Carolina Cowboys, local fans ride high in PBR Team Series event at Honda Center (2024)

When you’ve been riding bucking bulls as long as Cooper Davis and Sage Steele Kimzey, there’s little left to accomplish.

One item they still hope to add to their long resumes is a PBR Team Series world title and both took a step closer on the final day of the three-day team event at Honda Center in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon.

Davis and Kimzey ride for the Richard Childress-owned Carolina Cowboys, one of 10 teams in the series, and they maintained their grip on first place in the standings with a 172.75-90 win over the New York Mavericks in the first of four matchups on Sunday.

Carolina improved to 15-4-1 with three events left on the regular season schedule, followed by the Kansas City Outlaws (15-6-0) and the Florida Freedom (11-9-0).

The top two teams from the regular season get first-round byes at the PBR world team championships Oct. 18-20 in Las Vegas.

The PBR Team Series, which is in its third year, provides an element that could best be compared to the Ryder Cup in golf. Athletes who have long been groomed to compete against the rest of the field suddenly have teammates to cheer on.

“I’ve kind of done everything from the individual standpoint,” said Davis, the 2016 PBR World Champion. “I’m not really interested in individual gratification, I want to do something for the team. That’s the only thing I haven’t won personally, is a team title, and I want all these guys at the end of the year to be world champions.”

Kimzey, 30, is a seven-time world champion in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Unlike most riders on the PBR circuit, he played team sports all throughout high school.

“There’s no one guy who can win a team championship by themselves,” he said. “For me, it would be a huge accomplishment, knowing all the work that goes into helping build a successful franchise.”

The team format has also created a more manageable schedule for Davis and Kimzey, both of whom have young families.

“Getting on 35 bulls a year, compared to 100 bulls a year, is better for your body and I feel like I could last another five years if I did it that way,” said the 29-year-old Davis. “It’s almost a selfish reason in that you love it so much you want to be around it as much as you can, and PBR has provided a way for that.”

Davis went first on Sunday and he completed his ride aboard Sharp Shooter, earning a score of 84.75.

Derek Kolbaba earned the other score for Carolina after staying aboard Body Roc on a re-ride for a score of 88.

Leandro Machado had the only successful ride for the Mavericks, riding Ricky Vaughn for a score of 90, which held up as the highest ride score of the day.

Kimzey was scheduled to go last, but he never got a chance to ride Sweet Train, the highest-ranked bull in the event on Sunday. Sweet Train bucked Kimzey off in the chute and then toppled over on top of him, briefly pinning him against the wall.

“He’s kind of got a hair trigger in the bucking chute,” Kimzey said of Sweet Train. “These bulls are bred to do what they do, so they know the game as much as we do.”

The Cowboys didn’t need Kimzey’s score on the re-ride, as they had already clinched the win over New York, so Gabriel Silva Morais took the final ride instead.

Originally Published: September 16, 2024 at 10:14 a.m.