COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Before the lights came up, before the chutes cracked open and before Lucas Divino led Team Star Command to victory at PBR Space Cowboys, presented by the United States Space Force, he was still in dad mode.

The day before the event, Divino was in the pool with his two boys, floaties on, splashing, playing and soaking in the kind of simple family time that means everything on the road.

Then, moments before the competition began, with his chaps already on and his focus about to shift to the arena, Divino stopped to hand each boy a water bottle and a hug. Together, with Divino on bended knee, the family paused, held hands and prayed.

A few hours later, after Divino helped lead his team to the win, his boys ran to him during the team photo, turning a championship moment into a family one.

For Divino, that has always been his why.

“My family is everything for me,” Divino said. “If I have to make a choice today, I’ll quit anything to stay with my family. Money is nothing for me. That’s how much they’re important to me.”

In a sport built around grit, toughness and eight-second battles, Father’s Day offers a reminder of what many PBR riders are really riding for.

The gold buckles matter. The rank bulls matter. The wins matter.

But for the fathers inside the PBR locker room, the people waiting at home — or watching from the dirt — matter more.

Divino, a father of two boys, said his sons have changed him in ways bull riding never could. Before becoming a dad, he described himself as “just a kid that was having fun.”

Now, fatherhood has taught him maturity.

Every day, he said, is different.

“Every single day, you’re gonna laugh, you’re gonna be mad,” Divino said. “Never is going to be the same.”

For Michael Lane, fatherhood has meant learning to slow down.

Lane, a father of two daughters, ages 4 and 6, was called to compete during Father’s Day weekend. But it was not a decision he made alone.

“It was a hard decision when they called me to come in on Father’s Day,” Lane said. “But I talked to them about it.”

His girls told him to go.

As the winningest rider in the history of the PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour, Lane has spent most of his life chasing bull riding. But becoming a father changed the equation. He took a job driving plants to help support his daughters and still continues to compete on the PBR trail, balancing long days, long drives and the responsibility of raising two little girls who depend on him.

“I rode bulls for 18 years and provided for myself just fine,” Lane said. “But when I realized that I had two little girls … I had to make sure financially I had everything taken care of.”

Still, his daughters have given him something no arena ever could.

“Spending time with them is priceless,” Lane said. “We all make money today, but we’re not getting time back.”

Recently, Lane bought a boat and has been teaching his girls to ski. He gets up with them, rides with them and treasures the time while they are still young enough to want Dad right there beside them.

The lesson they have taught him is simple.

“Slow down,” Lane said. “Enjoy life.”

That perspective has not made him any less competitive. If anything, it has given the work more meaning. When Lane wins buckles, they go home to his daughters. After winning three in the last month, including a World Finals round win buckle, his girls each claimed one.

The third one, Lane told them, Dad was keeping.

For Daniel Keeping, fatherhood is wrapped in the same rough edges and honest humor that define him. But do not let the exterior fool you.

Keeping is also a girl dad at heart.

His daughter, Saige, is the background on his phone. She has started getting into rodeo herself, taking on mutton busting and stick barrel racing with the kind of persistence that makes her dad proud.

When asked what makes him proudest, Keeping did not point to a win, a score or a specific moment.

“I’m just the most proud of her just being her,” Keeping said.

That is the part of fatherhood that has stuck with him most. Through Saige, he said, he gets to see life in its purest form.

“You get to see the good side of life with the purest form of innocence,” Keeping said.

When Saige competed in rodeo, it was not about whether she was the fastest or rode the longest. It was that she kept going.

“That’s what I want to see. She’s not gonna quit in life if she gets stuck on the side road,” Keeping said.

Eduardo Aparecido, a father of two girls and a boy, said fatherhood changed his entire life.

His goals now are not just tied to bull riding. They are tied to being better for the people who matter most.

“My goals in my life is to be a better man of God, better husband and a better father,” Aparecido said. “That is the goal of my life.”

Aparecido said his children love what he does. They love Jesus. And everything he does, he does for them.

“I live for them,” Aparecido said. “Everything I do is for them.”

But with that love comes the hardest part of the job.

Leaving.

Aparecido and his family do everything together. So when he has to leave home to ride, part of him stays behind.

“I love what I do. I love riding bulls,” Aparecido said. “But leaving them at home is the hardest part for me.”

That is why every trip has to be worth it.

For Aparecido, his family is not just his purpose. They are the reason he keeps going.

“That’s what keeps me alive on the road,” Aparecido said. “Everything I do is for them, and they are my motivation.”

For Kase Hitt, Father’s Day arrived just a little early.

The Oklahoma native is still about two weeks away from becoming a dad for the first time, with a baby boy on the way. Mentally prepared? Not quite.

But excited?

Absolutely.

His first plan as a father is already locked in.

“We’re gonna be fishing,” Hitt said.

He already has the boat. He has two cribs built. And while he knows life is about to change in a major way, Hitt is keeping the same straightforward mindset he brings to everything else.

“It’s not just for me anymore,” Hitt said. “I got a family to provide for now.”

That reality has already shifted the way he looks at bull riding. He cannot just pack up and go without thinking about the people depending on him.

Still, he knows this is his job. And he knows the window to do it is not forever.

“I have a short time to do this,” Hitt said.

When his boy gets here, Hitt does not need him to ride bulls. He does not need him to follow the same path. He just wants him to find something he loves and give it everything he has.

“He’s gonna do what he wants to do,” Hitt said. “As long as he’s 100% in whatever he’s doing.”

That, more than anything, is the common thread.

Whether it is Divino praying with his boys moments before a win, Lane FaceTiming his daughters after a late-night victory, Keeping watching Saige refuse to quit, Aparecido weighing every mile away from home against the family he is working to provide for or Hitt dreaming about fishing trips with a son he has not met yet, fatherhood in PBR looks different for every man.

Sometimes it looks like buckles handed to little girls.

Sometimes it looks like a daughter’s face glowing on a phone background.

Sometimes it looks like a 13-hour drive home after a win.

Sometimes it looks like a father pulling a bull rope at the World Finals, watching his son live out his dream, the way Paulo Crimber did for John Crimber.

And sometimes it looks like a dad missing Father’s Day at home because he is still doing everything he can for the people waiting there.

Because whether a father is raising kids on the road, cheering from behind the chutes, working a 9-to-5, touring the world with a guitar or nodding his head aboard the rankest bulls in the world, the heart of the job is the same.

Dads come in every shape and size.

Their work looks different. Their sacrifices look different. Their miles look different.

But their love has no bounds.

From all of us at PBR, Happy Father’s Day.

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media