Brandie Wilkerson is the 2025 Beach Pro Tour Blocker of the Year.
Honorable Mention
- Carol Salgado, Brazil
- Tina Graudina, Latvia
- Valentina Gottardi, Italy
- Taryn Brasher, USA
Sports are an inherently copycat business.
One team or individual presents a new formula for success and suddenly every other team is attempting their own version of it.
How many tongues do we see stuck out as a nod to Michael Jordan?
Steph Curry himself has ignited a 3-point revolution, and Caitlin Clark is doing the same.
When Phil Dalhausser entered the Beach Pro Tour, he was one of the tallest men on it. When he left, with his Olympic gold medal and status as one of the greatest players of all time, he wasn’t even in the top-30.
For the longest time, every federation in professional beach volleyball did its best to imitate the formula for success created by Misty May-Treanor and her six feet of sunshine, Kerri Walsh Jennings. All but one Olympic gold medalist — Kira Walkenhorst in 2016 — from 2004 through 2024 stood 6-foot-3 or taller, from Walsh Jennings to Alix Klineman (6-foot-5) to Ana Patricia Silva (6-foot-4).
Brandie Wilkerson is changing the narrative.
Standing just 5-foot-10, Wilkerson is a blocker unlike anything the women’s game has seen before. She’s dynamic, starting one place, loading all the way to the sand — and then flying into the other. Meanwhile, her hands are independent, active, with quicksilver reaction time that makes her an expert at trickery and deception. She is the foundational reason why her and Melissa Humana-Paredes are one of the most difficult block-defense teams on the Beach Pro Tour.
How successful an athlete is at their craft can be measured by stats and wins and losses, yes, but another metric is this: The number of copycats you inspire.
Valentina Gottardi? Tina Graudina? Carol Salgado? All nominees for this award? They all stand 6 feet or below, not to mention longtime world No. 1 Thamela Coradello, who also stands just 6 feet tall.
Wilkerson is single-handedly changing how the women’s game views its blockers.
Which is why, for the third straight year, and fourth time of her career, she has been voted the Blocker of the Year.
2023 Best Blocker: Brandie Wilkerson
2024 Best Blocker: Brandie Wilkerson
