Oklahoma Freedom Rallying Together Ahead of PBR Team Series Championship
By: Justin Felisko
GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Oklahoma Freedom had just become the first organization in PBR Team Series history to win its homestand last month when the Freedom front office and coaching staff decided to take the riders and their families to Cattlemen’s Steakhouse to celebrate.
It was a fantastic September weekend for the team. Chase Outlaw had capped the victory with a career-best 94.5-point ride on 2021 World Champion Bull Woopaa with his family and kids cheering him on every step of the way.
Head coach Cord McCoy smiles when thinking back to that night. The 42-year-old remembers looking over at the kids’ tables and all the joy he saw inside the restaurant.
“All our families got to be there, and there’s just two tables full of kids,” McCoy recalled. “Guys that we’d been riding against for 15 years there, and now we got to be there to celebrate and be together with their family.
“I think all of us want to kind of stick to those fond memories. There are bigger things than the gold and the money.”
The team’s hearts and thoughts have been with Outlaw, his daughter, Cash, and all of Outlaw’s family and friends for the past few weeks since Cash was admitted to Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
McCoy received a text from Outlaw on Friday night telling him that Cash “had become an angel and was no longer in pain.”
McCoy then pauses and shakes his head.
Earlier in the day, McCoy, a proud father of his daughter, Tulsa, had broken down in his hotel room trying to process the gravity of it all.
“The rest of the teams and bull riding family have been a lot of comforting going on,” McCoy said. “A lot of things signed to send to the Outlaw family. A lot of prayers last night and this morning for the Outlaw family.”
The PBR bull riding community has leaned on each other throughout the weekend in Glendale since learning of Cash’s passing on Friday night. Many are parents themselves and had their kids with them in Glendale for the regular-season finale. Everyone knows they, too, could be in Outlaw’s shoes.
All eight teams prayed, cried, and grieved together, pouring their support toward the Outlaw family as best they could from afar.
Freedom General Manager Brandon Bates, McCoy and assistant coach Kody Lostroh quietly summoned the team together late Friday night during Ridge Rider Days for a private team meeting.
Bates, McCoy and Lostroh are proud fathers. So too are Team Captain Eli Vastbinder and veteran Derek Kolbaba. None could truly comprehend the heartbreak that has certainly overcome the Outlaw family.
“Friday was the toughest day in bull riding that the team concept has ever hit for the Oklahoma Freedom,” McCoy said. “Outlaw lost his daughter, and I think as close as the bonds that bind our team together, it hit the Outlaw family hard, it hit our team hard. We got to go in the locker room after the event and close the door, and we kind of got to talk to each other and console each other, pray together. There were a lot of things to talk about, and not much of it was about bull riding. A lot of praying for the Outlaw family. It wasn’t a prayer of, ‘Let us ride good. Give us a lot of money and gold buckles.’ This changes the perspective.
“Most of the guys in that locker room have a daughter or a couple daughters or twins, and there’s some young guys in there too. There’s grown men in there that are good examples for the other ones too. We’ve been talking about how the teams have been making better bull riders, but we also think it’s making better men for the world. One thing that we all knew is we’re glad to have each other, and we do feel like bull riding is the one piece that brought all the guys together in that locker room, so that’s what brought us together and gave us each other to lean on.”
Vastbinder has done his best to text Outlaw these past few weeks, offering his support where he can.
The 31-year-old knows he cannot wholly relate to Outlaw’s situation, but he remembers the fear and uncertainty he had during the 2020 PBR World Finals when his newborn twins were in the hospital for an extended period.
“Shoot, it’s tough,” Vastbinder said. “I would probably say of everybody on our team, it’s kind of hitting me the hardest, just because I do got two girls at home. Not that my case is anywhere near Chase’s, but there for a while, we were fighting to keep Vicky Blake alive. God willing, she’s here with us today and healthy as could be, but I just feel for Chase because I did get to bring my little girl home, and he didn’t. I couldn’t imagine what he’s going through. How do you help somebody that you can’t? You can’t, as bad as I want to.
“We don’t know Cash all that well, but we would give up this bull riding just for her to be here—every single one of us. Bull riding, to us, is our life, and it’s kind of put it in perspective for all of us that there’s more important stuff out there. Especially for me – I haven’t had the season I’ve wanted, I’ve struggled a little bit, and so just to have that little bit of an eye-opener, and just to realize that there’s more to life than just riding bulls, and just to enjoy the moments you have.”
Derek Kolbaba and his wife, Aymie, welcomed their first child, Callahan, to the world on Aug. 21, and Derek admitted just how tough it was to grab his bull rope this weekend.
Still, the 26-year-old knew what Outlaw would have been telling him if he had been in the locker room beside him in Glendale.
“It was awfully difficult for everybody,” Kolbaba said Sunday. “I can’t even fathom what it was like for the Outlaw family. But one thing I just kept telling myself was, I know if Outlaw were here, he’d say two things, and that’s, ‘Give it everything you’ve got and leave nothing on the table.’
“I know he would lead by example, so that’s just what I tried to keep telling myself to do.”
Kolbaba has been filling the leadership role in the arena for the Freedom. His 89-point ride on Red River helped the Freedom defeat the Kansas City Outlaws on the final day of the regular season to help the Freedom eventually lock up the No. 3 seed for the PBR Team Series Championship.
The Freedom (16-12) will take on the No. 8 Nashville Stampede (7-20-1) on Nov. 4 in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena when the postseason begins.
For now, though, the Freedom’s thoughts and prayers remain with their teammate, his family, and all of their friends.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photos courtesy of Bull Stock Media
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