Welcome to our monthly beach volleyball mailbag episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. Soon — May-ish — Tri and I will be back in the studio together to answer all of these questions as a team, but for now, you get solo episodes, and answers, with yours truly.
Is a College GameDay style event being considered for one or more of this year’s AVP League or tourney stops?
Yes. Every off-season, Tri and I get into what we call a blue sky phase, where we brainstorm any and all potential content ideas we want to pursue for the next year. We only have one rule: While in the blue sky phase, there are no bad ideas. We come up with dozens, narrow it down to a few we want to try, give those a couple tests, keep what works and throw out what doesn’t. If you’ve been following the show for long enough, you’ll have noticed several of our bad ideas — or good ideas that we just didn’t have the time or bandwidth or funds to properly execute — that haven’t made the cut for the longterm.
One idea for 2026 was to host a College GameDay style show previewing and recapping AVP League stops in its third season. The AVP said we’re welcome to do so; the funding for it would just be on us. So we’re going to test it at least once, with eyes on Las Vegas June 19-20, and see how it goes. If it goes well, we’ll try to do more, or ideally partner with the AVP to joint-produce it.
We’ll see. Stay tuned.
I have only been listening to the podcast for a few years and would like to know the story behind “shoots” for your closing. Followup question if you will allow it. I know you are a double elim purist, What would you think of Swiss pairings with enough rounds to get the top 4 and then single elim?
What a fun question, and follow-ups are always welcome here.
I’m not Hawaiian, so I can’t really give the exact translation for “shoots” but it’s just a colloquial way of saying let’s go or bye or sounds good or something to that effect. I think. I don’t know. But that’s how Tri closed the first few episodes of SANDCAST, and it’s how we say bye when we talk on the phone and it’s just stuck for nearly a decade.
Side note: Should we get shirts made with “SHOOTS!” on the back?
As for the follow-up, I don’t know exactly what that question is asking, but in my head, you’re asking if a double-elim into an Olympic crossover is acceptable. If that’s the case, then my answer is yes. No real problem with it. While I prefer the true double-elim of the days of old and the Hermosa Open — where there have been double-finals both years — I’m also a realist and understand it can get a bit wonky and confusing and timeconsuming. Alison Cerutti had never played a true double-elim before Hermosa of 2025 and was confounded that, after beating Chaim Schalk and James Shaw in the finals, he had to do it again. He did, winning with Alvaro Filho in the last tournament he’ll play on American soil, but he was confused, and I will die on the hill of simplicity when it comes to formatting beach volleyball tournaments.
Can you share some memories of Bulldog Beach?
Oh, buddy, can I.
Are y’all ready for a story?
Buckle up.
The winter of 2013-14 was a brutal one in Maryland, where I was raised and where I was living at the time, in Baltimore City. My memory has snowfall somewhere around 80-90 inches that winter, but who knows if that’s accurate or me exaggerating, which I’m prone to do. As fate would have it, I got snowed in at my buddy Jason Wheatley’s house, and had had enough. I was applying for every sportswriting job south of Virginia. Grabbed my laptop right then, headed to SportsJournalists.com, and began sending out resumes and cover letters like they were Harry Potter’s invitation letters to Hogwarts.
After a few interviews, I narrowed it down to two opportunities: ACCsports.com in Raleigh, North Carolina, or the Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I took the latter, site unseen.
After the 18-hour drive moving from Baltimore to the Panhandle, my parents and I walked to an Italian restaurant called Rocco’s (no idea if it’s still there). Our waitress, whom I’d later find out was named Deborah Jewells, noticed I was tall and of a decently athletic build, and asked if I played volleyball. Being from Baltimore, where volleyball is a girls’ sport, it was an easy no. Played it in gym class, but if she knew of any basketball leagues or pickup, I was in. She didn’t know about the hoops scene, but mentioned if I was ever bored, there was a bar/restaurant down the street named Juana’s, which had six beach volleyball courts and hosted leagues and tournaments pretty much daily. Good scene. Good people. Lotta fun. I should give it a try.
A few months later, I did.
I was reading a book, drinking a beer, minding my own at Juana’s, when Jewells recognized me and asked if I wanted to play on her co-ed fours team that day. I figured why not.
I can’t remember a single day over the next year and a half in which I did not play beach volleyball.
A man named Judd Smith, whom I call my volleyball dad, noticed me playing one day, saw I was terrible but had potential, and asked if he could work with me. He’d played in AVP qualifiers and won tournaments up and down Florida, and loved coaching. I was awful, hated being awful, and wanted to change the fact that I was awful, so it was an easy yes. So, after recording a morning radio show in Destin from 6-9 in the morning, I’d drive back to Navarre, hit the gym, then meet Judd at his place at a bar called Lagerhead’s, where he’d put up a few courts and named it Bulldog Beach, after his unbelievably fat bulldog, Tonka.
He’d bring out a bag of those old black and white spaldings, set up a trashcan in the high line, jumbo, and cut shot, grab a Bud Light and an orange — we called those Judd Lights — and I’d hit shots into those trashcans until it was time to shower and head into the Daily News. There, I’d work until 10 or 11 — and head straight to Juana’s, changing in the downstairs restrooms out of my work clothes and into board shorts, and play whatever league or tournament or pickup was happening that night.
I did this for a year-and-a-half, meeting people I’m still close with to this day. Other saints recognized my drive to improve and offered to coach me for free, and Scott Allen, Meaghan Allen, Dan Labrador, Matt Rivest, and a host of others all built the foundations of my skillset.
In first open tournament, blocking for my buddy Shaun Rannals, we made the finals in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where we lost to two excellent players named JM Plummer and Matt Blanke. Years later, one of my best seasons — and favorites — as a professional would come with JM. I still talk to Matt regularly, love and miss him dearly, and stay with him whenever I’m in New Orleans. Everyone I met at Bulldog Beach — Judd, Shaun, JM, Matt, a blue-nosed kid named Evan Cory, and all the rest — have such a fond place in my heart, and it’s not wrong or hyperbole to say that I love them like family.
They changed my life.
The Bulldog Beach crew
Is there no interest whatsoever for 4×4 on the Word Tour? What teams would you like to see. Country-teams, or mixed?
Interest from the Beach Pro Tour? Haven’t heard of anything, and I don’t see it going that direction professionally. But as for personal interest? Man, I love it. Fours is my favorite style of beach volleyball, both to play and to watch. I still think my long lost calling is a fours setter. If I had to put a team together, I’d go:
- Anders Mol: Right side
- Cherif Younousse: Setter
- David Ahman: Middle back passing/defense/running quicks out of the middle
- Yorick de Groot: Left side
Come at me with your team.
Which new partnership(s) are you most excited to watch?
If you’re a regular listener/reader of this podcast, you know how I feel about Kelly Cheng. I think she has a case as the best player in the world. For her to now be partnered with Megan Kraft, one of the best defensive players in the world, is as good as it gets for me.
On the men’s side, Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh is the easy call. Benesh and Miles Partain ended what was a tremendous partnership on a flat note in 2025, and I’m excited to see them excited about volleyball again. It’s also going to be a joy to see Crabb all-in again, as he’s been mostly just a domestic player since he and Taylor Sander cut their run at the Paris Olympics short.
I’m also intrigued to see how David Schweiner does without all-world human being and 2023 MVP Ondrej Perusic, who retired after the 2025 World Championships. He’s picked up a talented young defender in Tadeas Trousil, who finally has an excellent blocker in front of him. There will be a step down, yes, but I’m intrigued to see how Trousil does with his promotion, and how Schweiner does in a new role as the veteran.
Top pick for a New team to qualify for AVP League?
Give me Gage Basey and Thomas Hurst for the men, and Corinne Quiggle and Chloe Loreen for the women.
Basey and Hurst are talented, fun to watch, and play a slick new style of beach volleyball. While I think their potential on the Beach Pro Tour is limited, they can beat any American men’s team and I don’t think it would be much of an upset. I’d bet on them to qualify.
Quiggle and Loreen, meanwhile, had a quietly stellar 2025 season together, as Quiggle nearly doubled her previous career-high in prize money on the Beach Pro Tour. In Loreen’s rookie international season, she qualified in every event she played, highlighted by a silver medal at the Veracruz Challenge.
I’m all in on them this year as the Breakout Team of 2026.
