SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter

John Mayer, Billy Allen: NCAA Coaching Our Brains Out

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features John Mayer and Billy Allen, the longtime hosts of the popular Coach Your Brains Out podcast who, as their success as college coaches shows, know a thing or two about coaching in beach volleyball. Mayer is arguably the best coach in NCAA Beach Volleyball, having taken LMU from the doldrums to the top of the WCC, and nearly to the top of the NCAA. Allen is in his second year as an assistant coach for Stanford. Meanwhile, Mewhirter, serving as a moderator, is in his debut season with Florida State. They chat about all things coaching, including:

- Ecological dynamics vs. a more repetition-based approach to coaching

- Bruce Lee’s philosophy in coaching, emphasizing adaptability above all else

- What each of the three coaches has learned thus far in their respective coaching journeys

- How to navigate athlete buy-in and understanding

And so, so much more. This was such a blast to do, and the Knights of the Coaching Round Table are planning on making this a semi-annual podcast.

SHOOTS!

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WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

SANDCAST U: Previewing the 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball Season | Madison Fitzpatrick

Welcome to the debut of SANDCAST U! Our lovely new host, Madison Fitzpatrick, a former star beach volleyball player for Florida State turned next big media star in volleyball, provides a comprehensive preview of the upcoming 2025 NCAA Collegiate Beach Volleyball season. The episode covers key teams, players to watch, and the overall landscape of collegiate beach volleyball, highlighting the strengths and challenges of various programs.

With insights into powerhouse teams like USC and UCLA, as well as dark horses like TCU, the episode sets the stage for an exciting season ahead.

Let us know what y'all think! 

SHOOTS!

***

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

Troy Field: The Evolution, Challenges, and Future of Beach Volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Troy Field, one of our most popular recurring guests and one of the most popular players in all of beach volleyball. Troy has had one helluva journey, and now that he will be partnering with Theo Brunner, he has played with a who’s who of elite talent in USA Volleyball. Now with Brunner, Field has a tall task ahead of him: qualifying for the AVP League. Troy and Tri Bourne chat about all of that, as well as:

• How Troy and Theo came to be partners
• Their thoughts on the AVP League, and why growing pains were inevitable
• Tri’s refreshed view on the sport of beach volleyball as a whole
• The importance of the Contender Series, and other valuable information about what happens to players who do not make the AVP League

And, as always, a whole lot more.

SHOOTS!

***

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

 

Madison Fitzpatrick: Volleyball's Next Big Media Star

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Madison Fitzpatrick, a former beach volleyball player for Florida State and now one of the rising presences in volleyball media, both indoor and on the beach. In this AWESOME conversation, Madison and Travis reflect on their similar journeys from being a competitive player to a coach and sports broadcasters. The similarities in both personality and career arc are a bit eerie, to be honest, which is why we are bringing Madison on as the host of a new show covering NCAA Beach Volleyball: SANDCAST U With Madison Fitzpatrick. Yep, that starts up in just a few weeks, and will be similar to the Road to Paris. Also on this episode, we chat about:

• How a brief job in Arkansas, where Madison cried every day, multiple times per day, was such a formative year
• The challenges of navigating social media, and the importance of preparation and embracing failure in broadcasting.
• The challenges in the transition from being a player to a commentator, and the emotional journey of letting go of a playing career
• The critical role curiosity plays in broadcasting, and why Madison is going to be so good for so long

And so much more. This was a super fun one, as Travis and Madison basically just nerded out on media and beach volleyball and could – and will – go on for hours and hours and hours.

SHOOTS!

***

Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge.

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 60-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed 

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

How To Qualify For The AVP League, And More On The 2025 AVP Schedule

Emergency pod! Not really an emergency, but the AVP just announced its 2025 AVP Schedule, and there were a few questions and explanations requested by our listeners, so we pumped out a quick podcast from our home studios here in Tallahassee, Florida, namely answering: If there isn't an event prior to the AVP League then how do people qualify for the AVP League? That, and a discussion on player sentiment, fan disappointment, AVP launching some merch, and more. Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions, we'll do our best to answer in the comments!

SHOOTS!

***

Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge.

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 60-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed 

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

Ian Capp, And The Rise of Men's College Beach Volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Ian Capp, the head coach of the MEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL TEAM at Stevenson University in, of all places, northern Maryland. Yes, we put men’s beach volleyball in all caps --  no pun intended – because most people don’t even know men’s beach volleyball exists at the collegiate level. But it does! Sort of. It’s an AVCA sport with a legitimate National Championship, and Capp won Stevenson’s first National Championship this fall, upsetting powerhouse Webber in the finals in Huntsville. We chat all about that, and a whole lot more, including:

• Why in the world did the Athletics Department at Stevenson University, a small school in northern Maryland, launch a men’s beach volleyball program?
• How Ian Capp stumbled into the position as the head coach at Stevenson
• What it meant to win that National Championship this fall
• How he attempts to recruit young men to play beach volleyball for a DIII program in Maryland

And so, so, so much more. What an episode this is!

SHOOTS!

***

Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge.

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 60-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed 

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

Melissa Humana-Paredes, Gabby Bourne, And The Weight of An Olympic Silver Medal

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Melissa Humana-Paredes, who won an Olympic silver medal – Canada’s first on the women’s side – with Brandie Wilkerson in Paris this summer. It has been quite the whirlwind of a fall and winter for Humana-Paredes, who went straight into the inaugural AVP League for the Palm Beach Passion and then competed in the Beach Pro Tour Finals. Having had time to reflect, Humana-Paredes, Bourne and Pod Mama Gabby Bourne chat about:

• The pursuit of a gold medal at an Olympic Games, and the ever-existential question: Was it all worth it?
• How different – if at all – Mel’s life would be if she and Wilkerson won gold as opposed to silver
• The highs and lows of having a life revolving around competition
• How finding happiness should not be contingent on external achievements.

And much, much more. Gabby absolutely shines in her debut as a guest-host (and soon to be mother of two!

Such a good episode!

SHOOTS!

***

Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge.

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed 

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

Marlie Monserez: Building The PVF And Atlanta Vibe From The Ground Up

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Marlie Monserez, who is currently in her second year with the upstart indoor volleyball league, the PVF (Professional Volleyball Federation). Monserez was a standout at the University of Florida before transferring to UCLA to play beach volleyball under Stein Metzger. On this episode, we:

• Explore her unique journey through volleyball, including her transition from indoor to beach volleyball, her decision to join the PVF and Athletes Unlimited, and her experiences at UCLA.
• How Marlie Monserez navigated the transfer portal, and the wild wild west dynamic of that landscape
• Why returning to beach volleyball was the best thing she could have done for her indoor career
• Her first year with the Atlanta Vibe and the PVF, which was successful both as an individual and a team

And much, much more.

SHOOTS!

***

Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge.

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed 

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

 

SANDCAST Greatest Hits: Zana Muno: Beach volleyball’s hustling, diving, gritty ’chic farmer’

Welcome to SANDCAST Greatest Hits! Given that our podcast, hosted by Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is on its eighth year, and we have accumulated more viewers and listeners every year – 52% of our listeners discovered us in 2024 alone – we wanted to rewind and replay the best of the best from our podcast history. So, throughout 2025, once a month we will be replaying one of our most-listened-to episodes, beginning with our most popular of all-time: Zana Muno.

This episode was recorded in January of 2022, and so much has happened since including, of course, Zana Muno retiring from beach volleyball. It makes episodes like this that much more intriguing to listen to, to see where the players were at then vs. where they are now. If you’re a longtime listener, enjoy the replay, and if you’re new, well, enjoy the most popular episode we’ve ever done!

SHOOTS!

PHOTO: Mark Rigney

***

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

 

Alexis Durish: Taking FSU Beach Volleyball to "A Whole 'Nother Level"

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is the debut of our FSU Beach Volleyball studios! Fittingly enough, it features one of Florida State's best players in Alexis Durish, a junior who is coming off a NORCECA gold medal and set to continue building on a record of 60-11 in two years in Tallahassee. In this episode, we chat about:

• The explosion of juniors beach volleyball, even since Durish, just 20, was a junior
• Why this fall was so different at Florida State, in a good way, even if it did mean “sucking”
• The learning curve of NCAA beach volleyball players
• Why California is no longer mandatory for beach volleyball players to pursue a career in the sport

And much, much more.

SHOOTS!

***

WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!!

Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! 

We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link. 

If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/