Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And greetings from the Delta Lounge at LAX. Yes, I was back in California this week for a quick and sneaky trip that included many things, but sleep was not one of them. My days included coaching the Men’s U-21 USA National Development Team for five-ish hours with April Ross and Alvaro Filho, running home, recording a podcast with either Mark Paaluhi (coming this week) or Alvaro and Cesar Benatti (coming next week), then commentating the Xiamen Challenge until, on Saturday for example, 2:30 in the morning.
I live for those types of weekends.
Long days on the beach with good people and good ball followed by good conversations with good people followed by having a blast on the mic. The latter half of that was made significantly easier because so many USA teams were making late runs through Xiamen. Toni Rodriguez and Kylie DeBerg won their first gold medal as a team, notching yet another for the USA women (USA’s FIFTH already this season), while Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle went from the qualifier all the way to fourth.
Overall, a successful weekend for USA, and a fun weekend for me, because I got to:
- A) Learn from April and Alvaro
- B) Apply, or try to apply, what I’ve learned from our most recent podcast guests, Billy Allen and John Mayer, into practice with the U-21 Men.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week’s podcast was a follow-up of one of our most popular and well-received episodes we’ve ever done, a SANDCAST Your Brains Out with John Mayer, head coach of LMU, and Billy Allen, assistant to the regional manager at Stanford. We chatted all things NCAA, what we’ve learned as coaches, and how we can continue to further improve at our (and my new) craft. Love, love, love chatting with these guys and stealing all of their secrets. We also talked about Billy’s fun run to a third-place finish at AVP Huntington Beach alongside Taylor Crabb, which I wrote about here:
Photo Galleries!
We have more photo galleries this week.
News Around the Beach
- Audrey Koenig and Alexis Durish qualify for World University Games. Remember those two players from Florida State I keep telling y’all about? The 6-foot-4 indoor player of the year who chose beach in Audrey Koenig? And the craftiest of the crafty defenders in Alexis Durish? They’re legit — legit enough to qualify for the World University Games, sweeping their way through the best of the NCAA to represent the USA later this summer in Germany. Stoked for them. And I am so stoked we get them back for another year in 2026.
- Gage Basey, Thomas Hurst also qualify for World University Games. These kids are so dang fun to watch — jump-setting, optioning, hand-setting balls even I, a founding member of the #neverbumpset club, wouldn’t dare hand set. They punched their ticket to Germany and will represent the USA alongside Koenig and Durish.
- AVP League begins! The 2025 AVP League kicks off its season this weekend at the Delray Beach Tennis Center, featuring the Palm Beach Passion, Dallas Dream, San Diego Smash, and Brooklyn Blaze. Who is on each team? Nobody knows! The AVP seems dedicated in its mission to not put the rosters on its website, so for anybody who doesn’t regularly use Instagram (hello!), you won’t know who’s on what team. While I find the move strange, I admire the dedication to the pursuit of keeping fans wondering who is actually playing each weekend. Keeps us on our toes. Adds an air of mystery to it. Each weekend is like opening a pack of baseball cards and not knowing if you’re getting a Paul Skenes rookie card or some dud on my hapless O’s. I do believe, however, that the Passion is Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson and Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser, Dream is Andy Benesh and Miles Partain and Hailey Harward and Kylie DeBerg, Smash is Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez and Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, and the Blaze is Seain Cook and Brian Miller, and Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin. I will get rosters up on the SANDCAST website at some point in the coming week, maybe on this flight from LA to Atlanta, for no other reason than because I don’t want to scroll back through the AVP’s Instagram to find out who’s on what team and therefore who is playing each weekend.
- 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 before anybody else.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have Mark Paaluhi, the man keeping professional beach volleyball alive in Hermosa Beach, as he has signed a three-year deal with the city of Hermosa and the events presenting sponsor, Wedbush Securities. F*** yeah.
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: sandcastpod-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
