Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
And a happy, happy belated Father’s Day to all the volley dads out there. May your foldable chairs be comfy, your sunburns be light, and your grills be firing.
Few dads had a better Father’s Day debut than new pop Ondrej Perusic, who, one month into his #DadLife won his second gold medal of the season on Sunday at the Alanya Challenge. The win, as I wrote in our updated World Champs standings, locks them up to defend their 2023 World Championship title later this year in Adelaide.
Also making big moves were, yet again, the Verge-Depres. Anouk and Zoe followed up on their bronze medal at Ostrava — coincidentally, both bronze medalists in Ostrava won gold in Alanya — to win gold in Turkey. They’re now No. 5 in the World Championships standings and flying up the world rankings.
It’s their world, we’re just living in it.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week was a BUSY one for the pod. First, on the traditional Wednesday featured episode, we went international, chatting with one of the best ambassadors in the game in Stefan Boermans, the Dutch blocker who has amassed a huge following and fans all over the globe.
Doubles? What doubles?
Pitchforks have been brandished, torches lit: For three events — Gstaad, Montreal, Hamburg — the FIVB is testing two rules changes, the first of which is the removal of doubles on the second contact. The second is allowing coaches to now be in the box with the players, where they can discuss strategy and talk on side changes and timeouts.
Onward.
News Around the Beach
- AVP TV numbers are in from week 2. They are not great, with an average viewership of 129,000. Larry Hamel, per usual, did not hold back on his new Substack, All Volleyball, describing it as an “unmitigated disaster.” Week three was in Miami this past week, and attendance again looked sparse. Standings are not yet updated on the AVP website, but the LA Launch are still undefeated. Speaking of…
- Logan Webber, Hagen Smith continue hard launch. It’s been a decent season so far for Hagen and Logan, who qualified for the AVP League, turned heads by going undefeated their first weekend, then qualified for the Alanya Challenge with two huge wins in the qualifier.
- The hot start that fizzled. It was a tremendous start for USA Volleyball at the Alanya Challenge, headlined by Deahna Kraft and Xolani Hodel. It all fizzled from there, but eventually, with so many teams banging on the door, someone has to break through. Perhaps that’s next week in Stare Jablonki.
- What if we were the best in the world at this? I reflected on my first season as a full-time coach, and the rough draft of what could loosely be described as my coaching philosophy. Fun one to write, hope it’s fun to read.
- 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 the great Rob Gray, the father of the modern coaching movement and the man whose philosophies I consider the foundation of my coaching education.
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
