Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
An admission, for transparency’s sake: I’m writing this on a Friday afternoon, in the labor and delivery ward of the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Delaney is napping, and our kid is in no particular rush to make his/her entrance. By the time this comes out, we’ll know the gender and name and all of that, but I’m doing my part to get ahead of as much work as I can — automation is a beautiful thing — because soon we’ll be in man-to-man coverage as parents, and this newsletter will be approximately 547329067 on the priority list.
So here we are. Our podcast family began with three: Tri and Gabby Bourne, and me in my Road Dog Phase of Life. Eight years later, we have two Pod Mamas — Delaney was added to the team in 2020 — and four Pod Children.
It’s only fitting that our podcast has grown with us, with a ton of new things coming in 2025 — babies included — that you’ll see throughout the year, but especially this week.
Let’s get to it.
P.S: Harper Honey Mewhirter, middle name kudos of Katie “Honeybee” Spieler, made her entrance a few hours after writing this. All is healthy and well, although Austin is…not stoked on the new sister just yet.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week’s podcast featured Troy Field, always one of our most popular guests. He popped in our Hermosa Beach studios with Tri Bourne, talking all things AVP League, the future of the sport, engaging with fans, and the tension around the new direction of beach volleyball in the United States. One of the best things about Troy, among many, is how open he is. Fun, candid discussion from the boys:
SANDCAST U Debuts
We’ve been hyping up the debut of SANDCAST U, Madison Fitzpatrick’s show breaking down all things NCAA Beach Volleyball, for a few weeks now.
No more hype. It’s just here, as Madison does a wonderful job previewing the upcoming 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball season.
Film Room: Craziest Block Ever?
Ever wonder what makes Anders Mol so special? We do. All. The. Time. On the latest installment of Film Room, Travis Mewhirter breaks down what he thinks is the signature block of Mol (victim: Taylor Crabb). Fun one.
Welcoming Andy J. Gordon
Amidst the fallout at VolleyballMag — see: Lee Feinswog leaving, and all of his loyalists, yours truly included, following suit — there is a dearth of volleyball coverage. At SANDCAST, if you haven’t noticed, we’re trying to solve for that. Andy J. Gordon, a longtime photographer for VolleyballMag, will now have his photo galleries hosted on our website at sandcastvolleyball.com. This goes for indoor and beach and whatever else Andy wants to shoot.
If you’re a photographer and also want your galleries up and hosted and shared on our site, let us know.
Andy has six galleries currently up, all of men’s indoor, all of which you can find here.
SANDCAST and Volleyball TV are partners! You can get 20 percent off your VBTV subscription if you use the code SANDCAST20.
News Around the Beach
- FSU signs with Mikasa. Yep, the ‘Noles just became the first NCAA team to partner with Mikasa. The NCAA Championships, however, will be played with Molten.
- Volleyball World expands fields, prize money for 2025. This is awesome f****** news. Elite16s are now Elite24. Gone are the too-confusing 24-team Challenge formats, bumped up to 32 teams, mirroring the popular Grand Slam and Open format which preceded the vastly unpopular star system. Prize money has been upped by $100k total for each event. Is it perfect? No, because the entry point system is still your best three out of four finishes, which is not ideal, but goodness is that good news in a sport that seemed in need of some.
- 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 have John Mayer and Billy Allen, who, alongside Travis, have a fun discussion about coaching, ecological dynamics vs. repetition-based coaching, and a whole lot more. If you’re a member, you can already watch.
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. With season coming up, if you’re looking to get some new equipment, use our discount code: SANDCASTVB for 20 PERCENT OFF.
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! 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.
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
SANDCAST Team
