FORT WORTH, Texas – In February, all 10 squads in the PBR Teams league sent representatives to Icem, Brazil, to scout for the next wave of Brazilian talent at the first-ever PBR Teams combine outside of the United States.
Three teams sent more than one person to be their eagle eyes on the ground.
The Kansas City Outlaws sent head coach J.W. Hart and assistant coach Guilherme Marchi; the New York Mavericks sent general manager Chris Pantani and head coach Kody Lostroh; and the Arizona Ridge Riders sent general manager Casey Lane and head coach Colby Yates.
At the upcoming 2025 PBR Teams New Rider Draft on May 20, the Ridge Riders have the No. 1 overall pick, the Mavericks have the No. 2 overall pick, and the Outlaws have picks No. 3, 4 and 9.
Coincidence? Maybe, but Lane sees this draft as very different than the three that came before it.
“I think there’s a lot more pressure on us with the first pick than I think there is with others because I don’t believe that this is a draft where there’s an obvious first pick,” he said. “Some of the drafts in the past, the first pick was very, very obvious, and this year, I think it’s going to be a little more strategic.”
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He’s right. At the inaugural PBR Teams draft in 2022, two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme was the clear No. 1 pick. In 2023, it was seven-time PRCA bull riding world champion Sage Steele Kimzey, and last year, it was phenom John Crimber, fresh off a second-place finish in the world title race.
This year, with most of the established talent already on rosters, the draft will take on an even more international flavor than it has in the past. It made the Brazil combine even more critical, as the No. 1 draft pick could very well have been present in Icem.
In addition to two days of the combine for draft-eligible riders, there was also a day for free agents to show their stuff. That has already paid off for the Texas Rattlers, who recently signed Winy Paulo dos Santos to their protected roster for 2025. Santos closed the bull riding in Icem with a qualified ride on the rankest bull in the pen, piquing the interest of a number of teams.
“This is a big thing for our sport, it’s a big moment for our sport, to be able to come over here and really get a firsthand look at the talent that’s coming over in waves that we’ve seen every single year,” Yates said. “It’s different (here). We know that. They have to adapt to our culture, our bulls, our style whenever they get (to the U.S.). So it’s pretty cool to get a good look at where they come from and their foundation and what they’re building their foundation on, because that’ll help us in the future be able to mold them to where they need to be when they compete in our country. So it’s a really good experience, but most of all, for our sport, I think it’s probably one of the biggest moments that we’ve been able to partake in so far.”
Yates has an edge over the other American coaches because, despite the lack of a Brazilian on his staff, he’s been taking an online Portuguese course for more than a year. While not yet fluent, he was able to get around in Brazil and gave an opening speech to the riders in Portuguese, receiving an enthusiastic ovation when he was done.
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“I’m a coach. I have to be able to communicate with my guys,” Yates said. “Half of my guys are Brazilians and half are Americans. So if I can’t communicate with them and they can’t feel what I’m saying, I might as well be talking to the wall, or coaching the wall, so it just doesn’t work out for me. So it was very important for me to learn. I tried the Duolingo deal, and nothing against it, but it just never worked for me. No matter what you do, anything you do in life, you have to put the work in, and so that’s what I’ve had to do.”
Lane has been involved in the PBR for 20 years, working for the league, as an agent, and now as general manager for the Ridge Riders, helping to build the team from the ground up. Even he was struck by the scene in Icem.
“We sometimes take for granted what it is that we do, what it is that we have, and what it is that the PBR has built over the last 30 years and us as teams over the last three years,” Lane said. “Driving in here and seeing this group of young athletes gathered together with just a look of hunger in their eyes – the life-changing experience that we’re providing them with this week was lost on me until we pulled into this parking lot and saw all these guys gathered together. And I think all the teams and all the coaches have a tremendous respect for them now that we’ve been here and we’ve met some of these guys and heard some of their stories and have seen how much this really means to them.”
With the No. 1 pick in their back pocket, Yates joked that he and Lane are “sitting on the throne” as the draft approaches. They’re taking this opportunity very seriously, as they know it’s not one that comes around very often.
“For the first three years of this league, and including the randomness of the first year, we’ve sort of been in the middle-to-high end of the pack based on our finishes in the season,” Lane said. “This year, the end of the season didn’t go the way that we had anticipated, so we have first pick. We don’t ever plan on having first pick again, so it’s important to be really strategic about how we use this pick. So we have to look at all the guys that are here. We have to look at all the options in the U.S. We have to look at what we need vs. what other teams might need, then make that first draft pick a strategic component of our roster-building, besides just being able to be the first pick.”
While we’ll have to wait and see who the Ridge Riders pick at No. 1 on May 20, Yates and Lane had their eyes on a few different things while scouting in Brazil. And if they found what they were looking for, we could be in for a new superstar.
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell, because the bulls are so different here, what they would be when they get to our country,” Yates said. “In America, in bull riding in general, if you have the correct fundamentals, then you should be okay. You see guys like Kaique (Pacheco) and Jose (Vitor Leme), and if they’re willing to work, that’s kind of what we’re looking for. What kind of effort do they put out? How tough are they? What do their fundamentals look like now, and is it something you can build on? I think that’s kind of what we’re looking for.”
Photo courtesy of Andre Silva/PBR Brazil
