By Kacie Albert
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – At the 2024 PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Teams New Rider Draft on Wednesday evening in Nashville, Tennessee, the Florida Freedom selected teenage phenom John Crimber (Decatur, Texas) with the No. 1 overall pick. The selection created a rarely seen dynamic in professional sports, with Crimber now set to ride for his father, Florida Freedom Head Coach Paulo Crimber.
“I’m excited to get rolling and bring a championship to Florida,” the younger Crimber said moments after being selected. “It’s an honor to join the Freedom alongside my dad. He’s been there my whole career, and I don’t think much is going to change, except he might get on my butt a bit more for falling off.”
“I couldn’t be any happier,” Head Coach Paulo Crimber added. “All of the riders I selected came right in order. I was blessed to still have them available when my turn came around. I think we did great with youth; we have all young kids, and they are all hungry to ride. They are talented and they are tough. I am excited to see how the new season starts.”
Crimber was sensational in his rookie season in 2024 on the elite Unleash The Beast, falling just short of the 2024 PBR World Championship in his quest to become the youngest gold buckle winner in history. The 18-year-old generational talent won one premier series event and finished runner up five times during the regular season, going 29-for-66 as he covered a torrid 43.93% of his animal athlete opponents.
While he was narrowly denied the World Championship, Crimber was electric in his World Finals debut, finishing second while logging the high-marked ride of his career, a mammoth 95 points atop Ricky Vaughn.
The Florida Freedom also held the No. 6 overall pick, which they used to draft Eric Henrique Domingos (Pérola, Brazil).
Holding the second overall pick, the Oklahoma Wildcatters, under the leadership of two-time PBR World Champion J.B. Mauney, selected fellow young gun Clay Guiton (Cherryville, North Carolina).
Despite Guiton’s season being cut short due to injury in early March, he registered eight Top-15 finishes in 10 premier series outings, concluding the 2024 campaign No. 27.
The New York Mavericks drafted 18-year-old Hudson Bolton (Milan, Tennessee) with the No. 3 overall pick. The Kansas City Outlaws then selected Maikon Calixto Rocha (Orindiúva, Brazil), who the team’s Assistant Coach and 2008 PBR World Champion Guilherme Marchi believes could perform at the level of Cassio Dias (Sao F de. Sales, Brazil), another Brazilian drafted by the Outlaws, who recently capped his dominant season with the 2024 PBR World Championship.
Kansas City also held a second pick in the first round of the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft, which they used to pick three-time PBR World Finals qualifier Brennon Eldred (Sulphur, Oklahoma) No. 8 overall.
Elsewhere in the first round, the Carolina Cowboys selected Ethan Winckler (Winnie, Texas) No. 5, the Oklahoma Wildcatters chose Kase Hitt (Dickson, Oklahoma) No. 7 overall, the reigning PBR Teams Champion Texas Rattlers chose Shane Scott (Molalla, Oregon) No. 9 overall, and the host and 2022 PBR Teams Champion Nashville Stampede elected to take Andrei Scoparo (Assis Chateaubriand, Brazil) with the No. 10 pick.
The 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft featured five rounds of selections. The remaining picks are as follows:
No. 11 Overall Pick | No. 1 Pick of Round 2: Marco Rizzo (Quitman, Georgia) – New York Mavericks
No. 12 Overall Pick | No. 2 Pick of Round 2: Hagen Braswell (Telegraph, Texas) – Oklahoma Wildcatters
No. 13 Overall Pick | No. 3 Pick of Round 2: Lucas Martins Costa (Frutal, Brazil) – Nashville Stampede
No. 14 Overall Pick | No. 4 Pick of Round 2: Murilo Henrique de Oliveira (Pereira Barreto, Brazil) – Carolina Cowboys
No. 15 Overall Pick | No. 5 Pick of Round 2: Tristin Parker (Winnie, Texas) – Missouri Thunder
No. 16 Overall Pick | No. 6 Pick of Round 2: Yan Vitor Santos Cunha (Assis, Brazil) – Florida Freedom
No. 17 Overall Pick | No. 7 Pick of Round 2: JaCauy Hale (Ganado, Arizona) – Arizona Ridge Riders
No. 18 Overall Pick | No. 8 Pick of Round 2: Heitor Goiano (Goiatuba, Brazil) – Kansas City Outlaws
No. 19 Overall Pick | No. 9 Pick of Round 2: Donnie Rutherfurd (Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia) – Texas Rattlers
No. 20 Overall Pick | No. 10 Pick of Round 2: Braden Richardson (Jasper, Texas) – Carolina Cowboys
No. 21 Overall Pick | No. 1 Pick of Round 3: Maverick Smith (Mt. Grove, Missouri) – New York Mavericks
No. 22 Overall Pick | No. 2 Pick of Round 3: Pokey Houghton (St. George, Utah) – Oklahoma Wildcatters
No. 23 Overall Pick | No. 3 Pick of Round 3: Gavin Knutson (Polson, Montana) – Nashville Stampede
No. 24 Overall Pick | No. 4 Pick of Round 3: The Carolina Cowboys traded the pick to the New York Mavericks for future considerations. With the pick, New York drafted Eikson Pereira (Minaçu, Brazil).
No. 26 Overall Pick | No. 6 Pick of Round 3: Gavan Hauck (Bandera, Texas) – Florida Freedom
No. 29 Overall Pick | No. 9 Pick of Round 3: Tevin Weston (Houston, Texas) – Texas Rattlers
No. 30 Overall Pick | No. 10 Pick of Round 3: Paulo Henrique da Silva (Britânia, Brazil) – Austin Gamblers
No. 39 Overall Pick | No. 9 Pick of Round 4: Marco Juarez (Anothony, New Mexico) – Texas Rattlers
The Missouri Thunder concluded their picks by passing on the No. 25 overall pick in Round 3, followed by the Arizona Ridge Riders, who passed with the No. 27 overall pick in Round 3, and the Kansas City Outlaws with the No. 28 overall pick in Round 3. In Round 4, the Oklahoma Wildcatters concluded the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft by passing on the No. 31 overall pick, joined by the New York Mavericks with the No. 32 selection, the Nashville Stampede with the No. 33 selection, the Carolina Cowboys with the No. 34 pick, the Florida Freedom with the No. 36 pick, and the Austin Gamblers with the No. 40 pick. After the Rattlers made their Round 4 selection, they passed on the No. 49 overall pick in Round 5.
The 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series will hold 12 regular-season events, including 10 team-hosted homestands and two neutral site events.
The expanded season, set to begin on July 12-14 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will conclude with a reformatted four-day, progressive elimination Championship tournament in Las Vegas. Two teams will now need to ride their way into the title-deciding PBR Teams Championship at T-Mobile Arena from October 18-20 and two will go home when the four lowest-ranked teams (No. 7 to No. 10) face off at South Point Hotel & Casino in the one-day Ride-In Round on October 17.
For more information on the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series, and to purchase tickets to one of the league’s upcoming events, visit PBR.com.
About the PBR Camping World Team Series:
The PBR Camping World Team Series is an elite league featuring the world’s top bull riders competing on teams in five-on-five games leading to a Team Championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. During the 2024 season, the league’s third, each of the 10 teams – Austin Gamblers of Austin, TX; Arizona Ridge Riders of Glendale, AZ; Carolina Cowboys of Greensboro, NC; Florida Freedom of Sunrise, FL; Kansas City Outlaws of Kansas City, MO; Nashville Stampede of Nashville, TN; New York Mavericks of Brooklyn, NY; OK; Oklahoma Wildcatters of Oklahoma City, OK; Missouri Thunder of Springfield, MO; and Texas Rattlers of Fort Worth, TX– will host a homestand. Neutral-site games to be announced are planned as well.
PBR Teams, launched in July 2022, builds on the existing structure of professional bull riding with the same basic rules for judging and scoring qualified 8-second bull rides. In events staged in a tournament-style format, all teams compete in head-to-head matchups against a different opponent each day. Each game features five riders per team squaring off against another team. Full team rosters are comprised of seven riders on the Protected Roster and five Reserve riders. The team with the highest aggregate score of qualified rides among its riders is declared the winner of each game. All PBR Teams events are carried on either the CBS Television Network, streaming live on Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, or RidePass on Pluto TV.
