Nashville’s starting lineup in the PBR Campiing World Team Series, Bruno S. Carvalho, Ednelio Almeida, Kaiden Loud, Silvano Alves and Dener Barbosa, will be looking for a win here this weekend.
-- Photographs Courtesy Of Bull Stock MediaHistory will have to repeat if the Nashville Stampede is going to repeat as the PBR Camping World Team Series champion.
The second annual PBR Stampede Days will be back at Bridgestone Arena this weekend with the Nashville team struggling just like it did last year. In that inaugural season, the Stampede entered the Nashville competition with a 2-5 record en route to a 7-20-1 regular-season finish.
But in November at the PBR Team Championship in Las Vegas, Nashville went 4-0 to earn a spot in the record books as the first team to win it all.
Stampede coach Justin McBride, a two-time World Champion and a Bull Riding Hall of Famer, calls last year’s championship “really satisfying” and the culmination of hard work finally paying off.
“You could start to see it in the last couple of regular-season events leading up to the playoffs and to the championships. I could see it at our practices. I could see the way that the guys were starting to understand it,” says McBride, 44.
“Look, we’ve got American guys, we’ve got Brazilian guys, we’ve got a couple different languages floating around there. But everybody was speaking the same bull riding language and that’s what’s the important part to me,” McBride says with pride. “You could see that starting to transform.
“Once they got to the playoffs and to the championships in Vegas, they really stayed in their bubble and were very focused on what they had to do. (The team) kind of put the blinders on and went and did it.”
Injuries plague team
This season, Nashville enters the Bridgestone event still seeking its first win of the season after going 0-2 in Anaheim last week. McBride says that while last year and this season’s records are similar at this juncture, there are big distinctions. Injuries have sidelined four of the Stampede’s five starters.
“You could definitely draw some similarities, especially if you look at numbers and records and those things. I think it’s very similar,” McBride says.
“I think that the main difference is last year we had some guys that were coming off injuries … like Kaique Pacheco last year had come off a broken foot and he was competing, but he was trying to get back in the swing of things. It took him a little while to get going.
“This year, four of our five starters are out with injuries. So while a lot of the numbers are the same, it’s a little more nuanced because a lot of our guys that are supposed to be riding are riding right now.
“We’re using a lot of young guys and new guys that aren’t very experienced at this level and not really meant to be in the games right now. But just due to injuries and things, they’re kind of getting a crack at it right now. It’s kind of drinking through a fire hose right now.”
At Anaheim, the Stampede was without Pacheco, Mason Taylor and Dener Barbosa, leaving Nashville with a starting lineup of Bruno Carvalho (the team’s top draft pick, Matt Triplett, Jess Lockwood, Alan de Souza and Silvano Alves. Tentative lineups for the Bridgestone Arena event were not available at press time.
Alves, a three-time World Champion to go with the team championship, says injuries are part of the rugged sport and that he tries to mentor the young riders.
“Every time in, I think I can help a lot of young kids. I know we’ve got a couple riders hurting this year, but that happens,” the 35-year-old Brazilian says. “You never know each day in bull riding, Sometimes, it’s healthy. Next day, something’s hurt. But every day is important for us to stay together and head up and get ready for the next game.”
Stampede rider Jess Lockwood and coach Justin McBride look on as a rider prepares to launch from the gate.
Alves is confident Nashville can peak at the right time again and make another run at the team title.
“I know sometimes our guys have struggled but we all try hard to fix it every weekend,” Alves says. “The 2023 season (has begun) in a similar way from last year. But this happens sometimes, you know? We’re working hard every week and we can fix this.”
McBride has nothing but praise for Alves for taking the bull by the horns and showing the younger riders how it’s done.
“He’s a real veteran, you know, he’s a real professional. Three world titles on his own and now a team title to add to his resume, I mean he’s one of the all-time great bull riders there’s ever been,” McBride says. “He’s definitely not one of these 20-year-old kids out there anymore; he’s in his mid-30s and he’s been there and done it and seen it.
“He’s a guy that we typically put at the end of the lineup because if it comes down to needing a ride, he’s a guy you can count on. He’s not going to get rattled or stirred up by pressure. It doesn’t bother him. He’s been in about every big-time situation you can be in, in this sport. So it brings great leadership and some real stability to our roster.”
McBride doesn’t minimize the effect of injuries on his team but knows it’s something every team in every sport must grapple with. He just wishes they didn’t all hit at once.
“Anytime you have combat sports (or) physical contact sports, you’re going to have injuries, right? That’s part of it and you’ve gotta deal with it, make the best plan you can and keep moving ahead,” McBride says.
“Bull riding is a very physical sport but it’s also a very mental sport and guys can get beat down mentally really, really quick. So you’ve got to find ways to keep them engaged, to want to keep striving in something that is so hard and is so dangerous, you’ve gotta keep them wanting more of that.”
McBride likes what he’s seen so far from the team’s younger riders and says they’re all coachable and bought into the Nashville system.
“With those young guys, you’ve got to find – even if it’s not a qualified ride or a big-time score – you’ve still got to find little victories within that. You know, if it’s not eight seconds and it’s four seconds, you’ve got to find some wins within that four seconds and keep building on that,” McBride says.
“(Last year’s championship) went a long way to proving that. It showed a lot of people, ‘hey, if you buy into this system, it will work in the long run. There’s no shortcuts to it. You have to learn to ride bulls this way. If you are willing to do that, you might take some lumps here and there but by the time you get to the end of it, you’ll be ready for any kind of bull that gets thrown at you.’”
Future in the chute
McBride is especially high on the future of the 18-year-old Kaiden Loud from Kaufman, Texas, the 2022 Texas State Bull Riding Champion. He was the eighth pick overall in the PBR draft, the top selection in the second round.
“He was just at the high school national finals a few weeks ago and made his debut on the roster last week,” McBride says of Loud. “He rides really good. He just hasn’t seen the heat that the PBR bulls bring. But he’s a kid that we think has a huge future in the sport and is going to be a real force to be reckoned with.”
There are four games per night. Friday, the Stampede (0-7) will meet the Missouri Thunder (2-5) at 7:45 p.m. Saturday at 6:45, the Stampede will meet the Kansas City Outlaws (4-3). Then, at 1:15 Sunday, Nashville closes out against the Arizona Ridge Riders (0-7).
The PBR will host a three-day street festival outside the arena and both McBride and Alves encourage hard core and casual fans alike to come see what bull riding’s innovative Team Series is all about.
“We just want everybody to come back and have a good time. It’ll be a heck of an event, that’s for sure,” McBride says.
“Everybody’s excited to be there in our hometown and excited to see the team win there,” Alves says. “We’re waiting for (this) week and (will) try hard to win each day.”