Schuylkill County native Grayson Cole looking to earn 'hometown' win in Professional Bull Riders' return to Reading

Feb. 8—While growing up in Cressona, Schuylkill County, Grayson Cole attended local rodeos with his family at the now-defunct Mountain Springs Arena in Shartlesville.

The final event of every rodeo was bull riding, and it did not take very long for Cole to become hooked on the sport that eventually would become his profession.

"Ever since I was 3, I wanted to ride bulls," Cole said. "When I was 3, I was riding the dog around the house."

Two decades later, the 23-year-old Cole will make his return home this weekend at Santander Arena as the Professional Bull Riders Velocity Tour comes to Reading for a two-night event beginning Friday at 8 p.m.

"It's going to mean a lot," Cole said. "Since they sold (Mountain Springs Arena in) Shartlesville, this is the closest event (to home)."

A first-generation bull rider, Cole began competing in rodeos at age 4 with mutton busting, an event in which children ride sheep. He started riding bull calves at age 7, competing in youth rodeos in Grantville and Wellsville with his siblings.

"It was just all the excitement, the danger, the adrenaline," Cole said. "When everything goes really well, it's so smooth. When everything goes bad, it's pretty bad."

While his youth career was in full swing, Cole relied on an unconventional practice technique — riding a unicycle.

"It helped me a lot when I was younger," Cole said. "On the bulls, you always want to stay in the middle. The unicycle is the same way, when you lean forward or lean back when you're not supposed to, it's going to dump you."

Cole, a Blue Mountain High School graduate, began competing with the Professional Bull Riders in September 2017. A full-time bull rider, Cole resides in Fredonia, Mercer County, where he raises rodeo bulls.

"(I) like the gamble, I like the danger of it," Cole said. "I really like the bulls themselves, they all have personalities."

Cole made his debut with the Velocity Tour in 2017, which is regarded as PBR's top developmental circuit, similar to the Triple-A level in baseball. Riders strive to reach the Unleash the Beast Series, which is regarded as the premier PBR tour and travels to major cities across North America. Riders acquire points in both series and are relegated and promoted between the two based on performance.

Cole has competed in 48 Velocity Tour events, scoring his second career win last Saturday in The Collision at The Coliseum in North Charleston, S.C. He is in eighth in the Velocity Global points standings.

Cole competed in the Unleash the Beast Series in 2020 and 2021, recording a career-high 13th-place finish. He qualified for the 2021 PBR World Finals, which includes the top PBR riders from around the world.

"There's no reason we should be able to do this, but somehow it's possible," Cole said about the sport. "It's just amazing to me."

While he is just one of a handful of Pennsylvania natives to have ever qualified for the PBR World Finals, Cole said he feels that he is representing the entire state at every major event in which he competes.

"You don't see it very often on the higher levels, so (the announcers) definitely like to make it known, and I really like it," Cole said about being one of the few bull riders from the Keystone State. "It's honestly really cool."

Cole also competes in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, which is the largest rodeo organization in the world and includes bull riding as one of its many events. With three event wins so far this season, including a victory in the First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg in January, Cole is No. 8 in the PRCA bull riding world rankings.

A full-time competitor with the PBR and PRCA, Cole is striving to qualify for the Velocity Tour Finals, the PBR World Finals and the PRCA National Finals Rodeo this season.

"Definitely a lot of big goals," Cole said. "Bull riding is all I got."

In the short term, Cole has his sights set on reaching the finals of this weekend's PBR Reading Invitational, which begins Friday at 8 p.m. and continues with the finals on Saturday at 7 p.m. The event marks the first time Santander Arena has hosted the PBR since 2011.

"It's been a long time since they were here, so (we) thought it would be worth giving it a try and having them back into town," Santander Arena general manager David Farrar said. "Their business has continued to be strong the last couple years."

Forty riders will compete Friday, with the top 10 advancing to the finals on Saturday. Riders and bulls are evaluated by a panel of judges, and a score from 0 to 100 is given for each attempt.

"Hopefully I can go there and win it," Cole said. "It would mean a lot (to make the finals) just because the points would help me in the world standings, and being able to move on to the next day, all the family and friends from back home can come watch."