Coach Crimber & Team Manager Yates continue to lead the Professional Bull Riding Team, annual Glendale homestand event to be held Sept. 29 – Oct. 1
FORT WORTH, Tex. (May 18, 2023) –As one of the foundational partners of the first team-based league in the extreme sport of bull riding, western lifestyle and entertainment brand Teton Ridge announced on Thursday that it would re-sign five world-class athletes and had negotiated a landslide last-minute trade with the Missouri Thunder to acquire Colten Fritzlan (Rifle, Colorado), for their 2023 PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Team, the Ridge Riders.
In the hours before the 2023 draft on Wednesday, the Ridge Riders traded their first-round draft pick to the Missouri Thunder in order to acquire Fritzlan. The 22-year-old Coloradan, who was the Missouri Thunder’s first-round draft pick in 2022, currently sits at No. 18 in the PBR standings and is a fourth-generation roughstock competitor. Having won the 2020 PRCA Resistol Rookie of the Year at the age of 19, he went on to clinch the NFR average title that same year. In addition, the rising star claimed the title of champion at The American Rodeo in 2021.
After 2022’s inaugural 11-event season, which concluded in early November in Las Vegas, Arizona’s first-ever professional bull riding team ended the season with a second-place finish. The team is eager to start the new season, which begins on July 24-25 at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Each of the league’s eight teams will have ten riders in total, including seven “Protected Roster” riders and three “Practice Squad” developmental riders.
The bull riding games that make up the 13-week season will feature five-on-five competition between two teams. Each regular season event day will feature all teams in a head-to-head game.
Ridge Riders General Manager Casey Lane, joined by Technical Coach Paulo Crimber (10-time World Finals Qualifier) and Team Manager Colby Yates (five-time World Finals Qualifier) will continue to lead the all-star squad.
“Our inaugural season was incredible,” said Lane. “2022 came right down to the final moments of the Championship, and we almost brought the title home to Arizona for our fans. We are beyond proud of our team of extremely talented bull riders who will continue on as Ridge Riders this season and very excited for Colten to join the team. Now, more than ever, we are dedicated to claiming the championship at the end of the season.”
A combination of grit, determination and resilience wrapped into one steadfast group of athletes with a strong lineage in Western sports is what makes up the Ridge Riders. In addition to Fritzlan, the 2023 team is a collection of the world’s top competitors; including Luciano De Castro (Guzolandia, Brazil), Eduardo Aparecido (Gouvelandia, Brazil), Chase Dougherty (Decatur, Texas), Keyshawn Whitehorse (McCracken Spring, Utah) and Vitor Losnake (Bauru, Brazil).
With the 11th overall pick in Wednesday’s draft, the Ridge Riders selected Pro Rodeo veteran Jeff Askey (Athens, Texas). Askey’s career includes five NFR qualifications and more than a million dollars in earnings.
The Teton Ridge-owned Ridge Riders will again call Glendale, Arizona’s Desert Diamond Arena home and will host their second-annual homestand event and surrounding festivities Friday, September 29 through Sunday, October 1. Tickets for the action-packed, three-day event can be purchase at Ticketmaster.
The Ridge Riders represent one of several elevated Western sports properties that Teton Ridge has assembled under its portfolio. The sports division was created with the singular focus of elevating the Western lifestyle and culture to the world stage, while broadening and diversifying audiences through enhanced production, technology, and innovation. From acquiring and producing The American Rodeo and The American Contender Tournament, which awarded more than $6 million in cash and prizes in 2023, to assembling a team of the most accomplished and elite champions in the industry, Teton Ridge Sports is committed to strengthening, enriching, and furthering Western sports for future competitors across all disciplines.
To follow the Ridge Riders journey please visit www.pbr.com/teams/arizona_ridge_riders , or follow @arizonaridgeriders on Facebook and Instagram, or @AZRidgeRiders on Twitter.
About Teton Ridge:
Teton Ridge is a multi-platform, wholly American-owned western lifestyle and entertainment company devoted to the iconic American western way of life. Teton Ridge’s Sports division was created with the singular focus of elevating classic Western sports and America’s western culture on the world stage, while broadening audiences around the globe as well as at home. In 2021, Teton Ridge acquired The American, the iconic event of the rodeo circuit, to continue to expand the audiences for rodeo sports and make it the world’s premier Western culture event. For more information about Teton Ridge, please visit tetonridge.com or @tetonridge on Instagram @tetonridgeusa on Facebook.
About the Ridge Riders:
Teton Ridge’s Ridge Riders form one of the inaugural teams competing in the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Team Series, the sport’s first team-based bull riding league. Formed in 2022, Ridge Riders is one of several elite western sports teams within the Teton Ridge Sports offering and are comprised of seven of the top-ranked professional bull riders in the world. Ridge Riders is based in Arizona at the Gila River Arena. To learn more, please visit www.tetonridge.com/team, @arizonaridgeriders on Facebook and Instagram, or @AZRidgeRiders on Twitter.
About the PBR Team Series
The PBR Team Series is an elite league featuring the world’s top bull riders competing on teams in five-on-five bull riding games during an 11-event season beginning in July and culminating in a team championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas October 20-22. During the 2023 season, the league’s second, each of the eight teams representing teams in Austin, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Glendale, AZ; Greensboro, NC; Kansas City, MO; Nashville, TN; Oklahoma City, OK; and Ridgedale, MO; will host a three-day homestand. There are also neutral-site games in Cheyenne, WY and Anaheim, CA. The PBR Team Series, which 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. Events are staged in a tournament-style format with all teams competing 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 riders on the Practice Roster. The team with the highest aggregate score of qualified rides among its riders is declared the winner of each game. The event winner is the team with the most game wins across an event, with a special bonus round designed as a tie-breaker to determine final event standings. All PBR Team Series events are carried on either the CBS Television Network, streaming live on Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, or RidePass on Pluto TV. PBR is a subsidiary of IMG, a global leader in sports, fashion, events and media. For more information, visit PBR.com, or follow on Facebook at Facebook.com/PBR, Twitter at Twitter.com/PBR, and YouTube at YouTube.com/PBR.
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