Alves and Harris Believe They Have Enough Left in the Tank for Monster Energy Team Challenge Title Run
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – It has been a long six years since three-time World Champion Silvano Alves and four-time PRCA champion J.W. Harris shared the stage inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Alves had just gone a perfect 6-for-6, riding 2012 World Champion Asteroid for 87.25 points to clinch a record-tying third World Championship and win the 2014 PBR World Finals event average.
Harris, meanwhile, used a 4-for-6 showing to stage a remarkable come-from-behind performance at the World Finals, earning 3,736 points toward the world standings to usurp Gage Gay, Tanner Byrne and Brady Sims to win the 2014 Rookie of the Year title. Harris finished only 95.13 points ahead of Gay in the closest Rookie of the Year race since the PBR switched to a points-based system the previous year.
Alves and Harris have never been on top of their game at the same time since that fall week in Las Vegas.
Alves’s pursuit of a fourth world title came to a crushing halt the following season when he broke his hip in 2015. Harris would produce his best PBR season that same year, finishing seventh in the world standings, but he would then need reconstructive surgery on his riding elbow in 2016, which was the beginning of a slew of injuries.
Harris and Alves both qualified for the PBR 2017 PBR World Finals, but neither looked as dominant as they had been earlier in their careers.
Three years later, and Harris, who left the PBR to return to rodeo full time in 2018, and Alves will return to Las Vegas once again.
The two legendary bull riders will be teammates and attempt to make another memorable performance when the PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by U.S. Border Patrol, begins on June 5.
Harris was the last rider Alves named to his squad, which also includes No. 15 Mason Taylor and 2015 PBR Brazil champion Luciano de Castro. The PBR randomly assigned two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood to be the team’s general manager.
“My fourth guy, I saw all of the list, and a lot of bull riders (were not) left and a lot of bull riders (are staying) in Brazil,” Alves said. “(Then) I saw J.W. on my list, and nobody picked him. My last pick was J.W. because he is a good guy. He is an experienced guy in the PRCA and PBR, both associations. He rides bulls to the left or to the right.”
If this was 2014, Alves and Harris being on the same team would lead to a similar reaction to world leader Jose Vitor Leme and six-time PRCA champion Sage Kimzey teaming up next weekend at the at the Pendleton Whisky Let ‘Er Buck Saloon at South Point Arena.
However, times have changed.
Alves has struggled this year, and ranks only No. 32 in the world standings after spending the majority of 2020 outside of the Top 35. Harris has rodeoed sparingly the past two and a half years since re-committing to the PRCA in part because of a series of nagging injuries.
The two veterans, though, believe they can help lead their team to victory despite being in the later halves of their careers and Father Time lurking in the shadows.
“By gosh, I hope so,” Harris said with a laugh. “We will find out here pretty quick. I know I got something left in the tank, and obviously, Silvano does with him having a pretty decent showing the last weekend in Guthrie. Yeah, shoot, there is one thing about it. We might not have a whole lot left in the tank as much as some of the guys do, but we got a lot more fight than they do.”
The Monster Energy Team Challenge is going to feature 12 teams and 48 bull riders. Each team will consist of four riders, and there will be two divisions of six teams. The Top 3 teams in each division will then qualify for Championship Weekend and a single-elimination tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on July 10-12 in front of fans.
Every game will be comprised of 12 collective outs, with each team attempting six bulls. Three riders per team, as selected by the General Manager, will attempt two bulls per game. The winner of each game will be the team with the top combined aggregate score from their six outs.
Fans can watch all of the action on CBS Sports Network, RidePass and select games will air on CBS national television.
Team Alves’s first game will be against Team Jesse on June 5 at the closed-to-the-public venue in Vegas.
Harris has been at home in Texas since last riding at Rodeo Houston the first week of March, waiting for an opportunity to compete as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic began to shutter rodeo events all over the United States.
The 33-year-old admits he was surprised to learn Alves selected him, but he is excited to join forces with the three-time PBR World Champion.
“Really, he was the last one on my mind that would have picked me,” Harris said. “I never would have thought that he would, but, shoot, it is pretty cool whenever you get guys calling you asking if you would be on their team if you were still there whenever they drafted. Heck, it is pretty cool he reached out to me and wanted me to be on the team.
“I like Silvano a lot. I think a lot of him. Whenever I went back to rodoeing and Silvano was rodoeing some, I would see him at some rodeos and we would sit and catch up and talk. I think he is a great guy.”
Harris went back to rodeo in 2018, and he wishes things would have gone different during his PBR time.
He concluded his brief PBR career 58-for-166 (34.52%) with three PBR World Finals qualifications, three 90-point rides and three event wins. Harris rode for the majority of 2017 with a groin strain and torn abdominal muscle.
“I am glad I did it, just that way I didn’t always have that question in the back of my mind or regret of not ever going to the PBR,” Harris said. “Don’t get me wrong. I had a good time while I was there. I won lots of money and got to get on some really good bulls. Then the injury bug hit, but that is always part of it. But, no, I am glad I did it.”
Harris may never have gotten the PBR World Championship that he always wanted when he joined the organization in 2014, but he could put his name into the PBR record books in a different way by working with Alves to lead the team to a championship in Sioux Falls on July 10-12.
“The PBR deal didn’t go by far the way I wanted it to or thought it would,” Harris said. “Yeah, it would be a cool little deal (to win), especially (because) we are closer to the end than we are the beginning of our careers. It would be another trophy to put on a mantle or whatever and look back and say, ‘Me and the other old guy whipped all them young kids.’”
And those kids better just watch out.
Harris may have some pranks up his veteran sleeves to give Team Alves a chance.
“I might try to slip some baby powder on their bull rope or cut a little knots in their ropes so maybe it will break in four seconds,” Harris said with a laugh. “But no, in all seriousness, it will be fun to be a part of this.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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