Tough Draw Tuesday: When the Ride Counts for More
Bull riding has always been one of the most individual sports in the world.
No matter how many people help a rider get to that moment, when he climbs in the chute, nods his head, and the gate opens, the next eight seconds belong to him. Nobody can step in halfway through the ride. Nobody can help him make the whistle. The rider is still the one who has to meet the moment.
PBR Teams has not changed the individual effort bull riding requires.
It has changed who those eight seconds impact and the support surrounding the athlete when the gate opens.
Each ride is still built around one athlete and one bull, but with PBR Teams, that ride can also become part of a lineup, a game, a roster, and an organization. Coaches make decisions. General managers build teams. Riders can be drafted, signed through free agency, moved between organizations, or called on when a team needs another option. Teammates stand behind the chutes with a shared result on the line. Fans are not only following individual bull riders. They are learning rosters, wearing team colors, watching rivalries develop, and investing in franchises with their own identities.
The responsibility to ride still falls on the individual. The difference is that each ride now carries more weight, with more people affected by the outcome and more support standing behind the rider.
For Tough Draw Sports, understanding that landscape has become an important part of athlete representation. The team format has created another path for bull riders, and navigating that path requires a deeper understanding of the athlete, the organizations, the roster needs, and the relationships that help make the right conversations possible.
This past weekend at PBR Teams: Carolina Cowboy Days in Greensboro, North Carolina, Ethan Skogquist became a strong example of what that can look like.
When the Season Changes
Skogquist has been represented by Tough Draw Sports for more than a year and a half after first being introduced to Brad Hughes through fellow Tough Draw Sports athlete Clayton Sellars. From the beginning, one of the things that stood out about Skogquist was the way he thought about his career.
He was not simply waiting for the next opportunity to show up. He asked questions, wanted to understand his options, and thought seriously about how each decision could affect where he was trying to go.
That mindset became especially important this year.
An injury in Fort Worth put Skogquist behind as his traditional rodeo season progressed, and as the year moved forward, the conversations around his career naturally started to shift. There comes a point when continuing to chase the original plan is not always the only answer. Sometimes an athlete has to understand what else might be available and whether another path makes sense.
PBR Teams became one of those possibilities.
Skogquist was in the PBR Teams free-agent pool, which created another avenue to consider. But being available to a team and finding the right fit are two very different things. Every organization has its own roster, needs, coaching philosophy, injury circumstances, and culture at any point in the season.
In this situation, the right conversation led to the Carolina Cowboys.
Tough Draw Sports has worked with multiple PBR Teams organizations and athletes across the league over the years, giving the agency a closer look at how the format can create new opportunities for bull riders and help grow the sport beyond traditional individual competition. Carolina became the organization at the center of Skogquist’s story this weekend, but the larger conversation extends beyond one franchise.
PBR Teams has created another professional landscape for bull riders. It gives athletes another way to be evaluated, another environment to compete in, another fan base to connect with, and another potential path forward when a season does not unfold exactly as planned.
Carolina Cowboys general manager Austin Dillon, head coach Jerome Davis, and assistant general manager Cooper Davis still had to evaluate whether Skogquist made sense for what the team needed. Tough Draw Sports could help start the right conversation, but the decision belonged to Carolina.
The Carolina Cowboys gave Skogquist an opportunity.
From there, the responsibility went back to him. A relationship may open a door, but it cannot ride the bull. Once Skogquist was added to the lineup, he had to prove he could help the team in the only way a bull rider can.
For Skogquist, the timing felt like more than coincidence.
“God’s plan is perfect,” Skogquist said. “When I was sitting in the hospital bed after the injury, I was at peace with what had happened, knowing things would work as God intended. I had a great July and August when I came back and was able to get my qualifications up for 2027. I reached some goals I had set, and then when Carolina called and showed interest, the timing was great.”
Skogquist said he knew the Cowboys were a strong organization, from ownership to the coaches and athletes around the team. After playing quarterback growing up and leaning on a team around him throughout his bull riding career, the team format also felt like something he could step into with the right mindset.
“It was a God thing,” Skogquist said. “Perfect situation, perfect timing. When they were ready for me and I could see where I was in the season, I knew this was the next step for me. I’m a student of the game in bull riding, and I’m a sponge. When the opportunity came, I knew I was ready for it, and God’s will is perfect.”
A Different Side of Bull Riding
A short time later, Skogquist was in Greensboro preparing to make his PBR Teams debut during Cowboy Days.
On Friday night, he rode Night Shift for 86.4 points, helping Carolina defeat the Oklahoma Wildcatters 261.30-87.60. For Skogquist, it was a strong debut. For Carolina, it was a score the team needed. For Tough Draw Sports, it was also a clear example of how the team format can give a bull rider another way forward.
Skogquist still had to do the same thing every bull rider has always had to do. Once he climbed into the chute and nodded his head, nobody could help him stay on Night Shift for eight seconds. What changed was everything surrounding the ride.
His 86.4 was not only an individual score. It contributed to a team total, supported the other riders in the lineup, and helped an organization that had given him an opportunity win a game.
For an athlete who has spent most of his career competing individually, that is a different environment to step into. Skogquist said the week leading up to Cowboy Days helped him feel prepared when the moment came.
“That was awesome,” Skogquist said. “What really set the tone was the week leading up to it. I flew out the week before and spent the week with the team. By the time I was around the guys and nodding my head, it wasn’t a new situation. I was ready to do my job for them.”
Skogquist said he knew he had drawn a strong bull in Night Shift, but the preparation around him helped him focus on the job in front of him.
“I knew I had a great bull, and I knew I needed to shut out the noise,” Skogquist said. “I had the team supporting me. It was a moment I’ll remember forever. It was really something special.”
Sunday gave Skogquist another look at what makes the format different when he was back in Carolina’s lineup for a matchup against the Arizona Ridge Riders. This time, he did not make the whistle. In traditional individual competition, that would have been the end of his result for the day. In Teams, the game kept moving.
His teammates still had bulls to ride. The outcome was still undecided. Eventually, Carolina’s final out determined the game when Adriano Salgado delivered an 88.70-point ride to give the Cowboys an 88.70-88.35 win.
Skogquist did not put a score on the board Sunday, but he was still part of a Carolina win. He stood behind his teammates, supported the riders still left in the lineup, and walked out with the team after a result that belonged to all of them.
That may sound obvious in most team sport settings. For a bull rider, it represents a fundamentally different experience. There will be nights when a rider’s score helps carry the team, and there will be nights when the ride does not go the way he wants and he is standing behind the chutes depending on the riders beside him.
The individual responsibility never disappears. It becomes part of something larger.
“It’s definitely something to get used to,” Skogquist said. “Those components are all good, but to an extent, it comes down to bull riding. That’s one thing Cooper Davis really instilled in me throughout the week.”
The team element adds pressure, but it also adds purpose.
“You definitely bear down harder,” Skogquist said. “You’re riding for something bigger than yourself, which to me is extremely important.”
Understanding the Teams Landscape
That is where PBR Teams has created an especially interesting layer for athlete representation.
For most of a bull rider’s career, the questions are familiar. Where should he compete? What events make sense? How does he manage a season? What partnerships can be built around him? How can he create a sustainable career beyond what happens in the arena?
Teams adds another set of considerations.
Where does he fit within an organization? What does a particular roster need? How does a coach view him? Where could he earn a role? How does his personality fit with the people already there? Could a free-agent opportunity, roster move, or team need create a path that traditional rodeo competition may not provide at that moment?
Those are normal questions in many professional team sports. For bull riders, they are still relatively new.
Mike McGarvey’s background has been valuable for Tough Draw Sports in that environment. He has spent more than two decades representing athletes and working around traditional team sports, so concepts such as roster fit, organizational dynamics, and helping an athlete navigate the relationship between himself and a franchise are not new to him. Applying those concepts to professional bull riding, however, creates a different set of circumstances.
Tough Draw Sports has also spent years developing relationships across the PBR Teams landscape. Members of the team have attended the Draft, represented athletes who have competed for different organizations, worked through free-agent situations, and had meaningful conversations throughout the league as different needs developed.
That experience matters because it helps Tough Draw Sports serve athletes at a higher level. It is not only about knowing people inside the league. It is about understanding how those relationships, team needs, roster conversations, and athlete goals can intersect when a rider’s path changes.
That is ultimately what mattered with Skogquist.
The goal was not simply to find a team willing to put him on a roster. It was to understand what options existed after his season changed, where there might be a genuine fit, and whether one of those options could become a legitimate next step for him as an athlete.
Building More Than a Lineup
That path led to Carolina because the need, the timing, and Skogquist’s place within the roster conversation all lined up. That mattered because PBR Teams requires more than filling a lineup. Each organization is trying to build a roster, establish a culture, develop its own identity, and create something athletes and fans can believe in beyond a single ride or event.
For Carolina Cowboys general manager Austin Dillon, Skogquist stood out because of both his talent and his willingness to fit into what Carolina was building.
“Seeing his ride percentage, along with the fact that he was getting on a lot, stood out to me,” Dillon said. “I thought, ‘Man, this guy needs a shot.’ After chatting with him, his passion for the sport and his willingness to do whatever for the team mattered to me. Our locker room always comes first, so making sure he fit what we were building was a big part of putting this together.”
That evaluation is part of what makes PBR Teams different. General managers and coaches are looking for riders who can make the whistle, but they are also looking for riders who understand the team environment, fit the roster, and can step into a role when called.
Building that kind of team requires riders who are not only talented, but also understand the culture and are willing to put the team first.
“In my opinion, you’ve got to have riders that are willing to do whatever it takes for the team,” Dillon said. “Guys that are professionals on and off the dirt, people that understand your culture and want to be a part of it.”
That culture also depends on leadership inside the locker room. Dillon believes every strong team needs proven riders who have already reached the highest levels and can help set the standard for everyone else.
“You’ve got to have two or three building-block guys that have been to the mountaintop, guys that demand respect when they come in the room,” Dillon said. “Because your young guys, when they come in, automatically want to learn from those guys.”
Dillon also believes the best teams are not built on one-way leadership. They are built when veterans and younger riders are all willing to keep learning.
“The type of champions you want are the guys that are willing to take a little advice from the new guys coming in, because they’re always willing to learn and be better,” Dillon said.
“That’s what creates a good locker room: a good mesh of veterans and rookies that can come together for one common goal.”
For Skogquist, Cowboy Days was an opportunity to step into an established organization, ride alongside new teammates, and become part of a team with its own identity, expectations, and fan base.
That identity is something Dillon said has to be established early.
“You have to have a team identity from the beginning,” Dillon said. “What are you going to be about? What are you doing it for? You set those goals early on as a team, and our training camp is key in that.”
For fans, that identity creates another way to connect with bull riding. They may still have favorite riders, but PBR Teams gives them a roster to learn, matchups to follow, rivalries to watch, and a team to believe in beyond one individual score.
For Carolina, Dillon said that connection is rooted in the same values the team is trying to build internally.
“We want our fans to buy in with us and understand that it’s a brotherhood. It’s a family,” Dillon said. “We want to go out and represent the Carolinas to the best of our ability, be good men on and off the dirt, and give them something dang entertaining to watch.”
Inside the Carolina Cowboys’ locker room, that message is visible on the team banner.
“Loyalty binds us together, faith drives us forward,” Dillon said. “That’s kind of what we are built off of.”
Another Way Forward
Athlete representation can sometimes look simpler from the outside than it actually is.
Sponsorships, contracts, and opportunities are important pieces of the work, but there are also times when the most valuable thing a representative can do is help an athlete figure out what comes next when the path he expected to take changes.
An injury can alter a season. A roster spot can open. An organization can suddenly have a need that did not exist a month earlier. An athlete who was not considering Teams at the beginning of the year can find himself in the free-agent pool trying to understand whether that environment might offer another way forward.
Navigating those situations requires knowing the athlete well enough to understand what he wants, but it also requires understanding the sport around him well enough to recognize what possibilities actually exist.
That is what made Skogquist’s weekend in Carolina a useful example. His injury in Fort Worth changed the direction of his season, but it did not close every door. PBR Teams offered another path, and Tough Draw Sports helped him navigate the possibility with an organization that had a reason to take a closer look.
Once the opportunity was there, Skogquist still had to do the one part nobody else could do for him.
He had to ride his bull. Friday night, he accomplished that goal. His score went beside his name, but it also went on Carolina’s scoreboard.
That is the balance PBR Teams has brought to professional bull riding. The sport has not stopped being individual at its core, and riding for a team does not make those eight seconds easier. In some ways, it can add pressure. A rider is no longer competing only for his own result. He is also riding for teammates, coaches, an organization, and fans who are invested in the outcome.
At the same time, it can also add support. A rider is no longer standing in that environment entirely on his own. There are teammates behind the chutes, coaches making decisions, and an organization working toward the same result.
For Tough Draw Sports, helping athletes understand and navigate those paths has become part of the work.
For Skogquist, Cowboy Days was a reminder that a season can change, an opportunity can come from another direction, and sometimes one ride can count for more than the rider whose name is beside the score.
Continue the Conversation
PBR Teams has created another path for athletes in a sport traditionally built around individual competition. What do you think the team format has added to professional bull riding and the careers of the athletes competing in it?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Every Tuesday, Tough Draw shares stories, conversations, and observations from across the Western community, exploring the athletes, brands, businesses, and relationships that continue to shape its future.
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