with the fifth overall pick.
It was a selection that maybe raised a few eyebrows at the time but now looks utterly prescient.
Dias has been the Outlaws’ rock and the breakout superstar of the 2023 PBR Camping World Team Series season, going a stunning 19-for-26 (73%) with five 90-point rides to earn two event MVP titles. He not only helped the Outlaws to the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye at the PBR Teams Championship on Oct. 20-22 in Las Vegas but also finished No. 2 in the MVP race to three-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme by a single ride.
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“I’m feeling very blessed,” Dias said with Bruno Zecchin translating. “I don’t have any injuries. I’m working hard, and it pays off. So it’s been very good for me. I thank God for the season and for my health.
“(This season) exceeded my expectations. I didn’t think I was going to do so great as I’m doing. I’m very happy for that.”
The 21-year-old grew up in São Francisco de Sales, Brazil, and started riding bulls when he was 13. Like many of his American counterparts, he idolized Lane Frost and dreamed of coming to the U.S. to test himself against the best.
“I was born for this,” Dias said. “My family is all about rodeo: my father, my uncles. I think even when I was in my mom’s belly, I was thinking about riding bulls. I was made for it.”
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Dias met Marchi, the 2008 World Champion, at an event in Brazil and was thrilled to cross paths with a rider he looked up to.
“I respect him a lot as a World Champion and as a coach,” Dias said. “He’s been inspiring me, not just as a rider but as a person, as a man, as a cowboy. I used to watch him riding, and I’m inspired by the way he rides. It was amazing, knowing him better, and when he invited me, I couldn’t say no.”
Dias didn’t just join the Kansas City Outlaws. He moved in with his head coach, along with teammates Leonardo Castro Ferreira, Sandro Batista, and Julio Cesar Marques – the O brothers, as Hart calls them fondly. With Marchi buying his own home nearby in Marietta, Oklahoma, the Outlaws have developed into a family unit that keeps everyone on track.
“It’s been good because I can learn some English, working every week and talking to J.W. for learning English,” Dias said. “The best thing is that I ride horses and bulls almost every day, so this is the best way to be prepared. And also, we have workouts every day. I’m a little lazy, but J.W. doesn’t leave me. When he feels I’m a little lazy, he goes and knocks on the door, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! Work out! Let’s go! Let’s move this body!’”
The Outlaws’ slogan is “no grit, no quit,” and it’s no secret that Hart and Marchi have made discipline mandatory.
“If they’re not disciplined, we move them,” Hart said. “But it’s no secret: this team is very disciplined, and their work ethic is second to none.
“Now, we’ve kind of polished him a little bit in the practice pen and around the ranch. Just a couple little things, and he’s all eight cylinders wide open.”
Now that Dias is comfortable in the U.S. and has people looking out for him – and making sure he shows up to team workouts – he’s flourished. He’s thrived as a team member, riding for his buddies on the back of the chutes.
“It’s been very good, this team environment, because it doesn’t depend just on me. It depends on the team, and you get nervous because you need to ride to win,” Dias said. “The adrenaline is very good for us. It’s been fun having this team and winning. I like the Team Series.”
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One rider that’s sat up and taken notice is Leme, himself the 2017 PBR Brazil Champion. While eight Brazilian riders have combined for 13 World Championships, Leme is the only one to also be a PBR Brazil Champion.
If Dias keeps riding the way he has been, he could certainly be the next to join that exclusive club.
“He’s going the same way, so I hope he continues that and keeps pushing me to keep improving myself,” Leme said. “That will help me a lot because I always ride better when I have someone with me on the same level. Not saying I don’t have anybody in there, but he’s fire now, and he’s doing great. When I see somebody like him riding, for sure I get more motivated to ride my bulls, too.
“He’s going to for sure be on top for many, many years.”
Dias admits that a world title is the goal next season, but he’ll first try to lead the Outlaws to the 2023 PBR Teams Championship this weekend. Having earned a first-round bye, the Outlaws will find out their first opponent upon the conclusion of competition on Oct. 21 (11 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network).
In the meantime, the Outlaws are still hard at work in Oklahoma, and Dias is loving every minute of his incredible season.
“It’s a dream come true because this is where the best riders are,” Dias said, gesturing around the back hallways of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. “I dreamed about grabbing my rope and coming through this hall. And every time I do it, I think, ‘My dream came true, and I’m among the best.’”
Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media
