PBR Teams League to Hold Combine in Sao Paulo, Brazil Searching for New Talent

10 Teams to Scout Talent in a Hothouse for Cowboy Courage Ahead of the 2025 New Rider Draft in May.

Gustavo Luis / Bull Stock Media

To sports fans, the idea of a scouting combine – for bull riders – tends to raise eyebrows.

How does one measure determination, courage and try?

“Pretty simple – watch guys ride bulls,” said Colby Yates, head coach of the Arizona Ridge Riders who’ll be at the upcoming PBR Teams combine in Icem, Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 18-20.

Yates, other coaches and front office executives representing each of the league’s 10 teams will be observing who is willing to risk life and limb to stay on a thrashing bull that extra second or two, as potential catastrophe beckons, to register a qualified ride.

Guts trump muscles in that particular game of chicken repeated across PBR events. Sheer determination reflecting how bad an athlete wants to succeed behind the horns of danger often separates 8-second rides that put scores on the board from attempts that end earlier, producing goose eggs on the scoreboard served with a side dish of mouth dirt.  

Bull riders’ physical skills will also be judged at the sport’s first combine outside the U.S.

While not as spectacular as Bo Jackson’s mythical, terrifyingly fast 4.12-second 40 at the 1982 regional NFL Combine, riders will be evaluated for grip and single-arm isometric strength, hip abduction, and balance.

PBR has held combines in Colorado, North Carolina. and Texas. The league chose Brazil for the first overseas foray because it’s a hothouse for bull riding talent.  

Since PBR Teams launched in 2022, more than 40% of the riders on rosters have been Brazilian. Presently half (38 of 76) of all Protected Roster riders are Brazilian. An average of 13 Brazilians has been chosen in the league’s annual New Rider Draft.

Brazilians claim many of PBR’s top milestones and achievements.

They include reigning PBR World Champion Cassio Dias and the sport’s inaugural World Champion and first three-time title holder (Adriano Moraes – 1994, 2001, 2006); Guilherme Marchi, who recorded the most qualified rides of all time; and Jose Vitor Leme, who claims the two highest-marked rides of all time.

Nine of the past 15 PBR World Championships have been won by a Brazilian: Dias, Raphael Jose de Brito (2023), Leme (2020-21), Kaique Pacheco (2018), Silvano Alves (2011-12 and 2014) and Renato Nunes (2010). 

“The (bull riding) dream starts in Brazil, but it comes to life in the United States,” said Ken Lehner, Deputy Commissioner, PBR Teams.

Ken Lehner (L) at a PBR Teams event in Anaheim. / Bull Stock Media

Lehner, who has extensive prior professional baseball experience including working for the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays, said, “I’d equate the journeys of these young bull riders to shortstop Edgar Renteria who emerged from Barranquilla, Columbia to ultimately win two World Series in his stellar career.”

The combine will be held in conjunction with Paulo Emilio, owner of Country Bulls, a leading bull stock contractor in Brazil.

The PBR is working closely with all bull riding associations in Brazil to bring in the next generation of bull riders. Riders and officials from the Associacao de Campeoes de Rodeio (ACR), Circuito Rancho Primavera (CRP), Ekip Rozeta (Ekip) and Liga Nacional de Rodeio (Liga) are participating.

On February 18-19, more than 40 of the country’s best riders who are eligible for the 2025 New Rider Draft will show their stuff.

On February 20, 15 current unrestricted free agents, who have previously gone through a PBR Teams Draft (2022-24), are expected, immediately available for teams to sign.    

Drawing more talented riders to PBR is a strategic imperative for the organization. 

After the league expanded to 10 teams in its third season in 2024, prospective new team owners were ringing up PBR boss Sean Gleason to see if additional team sanctions were for sale. However, to continue to add teams, the league needs more top-level riders who can stay on the world’s rankest bulls while continuing to thrill fans.  

“A combine in Brazil helps feed the bull rider pipeline,” said Gleason, the league’s Commissioner and CEO. “Riders will showcase their skills to ten teams hungry for talent, increasing their chances of being selected at the New Rider Draft in May for the 2025 season.”

The trip to Brazil is also an opportunity to educate the country’s best young bull riders on the ways and means to secure visas, according to Lehner. 

“Visas are expensive, complicated and time consuming so; they must be done properly,” he said. “We’ll explain the process and give it urgency.”

Beyond bull riders, the combine will also serve as a training session for select Brazilian judges. The goal is to have them in the U.S for PBR-sanctioned events.

“Finding a handful or more of bull riders who can make it at the next level would make this a success,” said Joe Ernst, who oversees Rider Development for PBR. “If there are some future superstars, even better.”

Like Lehner, Ernst brings vast experience from outside the bull riding industry. Before joining PBR in late 2024, he spent more than four decades in the lacrosse industry, recruiting more than 10,000 players.

PBR's new head of Rider Development, Joe Ernst / Joe Ernst

He spearheads the sport’s new Rider Development program to find new athletes from Western sports and beyond (including wrestlers, gymnasts and even skateboarders and motocross riders) while also improving the skills of those who have been on bulls.

Initiatives Ernst is working on include a standardized bull riding curriculum, bull riding academies, and a certified coaches program, among others.

A combine in the heart of Brazilian cowboy country is in Ernst’s wheelhouse.

“Some amazing bull riders have historically come out of Brazil, and we want that trend to continue,” he said. “We want to identify talent across all sports anywhere in the world. We know we’re starting on fertile ground in Sao Paolo.”

Ernst’s message – and one promoted with a South American scouting combine – is that there’s never been a better time to be a bull rider.

“There’s more prize money and more opportunities than ever in this sport,” he said. “While becoming mainstream, we are building the scouting and developmental programs for the next generation of athletes.”

Next week, maybe the next Edgar Renteria, or a future Adriano Moraes, will be signed to a PBR team, complete his visa, and head north for the rankest bulls, the biggest bucks, and the apex of bull riding glory.

Recommended Articles

•

Early Retirement Announced for a Legendary Barrel Horse After an Incredible Career

•

Rodeo Superstars Earn Wins at Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and Rodeo in Mercedes

•

Weekend Pro Rodeo Wrap Up: Arizona to Florida and Everywhere in Between

•

World Champions Dominate Action Packed RODEOHOUSTON Semi-Finals 1

•

Legendary Stock Contractor and Hall of Fame Member Mike Cervi Passes Away at 88