Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from Chula Vista, home of the USA Olympic Training Center. It’s one of the cooler places I’ve been in the sport, essentially a college campus dedicated to Olympic training: Here are the six beach volleyball courts overlooking a stunning lake backdropped by mountains; here are the dirt bike training hills; there is the track and field; here’s the weight room you’ll share with the rowers; there are the, yes, pickleball courts.
It’s awesome, a dream summer camp experience for the up-and-coming American talents and a fun week to steal all the good ideas and drills and games from my fellow NCAA coaches.
And it’s a home that is no doubt quite familiar to Sara Hughes. Long tabbed the Next Big Thing in American beach volleyball, Hughes won a World Champs in 2023, went to the Paris Olympics in 2024, then got hurt at the beginning of the year with an Achilles injury. This, naturally, prompted many to wonder: To whom would she turn when she got fully healthy? Back to Kelly Cheng? Someone new?
In a surprising move announced last week, she zigged where most anticipated a zag, tabbing Ally Batenhorst, a former standout at Nebraska who played briefly in the PVF for the Omaha Supernovas.
With Olympic qualifying still a year away, it is the first major partnership domino to fall.
The other?
Tri Bourne won’t be in the running for Los Angeles.
Instead, he’ll be…well…he’s not sure yet what he’ll be doing, but it won’t be beach volleyball, as he announced, on this week’s podcast, that he is retiring from the sport.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week featured our very own founder and host, Tri Bourne, who sat down with The Pod Mama, Gabby Bourne, in a heartfelt episode in which he discussed his retirement from beach volleyball after 14 years as a professional:
Photo galleries
We’ve got two more photo galleries from this past week. Will Chu was in Central Park for the best stop of the AVP League season and Rick Atwood put one together from the always-popular Denver Contender stop.
News Around the Beach
- More FSU medals. Remember Alexis Durish and Audrey Koenig, those two FSU Seminoles who were bullying folks in Switzerland? They continued the bullying, winning their fourth medal of the summer at the World University Games in Germany, stomping a good Polish team for bronze. That makes the medal haul a pair of golds and a pair of bronze. Decent summer so far.
- We now have an ad free tier for audio. Tired of listening to ads? I saw a bunch of comments on the ad frequency in Rogan podcasts, and figured I’d give our listeners an ad-free option. For 5 bucks a month, you no longer have to listen to ads, and you support the show. Win win. Here’s the link where you can become a patron.
- Watch SANDCAST Episodes Early! Become a member of our YouTube Channel and you’ll get every piece of content days or weeks or, now, months, even, before anybody else. This week’s you actually can’t get early, because we have some time-sensitive news that will be dropping, but you can tune into Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, recorded from Gstaad, and Hector Gutierrez, and we’ll be scheduling a few more that we’ve already recorded. We’ll be stockpiling while I’m in California this week as well, so become a member and get everything the minute it uploads.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, recorded from Gstaad. You can already watch if you’re a member 🙂
Where You Can Follow The Pod
- We’re essentially working to become the new VolleyballMag. A big part of that is building a Facebook presence, so we’re building a page. Would be awesome if you could follow us there!
- Spotify, obviously. Linked below
Much Love to the sponsors
We’ve been with Wilson Volleyball since day one, and we love the products they make — the best ball on the market, hands down, no questions asked. Use our discount code: SANDCAST-20 for 20 PERCENT OFF.
Watch VBTV for 10 percent off using our discount code, SANDCAST10.
We’ve got SANDCAST merch! Get yourself some swag.
SANDCAST adds another year with AG1. One of our longest-running sponsors, AG1, is back on the pod for another year. We’ve re-signed with the brand, and have changed our model with them, to a fully affiliate-model. So if you want to stay healthy AND help the show, please order with this link, which comes with a full year of Vitamin D for FREE, as well as five totally FREE travel packs!
We’re officially partnered with Better at Beach! If you want to get Better at Beach, use our code SANDCAST for 10 percent off all of their products, from online classes to in-person camps and more.
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
SANDCAST Team
