Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
I’ve been in Florida for less than a month — and we LOVE IT — and in that span, USA Volleyball has become unrecognizable from the one I left at the end of September. And, to be clear, I am not saying that’s a bad thing. While the indoor teams shined in Paris — silver for the women, bronze for the men — the beach side of the operation just endured our first Olympic Games without a medal, and we haven’t hosted a legitimate international competition in many of our top players’ careers. CEO Jamie Davis was replaced by John Speraw, long the head man of the men’s national team and UCLA. Speraw’s first move? Moving Karch Kiraly from the women’s national team to the men.
Whoa.
We’ll see what changes come for the beach — I’d expect at least a few, as they’re tinkering with the right balance of coaching and development programs and such — but at this rate, it shouldn’t take long.
At least not as long as it takes for beach to change its rules. Good news: We had well-respected ref Matt Levoe on the show to chat about beach volleyball rules including, yes: WHAT IS A DOUBLE AND HOW IS IT CALLED?
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This week’s podcast featured Matt Levoe, a longtime ref and one of the more well-respected men on the stand. Is he perfect? Of course not — which is why he’s still in the game. Really, really fun one, and many in our audience say it’s their favorite of the year:
FUN NEWS! SANDCAST and Volleyball TV are partnering up. By the end of the year, the Road to Paris will feature highlights and clips from Volleyball TV to complement the coverage. Better yet: You can get 20 percent off your VBTV subscription if you use the code SANDCAST20.
News Around the Beach
- Volleyball TV, the in-house success of the streaming world. Volleyball World CEO Finn Taylor sat down with Broadcast Now to chat about the success of VBTV, which has eclipsed 1.5 million members, both paying and not. I found it enlightening, particularly as someone who works closely with VBTV and consumes an obscene amount of it.
- Karch Kiraly is going for the cycle. Kiraly has won gold medals as an indoor player (1984, 1988), on the beach (1996), coaching women (2021) and is now, as we mentioned above, trying to bat for the cycle, as the new head coach of the men’s indoor national team. If the dude wins a gold with men’s indoor, USA Volleyball will build a shrine to the man.
- A month ago, we moved to Tallahassee. Since, a lot of people have been asking how it’s been going. We love it — and might love the town more than the job that brought us here, which is quite a bit.
- Meet Myriah Massey: World Champ. Part of my role at Florida State is to increase the visibility of the program, namely with features like this one on Myriah Massey, the first underage World Champ for the USA in a decade. Fun one with a young woman y’all should take note of.
- SANDCAST memberships are live. We’ve opened up memberships for anyone who wants to watch full podcast episodes on YouTube a day or two early.
- Coming up on Wednesday we’re back on the international scene, airing an interview we did with Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader in Hamburg, their last tournament as a team. Fun one with the Swiss trailblazers.
Much Love to the sponsors
We’re officially partnered with Better at Beach! Don’t know how this took so long, seeing the massive overlap between our audiences. So 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.
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. With season coming up, if you’re looking to get some new equipment, use our discount code: SANDCAST63 for 20 PERCENT OFF.
Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try!
Need to get hydrated? Waiakea has all kinds of fantastic deals online, and good news for you (and us), you can get 20 PERCENT OFF using our discount code, Sandcast, at checkout. Aloha, y’all.
SANDCAST is fueled by a lovely mix of three main ingredients: We LOVE to do it, people enjoy listening to it, and sponsors fund our ability to do so. We only partner with sponsors we love, and we are so fired up to have Athletic Greens join the show! And they’re hooking up our listeners with a full year of Vitamin D for FREE, as well as five totally FREE travel packs!
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
Tri and Travis (and Savvy)
