PUEBLO, Colo. – If there’s one thing Andrew Alvidrez knows, it’s that good things take a whole lot of try.
In high school, Alvidrez competed in football, powerlifting and swimming, qualifying for the state tournament in powerlifting, while competing in open bull ridings on weekends.
He began competing in the PBR’s Touring Pro Division in 2015 and won the Touring Pro Division Championship in 2018. He competed sparingly on the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour before really breaking in at that level in 2019, and then made his Unleash The Beast debut in March of 2020.
Alvidrez was drafted by the Missouri Thunder in the inaugural PBR Team Series Draft, going 11-for-28 (42.9%) for the squad.
All the while, hard work has been at the core of everything he’s done.
“It’s my upbringing,” Alvidrez told Kate Harrison of CBS Sports Network in Manchester, New Hampshire. “When I was a little kid, my mom and dad, they put me to work. Worked every single day.”
Work took on a new meaning in the fall of 2020: he was supposed to make his World Finals debut, but his dream was crushed when he suffered a broken neck with just a few weeks left in the season.
“For some reason, the first thing I thought was how badass of a story will this be to come back from a broken neck,” Alvidrez said at the time.
And come back he did.
Alvidrez has since qualified for two PBR World Finals and most recently reached another career milestone.
Close to three years after making his debut, Alvidrez earned the first premier series event win of his career.
“I tell you this,” an emotional Alvidrez said on the dirt following the victory. “You follow what God has given you, you follow that desire, and you put all your faith in him, and he’ll surprise the shit out of you.”
Alvidrez went 3-for-3 at the PBR Manchester Invitational, capping things off with a new career-high of 91.75 points on Yellowknife to win the championship round.
“Worth every bit of it, because Andrew doesn’t just ride this bull. He dominates this bull,” two-time World Champion Justin McBride said. “And you can tell because the bull stomps on him after the whistle – that’s because Andrew lets up just a little bit when the whistle goes off, because it was a real fight, and that was the only time the bull was able to take any control there. Great job by Andrew Alvidrez.”
The win also propelled Alvidrez to No. 3 in the Unleash The Beast standings. In three seasons on the premier series, he’s finished the season ranked No. 26 each time.
In Manchester, Alvidrez kicked things off with an 87.25-point ride on Valentine to tie with Eduardo Aparecido for the Round 1 win and followed that up with 84.25 points on Ponotoc in Round 2.
“You know, when you put so many hours into this craft, you’ve just got to trust your instincts,” he said after his ride on Ponotoc, “and that’s what I did: trusted my craft and my instincts.”
With the Unleash The Beast taking a one-week break this weekend for Christmas, Alvidrez will head into the PBR Albany Invitational on Dec. 29-30 looking to end 2022 on a high note.
But after so many years of grinding it out in the Touring Pro Division, working hard in the gym, and trying desperately to get his big opportunity, it might be pretty hard to top win No. 1.
“I knew I was going to be here,” Alvidrez said. “I was eight years old – I knew I was going to be here because God told me I was going to be here.”
Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media