PUEBLO, Colo. – When J.W. Hart, head coach of the Kansas City Outlaws, met Cassio Dias on the morning of the 2023 PBR Team Series Draft, he didn’t know what to expect.
Assistant coach Guilherme Marchi was adamant that the Outlaws draft Dias, and Hart trusted his judgment, but he still needed to meet the guy first.
“When I met him, he was a little ol’ kid that had a big ol’ dip of snuff right in the front of his lip, and his hat was flat and his ears were bent over,” Hart said. “He didn’t know one bit of English.”
Despite the language barrier, Hart had one question.
“Can you stay on bulls?”
Dias may not have known what Hart was asking, but he knew the correct answer: “Yes, sir.”
“He had that little grin. ‘Yes, sir. Yes, sir,’” Hart said. “That was my first impression, and that’s what I see every time I see him. His little git face with a giggle to him, and ready to go get it on.”
That was on May 17, 2023.
On May 19, 2024, Dias stood atop the stage in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, amid celebratory chaos, gazing down at his newly won World Championship gold buckle.
Turns out, he really can stay on bulls.
BORN FOR THIS
Dias grew up in São Francisco de Sales, Brazil, and started riding bulls when he was 13. But even before that, as a young boy, he would ride the arm of the couch in his childhood home as if it were a bull. His father would call his rides and announce that he had won the World Championship.
“That little Cassio that was there riding on the couch is here right now inside of me,” Dias said. “I always dreamed about it. I always did everything to be here today. I’m very happy about it and feeling that the same Cassio is there.”
He began working his way up the ranks, competing in his first PBR Brazil event in Barretos in August of 2021, finishing third.
In 2022, Dias competed in five PBR Brazil events, winning two, placing third in two, and winning the 2022 PBR Brazil Championship in August.
By November, he was in the United States, competing at the 2022 PBR Challenger Series Championship.
It took him two additional Touring Pro Division events to record his first qualified ride, but when he finally did, he won the event – the PBR Stockyards Showcase on March 2, 2023.
Later that month, he made his premier series debut, finishing 11th at the PBR Ty Murray Invitational, presented by The Downs Racetrack & Casino.
Dias competed in one more premier series event before returning to the Touring Pro Division and Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour. In early May, he finished eighth at the Velocity Tour Finals.
Fairly unremarkable results in the United States.
But Dias knew there were greater things ahead of him.
“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.”
OUTLAW TOUGH
While still in Brazil, Dias met Marchi, the 2008 PBR World Champion.
Dias had grown up watching Marchi and admired the PBR’s all-time leader in qualified rides. But what he didn’t know was that Marchi was watching him and admiring him right back.
“I knew a lot of potential in Cassio in Brazil,” Marchi said. “He kind of won everything down there before he came to PBR Brazil. And then, when he came to PBR Brazil, that started to change a couple of things in him. He became more serious, more focused. And one day, I asked him, ‘Do you have the dream to go to the United States?’ He said, ‘Yes, sir. That’s why I came to PBR Brazil. That’s my biggest step.’”
So, when Marchi accepted the job of assistant coach for the Kansas City Outlaws, he knew exactly who he wanted to bring in.
“J.W. called me, invited me to be part of the Kansas City Outlaws team,” Marchi said. “And he said, ‘I need you to find some great riders and bring them to the team.’ And I told him, ‘I already have one guy. He’s in the United States right now, and I think that kid can be a big deal.’”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Dias – after convincing Hart he could stay on bulls – joined the Outlaws as the fifth overall pick in the 2023 PBR Teams Draft and immediately changed the complexion of the team.
After finishing the 2022 season as arguably the worst team in the league, the Outlaws ended the 2023 regular season as the No. 2 seed with a first-round bye in the PBR Teams Championship. Not entirely because of Dias, of course, but he was the breakout star, going a stunning 20-for-28 (71%) with five 90-point rides and two event MVP titles.
Dias fell just short of the regular-season MVP honor, finishing just one ride behind two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme, himself a PBR Brazil Champion-turned-World Champion.
“He’s fire now, and he’s doing great,” Leme said in October after the MVP race had come to an end. “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 also spent the season living with Hart and seeing Marchi every day.
“I’m glad to have Guilherme and J.W. on my side because my dad rode bulls, but he never did so good,” Dias said. “I learned a lot of things with Guilherme and J.W., and I feel so welcomed with what J.W. did for me. They brought me to his house and opened their doors for me, and I’m so grateful for that. What we learned with Guilherme and J.W. this year, it changed my life. They changed the way I think about riding bulls, the way I think about treating people, the way I think about treating my wife. My wife is helping me to be better because it’s not easy. They were so welcoming for everything at the house and call me all the time. It makes me strong.”
While Marchi loves being a surrogate father for Dias, he says it hasn’t been all fun and games.
During the second PBR Teams event last season in Anaheim, California, Marchi admits that Dias had a problem with alcohol. He went out drinking at night, and the Outlaws missed out on an event win the following day.
“He doesn’t like to lose,” Marchi said. “He doesn’t like to buck off.”
Dias and some other riders went drinking again that night, and he was late to the airport the following morning.
“I called him a couple of times. He didn’t answer,” Marchi said. “And finally, he showed up, and I don’t say anything that morning. We come back to J.W.’s house, and then I speak with him and say, ‘Here’s the deal. If you want to be the best, if you want to change things, that’s the time. Because if you follow that kind of steps, you’re not going to be what you dream to be.’”
“After today, I won’t drink anymore,” Dias told him. “I really see what’s happened.”
And that’s when the switch flipped.
“He comes every day to my house to work out, ask me about the bulls, the draw, all kinds of things,” Marchi said. “I have all the respect, not only because he’s the No. 1 guy today, but all the hard work he put in to be the best. All the things he has had to change. He wants to be better. And he’s so respectful with me, with my family, and I’m so proud of Cassio. What he’s been doing this year is so amazing. Everybody sees how good he is, and I think it’s his time.”
TRUE GREATNESS
Heading into his first Unleash The Beast season, all eyes were on Dias to see how he could follow up his incredible Teams season. He was expected to be part of a historically good rookie class, including seven-time PRCA bull riding world champion Sage Steele Kimzey and 18-year-old phenom John Crimber, and duke it out for the world title with them and Leme.
What actually happened? Well, it was the Cassio Dias show.
He was off to the races immediately, winning three of the first seven events of the season to become the fastest rider ever to three career event wins.
With his fourth event win, he became the rider with the winningest rookie season in PBR history.
With his seventh and final event win of the season at the regular-season finale in Louisville, Kentucky, Dias cemented his status among the greats – just one win away from the single-season record of eight, held by Leme and two-time World Champion Justin McBride, Dias is tied for the second-best season of all time.
The 22-year-old rookie went 41-for-76 (53%) with nine 90-point rides – two of them on 2024 YETI World Champion Bull Man Hater for 93.25 and 94.75 points.
Dias led the league in outs, qualified rides, riding percentage, event wins, and 90-point rides.
“I was prepared to do my best, but I did not expect to be so blessed,” Dias said.
What helped him along the way, he said, was the group of riders he traveled with. Dias prefers to drive rather than fly, and he, Thiago Salgado, and Julio Cesar Marques drove together during the season.
“I was good with all the events I won, but it was even better getting to know new people and having a crew that would ride with me to the events,” Dias said. “We became really good friends. Even though I didn’t do good at an event, we had a very good time, a lot of laughs and happy times, and it helped me to keep focused and to keep my mind in the right place, not worrying about the events I wasn’t good, but hoping that the next one would be better.”
Nobody knows better what it takes to win seven events than McBride, who coaches against Dias for the Nashville Stampede.
“First off, yeah, it’s really hard to win seven events,” McBride said. “I don’t care what era you’re in, the length of the season, whatever. It’s hard. It’s very difficult. Cassio isn’t a guy that I know real well, but I feel like I know him real well through his coach, J.W., because it’s pretty much daily I get some sort of a picture or a video or something of Cassio from J.W. It’s been one of my favorite seasons to get to watch, ever. He means a lot to this sport. The way that he’s went about it, the way he’s competed. To someone like me, it really means a lot, and I have a huge amount of respect for him.
“I never drafted my bulls, and so sometimes, I’m a little hung up on that. Like, eh, can we put an asterisk up here? But not with Cassio, because again, I go back to the way he’s went at it. Two of those rides were on Man Hater this year – the best bull in the world – and he’s just went at it. So I can’t have enough words to explain – I don’t know enough words to explain – how much respect I have for him and the way he’s went about it.”
But Dias says it wasn’t until he won in Louisville—the final event of the regular season—that he truly grasped the possibility of winning the world title.
ROAD TO A WORLD TITLE
When Dias arrived in Fort Worth, Texas, for the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Eliminations, he was ahead of No. 2 Crimber in the standings by 560.5 points.
It was such a big lead that there was talk of Dias clinching the world title before the final four Championship rounds the following weekend at AT&T Stadium.
“I was in that position before a couple times,” Marchi said. “It’s not easy. It’s easy for the second, third and fourth guys because they don’t have anything to lose.
“But Cassio, he really believes in God. He really trusts in Him always. In his interviews, he always says about God first. He’s a very blessed guy. He comes from nowhere, from nothing, and PBR has already changed his life, and he’s so grateful for everything. I told him, ‘Believe in yourself. You can do it. We know you can do it. You need to know more that you can do it.’ And he said, ‘Yes, sir. I’m ready.’”
Things got off to a blazing start inside Cowtown Coliseum, as Dias rode Sava for 86.75 points in Round 1 and Ricky Vaughn for 88 points in Round 2.
But then, disaster struck in Round 3. Dias was bucked off by Norse God in 5.78 seconds and stepped on, leaving him immobile on the dirt. After a few tense minutes, he was carried off on a stretcher and transported to the hospital to undergo testing.
The result? Spinal fractures, broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a concussion.
With Crimber winning two rounds and finishing second at Eliminations, Dias’s world title hopes were on thinner ice than they’d been all season.
It was unclear if Dias would be able to ride in the Championship, let alone win a world title.
But, after seeing a back specialist and clearing all protocols, Dias showed up to AT&T Stadium ready to ride and wearing a special gift from Hart – the chaps that belonged to the late, great Lane Frost, who Dias grew up idolizing.
In Round 1 of the Championship, Dias bucked off familiar foe Mike’s Motive – who he’d ridden twice before – in an agonizing 7.64 seconds.
Agonizing in more ways than one.
“It was like a pinching, like I was being stabbed on my back,” Dias said. “The pain, on a level from 0 to 10, was about eight.
“When I tried to ride the first bull at AT&T Stadium, I felt so much pain, and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it.”
But when things were at their lowest, Marchi was there to give him one final push.
“Guilherme Marchi was a huge help for me, telling me that I was going to be able to ignore the pain, helping me to strengthen my mind and ignore the pain when I ride,” Dias said. “My dream about being a World Champion was something that helped me to achieve this and to ignore all the pain.”
Dias bucked off Big Chew in 3.05 seconds in Round 2. Crimber, meanwhile, went 1-for-2 on the first night of the championship, setting up a Championship Sunday on which the stakes couldn’t have been higher.
If Crimber were to win the World Finals event aggregate, he would earn enough points to usurp Dias for the world title if Dias didn’t ride.
“I didn’t know any of this,” Dias said. “I was off of social media. I closed it all off. I was focused 100% on riding my bull because I knew that the only thing that would make me World Champion was riding my bull.”
In Round 3, Crimber converted aboard Big Bank for a whopping 95 points, putting him into the event lead.
Dias had no choice: ride, or watch the world title slip from his fingers.
So he did what he’s been doing better than anyone else for the last year.
Ride.
Dias squared off against Ricky Vaughn, who he’d ridden the weekend prior, scoring 92.5 points in what was his most critical ride of the season.
“At first, I was very pressured for all of this, but I was able to gather all this as a strength and get this all on my side,” Dias said. “All of those things helped me to get focused and do my best, and gave me strength to do what I needed to do.”
Crimber ultimately bucked off in Round 4, removing his chance of winning the event and clinching it for Dias.
He was the World Champion.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get on one more time. Dias rode Chiseled in Round 4 for 79.5 points, declining a re-ride so he could celebrate on the dirt with his friends, teammates, and coaches.
“I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to achieve my dream and to have my name written in the history of the PBR,” Dias said. “I feel very full because I know my dreams came true. I’m very happy and thankful for everything I achieved.”
So, too, is his coach.
“You know, I don’t want to get too sappy, but he’s like one of my kids,” Hart said. “Since the day we met. He’s lived at the house, and he lives close to the house now. I see him on a daily basis, and just communicating back and forth, knowing his personality and how good of a kid he is, and knowing how bad he wants not just to be a good bull rider, but to win and compete at the highest level, to see him be successful, and to think I’ve got some little minute part in it – it’s my way of competing through him.”
Hart says Dias’s ability to push through pain is one of the things that makes him so special.
“He’s just a little ‘yes, sir’ guy, but he’s very serious when he needs to be serious,” Hart said. “But he’s just a happy-go-lucky, cheerful – always happy. I’ve never really seen him upset. Always wanting to learn and be better. Even when he’s hurt, he’s wanting to practice. Even when he’s really winning and doing great, he wants to keep practicing. That’s a hard trait to find. Everybody wants to practice when they feel good, or nobody wants to practice when they’re hurting or they’re winning. And he wants to keep practicing and getting better every day. That’s him.
“And he’s a sponge, even through the language barrier and Google translate. Bull riders talk body lingo, and when you’re trying to show him how to stick his chest out or keep his shoulders level or things, they understand it, and he just absorbs everything you give him. And he wants to be better. There are so many great bull riders out there who are okay with where they’re at and the level they’re at. They’re just content. And he’s not content with being the No. 1 guy in the world. He wants to put an exclamation point at the end of it.”
A World Championship is one hell of an exclamation point.
All told, Dias is the second PBR Brazil Champion to become a PBR World Champion and the second rider ever to win the World Championship and Rookie of the Year honors in the same year.
But just as Hart said, Dias is far from content and is already looking ahead to what else he can achieve. He’ll spend the summer at home in Brazil, resting and seeing his family for the first time in a year.
But then, it’s right back to work.
“I know there’s still a lot to do in Teams,” Dias said. “I wanted to win the world title with my team, and I want to win more individual world titles as well.
“I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to achieve my dream and to have my name written in the history of the PBR.”
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
