SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter

Megan Kraft, the 19-year-old making beach volleyball success look easy

Megan Kraft is just 19 years old, yet is already a World Champion, AVP main draw player – she recently finished a career-high third in New Orleans with Emily Stockman – and is preparing to make a run at the Paris Olympic Games with Stockman. How does a 19-year-old college sophomore, who has already won a pair of National Championships at USC, find herself in that position?

By making it look easy.

Such a fun chat on SANDCAST with Kraft and Savvy Simo. On this episode, we chat about:

• The transition from the NCAA season and going directly into both the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, and the AVP
• How she and Emily Stockman became a team
• Competing on the biggest stages in the sport, from NCAA Championships to AVP Sundays to medal matches representing the United States
• What the rest of this year looks like for her and Stockman

ENJOY!

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We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Mark Burik and Brandon Joyner want you to get Better at Beach

Mark Burik and Brandon Joyner are the founders of one of the coolest companies in all of beach volleyball:  @Better at Beach Volleyball . Together, they may have touched more lives in the world of beach volleyball than any two individuals, coaching, creating online programs and classes, running camps across the country, from Salt Lake City to St. Petersburg, Florida. Their work is allowing others to get Better at Beach, while also just improving the entire community as they go.

On this episode, Mewhirter, Burik, and Joyner chat about:

- How Better at Beach successfully rebranded from VolleyCamp Hermosa

- What Burik has learned in becoming a full-time entrepreneur, and why he can't go back to a typical job

- How Brandon Joyner, a Virginia Beach guy, left his steady job as a teacher and moved to California to work with Better at Beach

- How awesome it has been to see Better at Beach explode across the country, in every beach volleyball nook and cranny there is

ENJOY!!

***

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We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Corinne Quiggle: Home is wherever the beach volleyball is

For most beach volleyball players in the United States, AVP New Orleans was just the second tournament of the season. Corinne Quiggle is not most beach volleyball players. As she has done for the previous two years, Quiggle has hit the road with her new partner, Sarah Schermerhorn, already competing in tournaments in Qatar, Mexico, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Texas, and Louisiana, flying up the rankings on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour as well as the AVP. 

She has become comfortable with the immense travel required when playing full-time international and domestic, taking a last-second flight from Ostrava to New Orleans -- and still taking a seventh! 

On this episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, we chat about:

- How Quiggle and Schermerhorn became a team

- Their huge success in Tlaxcala, Mexico, where they emerged from the qualifier, won pool, then battled with Spain, eventually taking a ninth

- Rising up the Volleyball World rankings, to the point that they're now in Elite 16s

- How to land a sponsor as a beach volleyball player

And, as always, much more. 

ENJOY!

***

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Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar

We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Andy Benesh: Playing with GOATs on his way to becoming America’s next top blocker

Andy Benesh is one of the brightest talents on the AVP Tour, as proven two weekends ago when he won the season-opening event of the 2022 AVP season in Austin, Texas. There’s a reason veterans and AVP champions such as Billy Allen, Nick Lucena, and Phil Dalhausser have competed with him: He’s darn good. And he’s going to be good for a long, long time to come.

On this episode with Andy Benesh, we chat about:

• What it’s like to play (and win) with Phil Dalhausser
• His momentous win at AVP Austin
• The incredible impact Nick Lucena and Billy Allen have made on his career
• His staggering rate of improvement in beach volleyball, and how he’s not even close to reaching his ceiling

And, as always, so much more.

ENJOY!

***

Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar

We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Katie Spieler: The Honeybee’s Guide to the Good Life

Katie Spieler is one of the most popular guests we’ve ever had on SANDCAST, and is one of the most beloved beach volleyball players on the AVP Tour. One of the winningest players in the history of Hawai’i beach volleyball, Spieler has won tournaments on the grass, snow, sand, dirt, and is the reigning 4 v. 4 World Champion. Now, she’s coming off an ACL tear, back to living the good life on the beach.

On this episode, we chat about:

• Her recovery from tearing her ACL at the annual Pottstown Rumble
• How Todd Rogers helped her improve even when she couldn’t move
• The new mindset with which she’s approaching the beach
• The love and gratitude she has for the game of beach volleyball

And, as always, much more.

ENJOY!

***

Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar

We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

 

Toni Rodriguez is ’traveling the world, just playing volleyball, living the sweetest life ever’

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features yet another promising up and coming talent on the AVP and Volleyball World Beach Pro Tours: Toni Rodriguez.

She’s a Louisiana kid, with seven years at LSU to prove it. And now she’s made the move to California, diving headfirst into the world of professional beach volleyball, hitting a pair of FIVBs with Zana Muno and AVP Austin with Savvy Simo. She’s just getting started.

On this episode, we chat about:

• What a crazy year this has been already, with trips to Australia, Panama City Beach, and Brazil on back to back to back weekends, followed by Austin
• How she and SANDCAST hostess Savvy Simo became partners
• Why she decided to move to California, and how important that has been for her career
• The state of Louisiana exploding into the beach volleyball scene

ENJOY!

***

Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar

We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Sara Hughes was born to play beach volleyball

Sara Hughes has known she wanted to be a professional beach volleyball player since she was 8 years old. For nearly 20 years, that’s exactly the path her life went on: tabbed by USA Volleyball’s developmental program, the first scholarship athlete on the USC beach team, National Champion, AVP Champion, Olympic favorite. Until an injury to Summer Ross kept them out of the qualification process for the Tokyo Olympics. It left Hughes in a strange spot: Not on top of the beach volleyball world.

Now she’s back again, winning a gold medal in Itapema with Kelley Kolinske, a team coached by Evie Matthews and trained by the podcast favorite Mykel Jenkins.

On this episode, we chat about:

• How Hughes and Kolinske got together, and why they’ve been such a good fit so quickly
• The refreshing aspect of starting a new team: new partner, new coach, new trainer
• The two years of struggle when Ross was out with an injury, which left Hughes without a partner and running mate for Tokyo
• How she used those two years to only get better, something we’re all witnessing now

ENJOY!

***

Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar

We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Evan Cory, Louisiana’s Road Dog, has arrived

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Evan Cory, one of the most promising up-and-coming talents in the United States. After six years of competing in qualifiers, Cory alas made his first main draws, earned via winning AVPNext Golds in New Orleans and Seaside. Now? He’s seeded directly into the main draw. And he’s going to put on a show.

On this episode, we chat about:

• Cory’s background in Louisiana, learning to play at the famed Coconut Beach
• His new partnership with Bill Kolinske, and why it’s a perfect fit
• His recent switch to defense, and the man behind the quick improvement: Joey Keener
• His love for the state of Louisiana, and its volleyball-crazed culture

And so much more.

ENJOY!

***

Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar

We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/

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/

This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball

Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

Seain Cook is playing the long game in beach volleyball -- and it’s working

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features one of the most promising talents in the United States…who cannot play for the United States.

Seain Cook competed for the Scottish National Team before moving to the United States. For now, he’s focusing on climbing the ladder the only way he knows how: Winning beach volleyball tournaments, something he does A LOT, including the $20,000 AVPNext in Panama City Beach, Fla.

On this episode, we chat about:

• Seain Cook’s journey from Scotland to the United States
• How incredible it is to be coached by the legend, Mike Dodd
• Why a CBVA with Stafford Slick made such an impact on him
• His mission to climb the ladder the right way: By winning tournaments

And so much more.

Such a fun episode with Seain. To enjoy his hysterical videos on Instagram, give him a follow: @seaincook

ENJOY!

April Mailbag: Where’s Casey Patterson; typical practices; promising new teams

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is our semi-monthly mailbag, or fan question, episode. We had a record number of fan questions, and we did our best to get to all of them in an hour, hosted by the lovely Gabby Bourne – Savvy Simo, our usual moderator, was already in Panama City Beach, where she would QUALIFY for AVP Austin with Toni Rodriguez!!

We chatted about:

• What a typical practice looks like, and the best drills to address our current weaknesses as players
• If a fan were to choose one AVP stop this year, which would it be?
• Best ways to increase your vertical leap
• What are Casey Patterson, Stafford Slick, and Reid Priddy up tp?

And many, many more.

ENJOY!