Podcast appearances and mentions of Billy Allen

This episode of SANDCAST features John Mayer and Billy Allen, hosts of the Coach Your Brains Out podcast as well as coaches in NCAA Beach Volleyball. Mayer is the head coach at LMU, leading the Lions to six straight WCC titles and a berth in the National Championship. Allen is an assistant at Stanford, helping the Cardinal to a single season wins record and an MPSF Championship. With the NCAA season over, they chat about: - How to navigate the art of playing time vs. winning at all costs (hint: nobody knows) - Billy Allen's recent entertaining run through AVP Huntington Beach with Taylor Crabb - John Mayer reflecting on the most successful season to date with LMU - Travis Mewhirter's first season at Florida State and what he learned SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, sandcastpod-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Get 10 PERCENT OFF VBTV using our discount code, SANDCAST10 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/

Episode 95 features former pro beach volleyball players turned coaches and podcasters: John Mayer of LMU Beach Volleyball, Billy Allen of Stanford Beach, and Travis Mehwriter of Florida State Beach! John & Billy co-host a great podcast called Coach Your Brains out, and Travis hosts the Sandcast podcast with Tri Bourne. This episode is a part 2 to a great episode of Sandcast meets coach your brains out meets Within The Game!Pt 1 - Coaches Roundtable on Sandcast: https://youtu.be/WyDfj7jlvGU?si=VCUr_ng3-vmD8zNy @SANDCASTPodcast (Travis Mewhirer & Tri Bourne) @coachyourbrainsout (John Mayer & Billy Allen)IG: @sandcast_podcast @coachyourbrainBlenders Sunglasses 20% Off! Use Code "WCB20" www.blenderseyewear.com

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! *** 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/

“Life is a wheel and humanity has been through countless cycles of ups and downs. The things that seem so dire now won't be this dire forever. Eventually, there is an upswing. I always needed that reminder, and it made me think that my young readers need that reminder as well.” - Yamile Saied MendezWith a storytelling style that radiates warmth and resilience, Yamile Saed Méndez's work reflects the cycles of life's challenges and triumphs. Born in Rosario, Argentina, in the midst and then long shadow of the Dictatorship years, she learned early on the power of hope and the enduring strength of the human spirit. From mastering a second language to embracing life in a new country, Yamile's journey is one of transformation and connection to her roots. Yamile is a bestselling author whose work spans children's, young adult, and adult fiction. Her novel “Furia”–a 2021 Pura Belpré winner and a Reese's YA Book Club selection–earned her widespread recognition for its powerful storytelling and cultural resonance. Her other books include “Shaking Up the House,” “On These Magic Shores,” “The Beautiful Game,” “Where Are You From?” and “What the Moon Saw.” With accolades such as the Cybils Award and the Américas Award, Yamile has established herself as a beloved voice in contemporary literature.In this episode, Yamile reflects on the pivotal transitions that have shaped her life and work. She reflects on her experience as the eldest sister in a family facing constant scarcity of resources and on how her school life impacted her perspective on a young woman's potential. Yamile shares how storytelling has grounded her through moments of turbulence and highlights how resilience has inspired the protagonists in her books. ***Yamile's reading challenge, Indomitable Characters, celebrates protagonists who embody resilience and remind us all of the inevitable upswing in life's wheel.Learn more and download Yamile's recommended reading list at thereadingculturepod.com/yamile-saied-mendez***This episode's Beanstack Featured Librarian is, once again, Billy Allen, the Branch Manager of Whitney Library in Las Vegas's Clarke County Library District, aka 3KingVisions, on YouTube. And most recently, he is featured on season 9 of Queer Eye. Billy tells us about a unique incentive that motivated the kids at his library to crush their summer reading goals.***Connect with Jordan and The Reading Culture @thereadingculturepod and subscribe to our newsletter at thereadingculturepod.com/newsletter. Show ChaptersChapter 1 - Women of ArgentinaChapter 2 - GibberishChapter 3 - The Angel's GameChapter 4 - Full StopsChapter 5 - Indomitable CharactersChapter 6 - Beanstack Featured LibrarianLinksThe Reading CultureThe Reading Culture Newsletter SignupYamile MendezYamile Mendez Instagram“The Angel's Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Monteiro LobatoHeidiMaría Elena WalshFollow The Reading Culture on Instagram (for giveaways and bonus content)Beanstack resources to build your community's reading cultureJordan Lloyd BookeyHost: Jordan Lloyd BookeyProducers: Mel Webb Wilkinson, Jackie Lamport, and Lower Street MediaScript Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Mel Webb Wilkinson, Jackie Lamport, Jordan Lloyd Bookey

“I am saying: reader, we're going on a journey. You are going to come with me and then I'm pulling them gently into the narrative. And then again, if I'm doing my job, I'm holding them like a hug.” - Andrea Davis PinkneyAndrea Davis Pinkney stands tall at just 4'11”, but she is still somehow larger than life. In her writing, she has what she refers to as “the page one pact,” a commitment to getting her readers' attention right away. As an interviewee, she does the same. Andrea's passion, commitment to adding to the canon of Black kid lit, and desire to inspire all kids to love reading come through from the moment she begins to talk. Drawing deeply from the writing style she honed during her early years in journalism, Andrea's goal is to craft meaningful stories for kids—often about real people—while ensuring that reading is never (ever) a chore. Instead, she strives to make it a journey young readers are eager to go on with her.Andrea Davis Pinkney is a New York Times bestselling author known for her books for children and young adults, including “The Red Pencil,” “Because of You, John Lewis,” “Duke Ellington,” “Let It Shine,” and so many more. She is the winner of many awards, including the prestigious Coretta Scott King Book Award, and a four-time NAACP Image Award nominee. She is also a beloved editor (yes, she has a day job!), a librettist, and an industry leader. The only thing she may not overachieve in is, well, sleep!In this episode, Andrea tells the story of her own introduction to the Civil Rights movement through her parents, explains how her writing career began by winning a contest she never even entered, and how changing a burger into a donut became a matter of journalistic integrity in one of her books. Settle into an uplifting conversation that goes from John-Boy in the Waltons to the iconic Faith Ringgold with the indefatigable Andrea Davis Pinkney!***If you've read her renowned story “Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down,” you've likely noticed her gift for weaving verse-like prose and rhythm into her writing. That style inspired her reading challenge, Rhythm and Muse—a curated collection of stories that celebrate the same lyrical flow and musicality.Learn more and download Andrea's recommended reading list at thereadingculturepod.com/andrea-davis-pinkney.***This episode's Beanstack Featured Librarian is the inspirational Billy Allen, the Branch Manager of Whitney Library in Las Vegas's Clarke County Library District, aka 3KingVisions on YouTube. He tells us about his musical approach to exciting kids about reading.***Connect with Jordan and The Reading Culture @thereadingculturepod and subscribe to our newsletter at thereadingculturepod.com/newsletter. Show ChaptersChapter 1 - Mom, Dad, and Civil Rights.Chapter 2 - SanctuariesChapter 3 - White Spaces Chapter 4 - Tar BeachChapter 5 - The IgniterChapter 6 - The Page One PactChapter 7 - Kerlan ExhibitChapter 8 - Rhythm and MuseChapter 9 - Beanstack Featured Librarian LinksThe Reading CultureThe Reading Culture Newsletter SignupAndrea Davis PinkneyAndrea Pinkney (@andreapinkney1) • Instagram photos and videosTar Beach – Faith Ringgold3 King VisionsMary Tyler MooreEssence MagazineFollow The Reading Culture on Instagram (for giveaways and bonus content)Beanstack resources to build your community's reading cultureJordan Lloyd BookeyHost: Jordan Lloyd BookeyProducers: Jackie Lamport, Wanyee Li, and Lower Street MediaScript Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Jackie Lamport, Jordan Lloyd Bookey

The Inner Knight - Train and Compete Like A Champion

The Alabama rock outfit performs songs from their debut album, Black Noise.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You can watch the entire discussion by supporting the show on Patreon here.  This week on Teach Me, Teacher, we welcome back the incredible Billy Allen (@3kingvisions)! Billy, a librarian and renowned storyteller, also known as one of the “Leaders of the New Cool,” joins us to share his infectious positivity, community-focused approach, and unwavering dedication to getting books into the hands of children—an inspiration in itself. Last week, we dove into critical topics such as fostering literacy, the multifaceted roles of libraries, the significance of representation, and the complex issue of book censorship. This week, we talk about how to innovate, take risks, and push to the next level for communities, promoting literacy, and expanding your reach to help others. Enjoy!

You can watch the entire discussion by supporting the show on Patreon here.  This week on Teach Me, Teacher, we welcome back the incredible Billy Allen (@3kingvisions)! Billy, a librarian and renowned storyteller, also known as one of the "Leaders of the New Cool," joins us to share his infectious positivity, community-focused approach, and unwavering dedication to getting books into the hands of children—an inspiration in itself. In this episode, we delve into critical topics such as fostering literacy, the multifaceted roles of libraries, the significance of representation, and the complex issue of book censorship. Tune in for an insightful conversation covering all this and much more on this episode!

Billy Allen is the founder of 3kingvisions, a brand that is committed to fostering a love of reading in children. Billy is an Air Force veteran and a librarian with a Master's Degree of Library Science from North Carolina Central University. He has a strong passion for helping children develop the love of reading, and believes that reading is a crucial skill for children to develop at an early age.Through his animated story-time program, Billy showcases children's books through entertainment, songs, and finger-plays. This program is designed to engage and inspire young readers, and to help them develop a lifelong love of reading. In addition to his storytimes, Billy is dedicated to giving back to his community and spreading a positive light on reading. He is committed to promoting the importance of reading and its ability to enrich people's lives.Connect with Billy Allen:TikTok:            https://www.tiktok.com/@3KingVisionsInstagram:       https://www.instagram.com/3KingVisionsWebsite:          https://www.3KingVisions.comRegister for Pendulum Ink:https://www.pendulumink.com/?ref=lIfej7NVCZHXSGet a GreenLight Debit Card for Your Children:https://share.greenlight.com/96453721Register for Free Online Financial Literacy Courses:https://maliksfirstjob.banzai.org/wellness/collections/teaching-kids-financesPurchase Malik's First Job: Financial Principles for Teens:www.maliksfirstjob.comFollow Malik's First Job on Social Media:Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/maliksfirstjobInstagram:       https://www.instagram.com/maliksfirstjobTwitter:            https://www.twitter.com/maliksfirstjob

It's hilarious!!! Get your laughs and get in shape at the same time...it's never been easier. JOIN US with Billy Allen and Coach Mark Burik in today's episode. Learn how to be a star both on and off the sand!

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

This week I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Billy Allen aka "3kingvisions" aka "Mr. Leader of the New Cool" himself about his journey as a Black male librarian. We had a great conversation about his epic story times and his ability to keep children engaged and excited about reading in the library and through his social media platforms. We talked about his process and why. We also dived into how we as librarians can advocate for more people of color to enter into the profession of librarianship. Tune in for this amazing conversation. Follow him on Instagram @3kingvisions Check out his "Adventures With Mr. Billy" on his YouTube channel as this link https://www.youtube.com/c/3kingvisions You can follow me on Instagram @storieswithbri The video for this recording will be available on my Stories with Bri YouTube page at this link. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeZIER9uxLDYD7hOoA0p0cA Check out my website here. https://www.storieswithbri.com/ Please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to this podcast and my YouTube channel. Thank you for the support!

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"The Inner Knight: Train & Compete Like A Champion"- CLICK HERE to purchaseMore information about The Tribe--> https://kingdomcoachingtw.com/about/memberships-new

In Folge 4 besprechen wir das wunderbare Buch mit dem etwas eigenartigen Titel "Coach Your Brains Out" von John Mayer und Billy Allen. Wir teilen Ideen, die wir dem Buch entnommen und in unserem Trainingsalltag getestet haben. Viel Spaß!

Billy Allen is the founder of 3 King Visions which is more than just a brand name.  Under his brand, Billy reads children's books on YouTube and promotes education and resource awareness.  Billy is also the first Black branch manger for a public library in Las Vegas history.  Truly a moment in Black History as well.Happy #BHM #BlackHistoryMonth@3kingvisions on IG, Twitter, and FacebookSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=S3PL8MD58LJNQ)

-Mindset and preparation-Focusing on what you can control-Mindfulness practice and self-talk -Training and trusting mindsets-Lessons learned from Coach Your Brains Out-WritingCheck out Billy's books! https://www.amazon.com/Billy-Ketch-Allen/e/B07JCJ9Z9TWithin The Game Podcast https://www.withinthegame.com/ 

Billy Allen: 2x AVP Champion, Author, Podcast Co-Host Billy's Website: www.billyketchallen.com Coach Your Brains Out Podcast: https://apple.co/3GmvrxA Coach Your Brains Out Book: https://amzn.to/3HXWfog Links to his other books: https://amzn.to/3r9DDef In This Episode We Discuss: How to stay confident and focus on winning How to have emotional management "Mindfulness" Training & Self Talk Techniques like "Just Sitting" & "Just Playing" Identifying when you're in "Flow State" "Trusting Mindset" "Champion Mindset" The value of culture & relationships The value of Resiliency The value of "Framing" The power of Gratitude Coaching Tips Writing Tips

Hello everyone! We have talked a lot about the power of making learning relevant for students. It gets kids engaged and excited to be in class. But what happens when we look at ourselves? Are we staying relevant with the kids? Do we know that they like? Do we attempt to know their world and connect our lessons to what they are already engaged with? Billy Allen, founder of 3kingvisions, is here to help guide us to discover, not only why we should try to be relevant to the kids we serve, but also why being relevant included being diverse with what books we carry. In part two of this chat we discuss: The need for diversity Learning about other's experiences  Letting passion drive your mission …and so much more!     This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and their professional book, The Power of Teaching Vulnerably: How Risk-Taking Transforms Student Engagement by David Rockower. In The Power of Teaching Vulnerably, David Rockower illustrates the transformational impact on student learning that results when teachers lean into their own discomfort and share personal stories, write with their students, and navigate difficult classroom conversations. David unpacks three dimensions of what it means to teach with vulnerability (personal, relational, and dialogic), shows what each of these dimensions look like in the classroom, and offers action steps to get started. Learn more about how to transform student engagement in your classroom.  Visit Heinemann.com to download a sample from The Power of Teaching Vulnerably.

Hello everyone! We have talked a lot about the power of making learning relevant for students. It gets kids engaged and excited to be in class. But what happens when we look at ourselves? Are we staying relevant with the kids? Do we know that they like? Do we attempt to know their world and connect our lessons to what they are already engaged with? Billy Allen, founder of 3kingvisions, is here to help guide us to discover, not only why we should try to be relevant to the kids we serve, but also understand that you don't have to be something you're not to do this. You just need to be AUTHENTIC. In this chat we discuss: Why Billy became a librarian  How his career has changed over time Being a male teacher/librarian can be a difference maker The power of relevancy with young people  ...and so much more!     This episode is sponsored by Heinemann—the leading publisher of professional books and resources for educators—and their professional book, Four Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency by Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher. Four Essential Studies is based on the belief that secondary students can only be prepared for life after high school when we purposefully shift the decision-making in our classrooms over to them. By reimagining how we teach essay, poetry, digital composition, and sustain talk in book clubs, we can ignite student curiosity, independence, and decision-making skills. Penny and Kelly share the strategies and activities they use in their own classrooms over the course of each unit, and show us what is possible when we expect more than compliance from our students. Learn more about how to transform students' relationship with literacy.  Visit Heinemann.com to download a sample from Four Essential Studies.

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is AWESOME. This episode features Yariv Lerner, the CEO of Nu Boyana Film Studios, one of the largest film studios in Europe.  Why are we having a CEO of a film studio on the podcast? Because Lerner is producing a movie, Qualifying, depicting the grinding journey of the qualifier beach volleyball player, shooting it at Sofia Beach in Sofia, Bulgaria. Now, for the first time since Sideout, beach volleyball will be back on the big screen, and for the first time ever, it's going to be done right.  On this episode, we discuss: - How this movie came to be, and how a script written 20 years ago by Tom Black was revived to become a bona fide movie - How Lerner became so passionate about beach volleyball, beginning on the coasts of South Africa to Santa Monica - Lerner's legendary house in Santa Monica, which roofed players such as Billy Allen, Nick Lucena, John Mayer, Kevin Wong, and Adam Roberts, among others - The cast, plot, and projected release date of Qualifying And, as always, so much more.  ENJOY! *** We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/merchandise/ 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  Be sure to check out some of the coolest beach volleyball gear in the country at Vollis Beach! Recently partnered with LuLu Lemon, Vollis is offering high quality, good looking apparel, and you can get it at a discount using Travisfans to get 15 percent off! https://www.vollisgear.com/ SHOOTS!

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Andy Benesh, new partner of Billy Allen. On this episode, we discuss: - Andy getting the call from Billy, and the difficult decision he had to make in leaving Eric Beranek (who has since partnered with Troy Field) - What his vision for his future in beach volleyball looks like, and what he wants it to look like - An overseas career in Switzerland that was cut short - Quitting his job as a Certified Financial Planner to become..a beach volleyball player That, and so much more. This episode, as always, is brought to you by our good friends at Wilson Volleyball, who make the best balls in the game, hands down. To get 20 PERCENT OFF your next Wilson purchase, use our discount code, SANDCAST-20!  SHOOTS!

This is the podcast for Watoto Entertainment & Education, a..k.a. WEE Nation, hosted by radio personality and Children's Drumcussionist, Uncle Devin. It is the companion to WEE Nation Radio, a 24/7 online children and family music radio program that provides music beyond the mainstream, including Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz, Go-Go, Reggae, and more. If you are tired of Kids Bopp, then you will love WEE Nation Radio.For more information, go to www.WEENationRadio.com.

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Billy Allen, one of our favorites on the show who recently published his third book, Dark Blood, which you can find on Amazon and anywhere books are sold.  In our conversation with Billy Allen, we discuss: - His recent move Idaho, the new beach volleyball hotbed (we kid) - His book, Dark Blood, and the year and a half that went into writing it - His plans for beach volleyball, and how he will still be pursuing a full-time international and domestic career on the FIVB and AVP tours - New Coach Your Brains Out projects with his longtime partner and fellow good guy, John Mayer - Much more Thanks, as always, for listening to SANDCAST, which recently topped the charts for the most listened-to volleyball podcast in six countries! Your support means the world, and we hope you have the MERRIEST OF CHRISTMASES!  If you're looking for last-minute Christmas ideas, we know the perfect gifts for the beach volleyball fans in your family. Check out Wilson volleyball, and use our discount code, Sandcast-20, to get 20 PERCENT OFF!  And, if you're looking for a legit backpack, our guys at Kamena Outdoor make the absolute best backpacks on the beach, with more than 17 years of tweaking and modifying to make it the perfect, long-lasting backpack you need. Use our discount code DIGME to get another 20 PERCENT OFF! Thanks, as always, to you, the listeners. Y'all are the real MVPs.  SHOOTS!

-The importance of leading with principles-Clarity of purpose-Building trust with your athletes-Balancing high challenge and high supportLearn more from Travis:https://kingdomcoachingtw.com/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coaching-dna-podcast/id1463232323_____Support CYBO - https://www.patreon.com/coachyourbrainsoutBuy the book! https://www.amazon.com/dp/1098630904

Lauri Hakala is the current high performance coordinator for Olympic team sports in Finland. He takes us through five stages of deliberate practice: a specific task, a challenge, feedback, full focus, and varied repetitions.To support the show visit patreon.com/coachyourbrainsout

Theo Brunner was in need, he says, of a rebirth. Not quite a religious ceremony, but something to revitalize a beach volleyball career that had, while not sunk, gone a bit sideways. There was the chronic calf injury that flared up, a nod to the fact that he hadn’t really taken a full off-season in several years. There were the flashes of success – a silver at the Kuala Lumpur three-star with Reid Priddy – sprinkled in with missed opportunities – two crushing three-set losses in country quotas in Gstaad and Rome. The proverbial rebirth came in the most unwelcome of places, at the most unwelcome of times. Funny how it works like that. Theo Brunner was thrown back into an AVP qualifier. “At first I was super-bummed,” he said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, of he and John Hyden being seeded Q1 at AVP Chicago.  “But then I thought, this is good for me. It’s good to remember what it’s all about, see what everybody else has to go through every tournament, stop being all high horse, who cares about the qualifier. To get back in there was a nice thing.” It’s easy to say that in retrospect, of course. It would not have been easy for him to say that midway through the afternoon of August 29, when he and Hyden were down one set to none – 15-21, no less – to Jake Urrutia and Earl Schultz in the final round of the qualifier. Losing the second or the third would have meant the first failed attempt at an AVP main draw since 2009, when he and Matt Heagy fell in the second round in Ocean City. “I was like ‘Ah crap, what am I doing?’” Brunner said. “But it was a good reminder of the love of the grind, which you can forget sometimes.” Throughout literature, any moment of rebirth, of finding a new identity or rediscovering an old one, requires a trial. Brunner had his. And he and Hyden prevailed, winning the next two sets, 21-13, 15-7. It wouldn’t be until three weeks later, though, when he and Hyden were put back into the qualifier again, that they would return to the championship winning team they had been a year prior. It had barely been more than a calendar year since they won AVP Hermosa, coming back at the freeze to beat Billy Allen and Ryan Doherty, 16-14, in the third. They did that, however, as the one seed. In Hawai’i, for the final event of the year, they’d do so also as the one seed – in the qualifier.   Just as they did in Hermosa the year before, they returned to the final. And then the most poetic stories of the year came to a crashing halt. Hyden, at 47, would have broken his own record as the oldest to win an AVP title, in searing heat and shallow sand, no less. Had it not been for a Herculean performance from Taylor Crabb, Brunner and Hyden would have locked up the greatest storyline of the year. Alas, a 20-15 lead in the second set was undone by Crabb and Jake Gibb, just as another lead in the third was undone, thwarted once more by the Bug and Gibb. “Oh, Hawai’i,” Brunner lamented more than once on SANDCAST. “Still hurts.” And it will hurt for some time, to be sure, but never has there been a rebirth without a bit of discomfort. Brunner is now entering the off-season, his first blessed off-season in as long as he can remember, one of the most coveted free agents in the sport. Hyden has turned to Bill Kolinske, but after that, who knows where the chips may fall. Do Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger stay together? Billy Allen and Stafford Slick? Chaim Schalk and Jeremy Casebeer? Priddy? “It goes from the top down and I’ve been fortunate enough that I’m one of the guys people are waiting on,” he said. “I’ve been enjoying not being super focused on that stuff this off-season but I still have a bunch of people in mind and have chatted with a few different people. “My wife forced me to watch the bachelor and it just occurred to me that this is a lot like the bachelor. Just trying to find a mate for next season. It’s a lot like a relationship – this guy is really good at this, but I don’t know if we’d get along that well. It’s pretty funny.” And life, in beach volleyball, is fun again for Theo Brunner.

Upgrading Your Language Part 1 Billy Allen’s pro beach season recap. The pros discuss upgrading your language as a coach. Words have so much power, it is important to be purposeful in the language that you use. Gold Medal Squared At Your Fingertips Join GMS+ and gain complete access to the Gold Medal Squared library... The post Upgrading Your Language Part 1 appeared first on Gold Medal Squared Blog.

On this episode, we chat with Pro Wakeboarders Nic Rapa from Australia and Billy Allen from Canada. Rapa, who splits his time between Australian & USA was recently crowned the 2019 US National Champion and has dominated the circuits this year. Meanwhile, Allen hails from Canada and was the 2018 Canadian National Champion. Tune in while we chat about Wakeboard culture, the behind the scenes grind, what it takes to stay on top, catching Alligators and more as these two beauties explain how they Live The Dream

Join hosts Robert and KP as they speak to Billy Allen on The Dog Driver Show. If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter. If you would like to introduce friends or family to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions. Take the Survey. Sponsors:  Alaska Dog Works

Join hosts Robert and KP as they speak to Billy Allen on The Dog Driver Show. If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter. If you would like to introduce friends or family to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions. Take the Survey. Sponsors:  Alaska Dog Works

This is a big one! This week we are joined by USA Beach Superstar, Published Author, and Top Podcast Host BILLY ALLEN! Thanks to Friend of the Show Grant O'Gorman who helped schedule all of our international guests! Billy took the time to meet with us after winning the Bronze Medal at the Edmonton 3 Star.  Billy has represented the USA on the FIVB Beach Tour over 30 times and played in over 100 AVP events, winning Seattle twice. Billy is also an author of two books, one volleyball related, Coach Your Brains Out (link below), and one non volleyball related, Good Blood. Volleyball fans will also know Billy from the podcast Coach Your Brains Out, that comes out every Friday. Fans will also recognize Billy from Danny Kinda.  We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please leave a comment and a 5star rating. Make sure you subscribe for upcoming bonus content and new episodes every Friday! Stay Excellent Friends!   https://www.amazon.com/dp/1098630904 

Billy Allen & Stafford Slick – Part 2 Part 2 World Championships We continue our interview with the USA beach team of Billy Allen and Stafford Slick about their experience at the FIVB World Championships in Hamburg.  Go Social With Gold Medal Squared Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Gold Medal Squared At Your Fingertips Join GMS+... The post Billy Allen and Stafford Slick appeared first on Gold Medal Squared Blog.

The first notes on the Book of Andy Benesh came a little less than a year ago, about a six-hour drive north of Hermosa Beach. Adam Roberts was there to watch Benesh’s second-round match. Playing in just his second AVP qualifier, with little points to his name, Benesh came in as the 33 seed, meaning, after a pigtail round, he, with Cole Fiers, had top-seeded Myles Muagututia and Kyle Friend. “I saw him serve a ball, get to the net, get four blocks in a row, get an ace, and I was like ‘Who is this kid? Let’s see if he can set,’” Adam Roberts, Benesh’s current partner, said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “Standard big guy stuff, right? They serve Cole and he puts up a juicy set and I’m like ‘Man! What is his name? What is his number? I’m gonna tuck that one away.’” While Roberts had it tucked away, Benesh quietly made a few main draws. He wound up qualifying in San Francisco, upsetting Friend and Muagututia, 24-22, 21-17, and winning his next two matches. Then he and Fiers did it again in Hermosa. It was an auspicious start for Benesh’s beach career, one that really only began in earnest a few months prior to San Francisco. He had been an indoor kid, for the most part, growing up. Raised in Palos Verdes, he was named First Team All-American, put on the VolleyballMag.com Fab 50 list, All-Area, All-League, All-Everything. Those accolades earned him a spot as a middle at USC, where he started all 26 matches as a freshman, falling just shy of the Trojan hitting percentage record. So went the next three years at USC, where he continued to excel, eventually being named captain as a senior. But the only beach experience he had was messing around on the fours courts at 16th street. Which brings us back to Roberts’ key question for all big men: Could the kid set? Prior to AVP Huntington, Roberts set up a four-team practice, Benesh being one of the teams. There it was confirmed: Benesh could indeed put up a set, and after both failed to qualify in Huntington, both were looking for partners in Austin. Roberts turned back the clock to that day in San Francisco. Yes, Benesh would be quite the option.   Their first two tournaments, though, they fell short. A few quirky plays in the third set of the final round of the AVP Austin qualifier kept them out of main draw. Then came a first-round exit in New York and all of a sudden doubt began creeping in. “You look at it, and it’s ‘Are we a good team or are we not?’ We’re kinda looking at it like ‘Maybe we’re not that good’ but I was thinking ‘Man, I really think we’re a good team,’” Roberts said. “Even if you look at the results, losing the round to get in, lose first round, lose first round, maybe they’re not that good, but I just kept thinking we really have something special here. To me, it doesn’t make sense when guys make lateral moves mid-season. I just kept thinking: I think we’re a good team, I think we’re a good team.” The past few months, they’ve proved as much. They flew from New York and directly into an AVP Next Gold Series in Colorado, winning the tournament and, subsequently, a bid into the Manhattan Beach Open main draw. In Hermosa, they qualified for their first main draw, marking Benesh’s first in a year and Roberts’ first since Chicago of 2017 with – here’s a good beach volleyball trivia tidbit – Mark Burik. They were ecstatic, to be sure. But not satisfied. Not yet. “I texted Adam Thursday night and said ‘We’re not done yet,’” Benesh said. “I’m not just here to go 0-2 in the main draw. I’m trying to win some matches, see if we can compete at that level.” Oh, they competed all right. They came out and won their first main draw match 21-17, 21-11, setting up a match with fourth-seeded Billy Allen and Stafford Slick. And on a packed stadium court, they delivered the first major upset of the tournament, 23-21, 18-21, 15-11. A day later, they’d deliver another, eliminating seventh-seeded Chase Frishman and Avery Drost, 15-21, 21-18, 15-13. “Obviously coming out of the qualifier we don’t have that opportunity every tournament,” Benesh said of upsetting main draw teams. “So when you do you want to take advantage of it. I don’t think there was a team in the draw that we were intimidated by.” They’ll be back in the main draw again, in Manhattan Beach, now with a seventh-place finish under their belt, and a God-blessed day of rest prior to the tournament.   “It’s nice. It’s very nice,” Roberts said. “It kind of gives us a chance to really focus on a main draw. That extra day of rest is going to be very useful.”   

    The most difficult transition of Ryan Doherty’s new partnership, from John Hyden to Miles Evans, might not be the difference in playing style or personality or skill level or experience or energy level or setting preferences or serving or any of the other obvious tangibles that can make partner switching a sometimes-difficult ordeal. It might just be the high five. We joke, kind of, sort of. Because we’re also serious, kind of, sort of. “Our first couple times practicing, Miles kept coming in for the high five, and Hyden – we never high-fived,” Doherty said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “Miles would get an ace and I’d point and he’d be right behind me saying ‘Yeah! Let’s do this!’ “This is 9 a.m. on a Tuesday morning so I gotta get used to this puppy dog energy. I’m looking forward to it.” This is the next chapter of Ryan Doherty’s career, one that is nominated for the unofficial award of Most Likely to be Made Into a Movie. Since moving on from a professional baseball career that was beginning to flat line and making the cross-country trek to California, Doherty’s path was been wonderfully circuitous and, by all means, remarkably successful. His list of partners, despite not having a volleyball background, aside from pickup games against high schoolers in South Carolina and a few Great American Volleyball events in New Jersey, is a who’s who of the best American defenders of this generation. “I have been lucky enough to play with a murderer’s row of partners, some of the best defenders in the U.S,” Doherty said. “It started with Casey Patterson, Todd Rogers, Nick Lucena, Johnny Mayer, John Hyden, back to John Mayer, Billy Allen, and then John Hyden. I was always the younger one. As someone who tries to teach and I think I know a little bit about the game I think it might be fun to help out Miles a little bit, see if I can maybe guide him a little bit.” That group has combined for more than 150 professional wins and three Olympic appearances, five if you include Hyden’s two Olympics with the indoor national team in 1996 and 2000. That level was never Doherty’s goal. He’s not much of a goal guy. He’s always, simply, wanted to become the best beach volleyball player he can be, a path on which he’s still traveling. Now he’s playing a different role, from student and sponge, soaking up the knowledge of those who have been able to dispense it, to doing the same for the next generation of defenders, one who has a legitimate shot at making that Olympic level in the years to come. “He could easily move into that great category,” Bourne said, a sentiment with which Doherty agreed.     “I’ve seen Miles play for a couple years,” Doherty said. “He’s getting better and better and I don’t know how he’s going to try to turn that corner in terms of being a good player into a great one, one of the top players in the country. His skills are there, it’s just the experience, the comfort of being at the top level. I think with his natural abilities being really physical and my calm demeanor being able to bring him down when he gets a little too ramped up, I think that might help us out a bit.” The change, in general, will likely help them both. Evans hasn’t competed in an AVP main draw since Huntington of 2016. Now, he’s straight into main with Doherty. Doherty, meanwhile, admitted this year hasn’t been his finest. Sometimes a change, not begat out of ill will but out of a need for something different, is exactly the thing. “I haven’t been playing at a very high level, so it’s one of those things where if you’re not playing really well and you’re kinda miserable, what’s the point?” Doherty said. “Let’s try to do something different, mix it up. I have no ill feelings. I hope [Hyden] keeps dominating till he’s 50 years old. I figured I’d try something new.” And so, in Evans, he is. And the next chapter of the fascinating book that is the life of Ryan Doherty begins.  

Better Horses Radio NATIONAL with Ernie Rodina and Dawn Dawson, featuring special guest interviews from Steve Stafford, Billy Allen, Josh Rushing, Steve Ross and Craig Cameron.

Better Horses Radio NATIONAL with Ernie Rodina and Dawn Dawson, featuring special guest interviews from Steve Stafford, Roger Dailey, Billy Allen, and Dr. Fred Gardner.

To be honest, the sound bye you’re looking for in this podcast comes around the three-minute mark. You can fast forward there if you’d like. Tri Bourne, taking SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter on the road for a training camp in Florida, asks Phil Dalhausser and his coach, Jason Lochhead if they are all in for the upcoming quad. “Yep.” “Yep.” Two words. All you need to know. Dalhausser and Nick Lucena are all in for the two-year push for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.   Over the past few months, as it goes with beach volleyball, there has been no shortage of speculation in regards to the career plans of Dalhausser and Lucena. Rumors of retirement. Rumors of partner switching. Rumors of one final push. All of those rumors, dispelled with a simple yep. “It’s going to be quite a battle this time around,” said Bourne, who narrowly missed qualifying for the 2016 Olympics with John Hyden, edged out by Dalhausser and Lucena and Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb. With Dalhausser and Lucena confirming they’re intentions for the upcoming Olympic race, a battle is exactly what it will be. Dalhausser and Lucena will be slotted as the unquestioned favorites, followed by Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb and then a mess of three to six teams – Bourne and Trevor Crabb, Billy Allen and Stafford Slick, Reid Priddy and Theo Brunner, Ryan Doherty and John Hyden, Miles Evans and Billy Kolinske, Casey Patterson and Chase Budinger – all of whom could reasonably make an international push. Which makes the preseason work all that more important. After the Fort Lauderdale Major was cancelled, Bourne and Crabb simply kept their tickets and decided to train with Dalhausser and Lucena, hence the Florida-based podcasts and a week of two-a-day practices and Brazilian BBQ with coach Jose Loiola and the girls team, Sara Hughes and Summer Ross, at night. “Jose saw we had a big break after Fort Lauderdale got canceled so he wanted to get us out of California and switch it up,” Crabb said. “It’s a good idea. You get, over and over again practicing the same thing for two months straight in California is a little much. Especially when you get the opportunity to train against Phil and Nick, one of the best teams in the world, it’s good.” Bourne and Crabb are still experimenting with their approach to an Olympic quad. They’re trying out a new system – split-blocking – new sides, new offenses, new everything. For Dalhausser and Lucena, who have a combined four Olympics between them, while Lucena had a narrow miss in 2012, this is nothing new. “When I come in, it’s not like I tell you what to do,” said Lochhead, who coached Canada in the 2016 Olympic Games. “It’s, ‘We have three minds, let’s check out ideas and what things are going to be the best.’ It won’t work if I just come home and tell them what to do. They have a ton of experience. They know what’s going on. I always think, if you tell someone what to do, in their mind, it’s hard for them to really do it because they don’t truly believe it but if you talk it out with them and hear their thoughts and hear their ideas it almost becomes their idea and their thought then they truly believe it and go 100 percent at it.” For one final Olympics, Dalhausser and Lucena are 100 percent in.  

Jon Mesko sincerely hopes you had a merry Christmas. He really does. He’s no Scrooge or Grinch. But there’s another holiday he loves, a “Festivus for the rest of us!” Those not indoctrinated with the classic Seinfeld episode, allow Frank Castanza, father of George Castanza, explain. “At the Festivus dinner, you gather your family around, and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you.” “Is there a tree?” “No, but there’s a pole. No decorations. I find tinsel distracting.” “Festivus is back!” Frank declares in the episode that aired on Dec. 18, 1997. He couldn’t have possibly realized that, indeed, 21 years later, it would be back, at Mesko’s new – and popular amongst the beach volleyball crowd – restaurant, Serve on Second. But does Mesko have any grievances to air? Any long held grudges with the beach volleyball community? “I’m here to air the grievances for Festivus,” he said, grinning, on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I got a lot of problems with you people and now you’re going to hear about it.” He said this with a smile, one that suggests he was half-joking, half-serious. If you’ve messed with his nets, or his courts, or his cables, well, you might be getting a grievance from Mesko, who is so particular about the heights of his nets – formerly located on eighth street in Hermosa, now on 35th – that, prior to this year’s Manhattan Beach Open, he went out on center court, measured it, and – aha! He knew it! – the net was an inch low. “The AVP has historically put it an inch and a half low, and the FIVB has put it an inch to an inch and a half high,” he said. “So what I decided was, ‘I’m going to walk out to the Manhattan Open final, right before Nick and Phil played Jake and Taylor,’ and it was one inch low, and that’s what the AVP sets it at, and that’s fine, so that’s what I set my net at now. I want to play what AVP, domestic tournaments are playing at.”  It is, among other enviable traits, this borderline OCD attention to detail that has allowed Mesko to be so successful in so many endeavors, and in risky fields – beach volleyball, the restaurant business – too. “I enjoy just kind of making things a little bit better and improving things,” he said. “When I arrived at eighth street, it was pretty much just Rosie’s Raiders, hanging out and drinking, and I put out a new net and cables, putting down lines, and people just strted showing up to play. It culminated one day in 2012 with Brink and Reckermann and Jake and Rosie and the Russians and New Zealand and China and it was everybody. I just stood back and looked at it and thought it was pretty fun to watch. People just hung out after practice on my porch.” Ah, yes, Mesko’s porch. If you’re in beach volleyball, you have likely hopped the Strand wall in Hermosa Beach and hung out on Mesko’s porch, either talking volley, losing money in backgammon, betting on something or other, perhaps measuring your height on the once-famed wall, which has since been torn down with his old place on eighth. The wall grew so famous, in fact, it had its own spread in DiG Magazine.  “The most amusing part for me was watching people tell Adam [Roberts] what they thought their height was and then seeing their real height,” he said. “Almost everybody was about an inch high except for Phil [Dalhausser], who said ‘I’m 6-9’ and, yeah, he was 6-9.” The wall. The backgammon. The porch. The set up. The constant, top-tier talent, both international and domestic, practicing on his courts. Not bad for a guy from Michigan who hadn’t played much beach volleyball prior to moving to California in 2002 and qualifying, for the first time, in 2006, seeded Q60 with Billy Allen. Since, he has played in more than 100 domestic tournaments, won the NVL Soul Award, enjoyed some NORCECA – don’t ask him about the net height in NORCECAs – success and built not one but two unofficial training centers, where players gravitate towards his courts like moths to a flame. “I’ve always been kind of a bigger picture, swing for the fences, shoot for the stars kind of guy, so I really try to ask the right questions,” Mesko said. “If you really want to play high level volleyball, you’re going to end up in the South Bay or Rio or Southeast Florida. That’s where you’re going to end up. “So at that time, 15 years ago, I was interested in girls and bikinis and playing really good volleyball and everything in between. That was Hermosa Beach. And I started looking around and thought it would be really cool to live on the Strand, so I started asking questions, ‘Well, what does it take?’ And a guy said ‘It’s going to cost $5 million dollars, minimum’ and I used that as a bar, ‘What would it take for me to make that much money?’ And I used that algorithm to maybe get there. I suppose we’re there now.”

As if his path to beach volleyball wasn’t unique enough – raised in Minnesota, little to no volleyball background aside from a little club indoor, not a clue who men named Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser were – in his nine-year career thus far, Stafford Slick may have authored his own personal record book. Name another who has played with six different Olympians, including three gold medalists. Or anyone crazy enough to play in 17 – 17! – different NORCECAs with eight different partners. “We might have to do some fact checking,” Slick said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “But I think I’ve played with more Olympians than anyone else. I played with Dain [Blanton], retired him, put him out to pasture. I played with Rogie [Todd Rogers] in his last event, so I retired him. I played with Rosie [Sean Rosenthal], I played with Casey [Patterson], I played with Adrian [Carambula], who wasn’t an Olympian at the time, but he is now. And then I played with Reid Priddy. That’s another thing I might have a record for: I have a lot of partners too.” For an individual who has been playing beach volleyball for a hair over nine years, indeed, Slick has gone through his fair share of partners, though that’s less a detractor from his talent than it is an indicator of it. It’s only so often you get a coordinated, athletic, hand-setting 6-foot-8 blocker out of Minnesota. “I guess those guys saw something in me,” Slick said. And of all people, it was Blanton, a gold medalist, who saw it first. Slick was in his cabin in Minnesota for a July 4 getaway in 2010 when he got the call: Blanton, a gold medalist alongside Eric Fonoimoana in the 2000 Sydney Games, wanted to give Slick a shot. They’d be automatically in the main draw, Slick’s first. He wouldn’t even have to qualify. “It was huge for me,” Slick said. “Dain was kinda poking around, looking for a big man to play with because it was the tenth anniversary of his gold medal. So he was kind of connected with some of the people in the USA office and they dropped my name.” And just like that, Slick had his first of many accomplished partners. And yet, funnily enough, his unofficial Olympic partnership record may have never happened without his willingness to play in his unofficial record number of NORCECAs that, frankly, borderlines on absurd. “I don’t think that would happened without me playing all those NORCECAs,” he said. Because about those NORCECAs: They were on a lower international tier than they are now. When Slick moved to California in 2009, NORCECAs didn’t count for international points. The prize money, even if you won, wouldn’t cover the expenses for the majority of the tournaments. The incentive for American teams was, well, what was the incentive? In Slick’s case, to put your name on the map. “In 2009 and 2010, it was trying to scrounge and figure out a way to keep playing, and at the time, NORCECAs didn’t count for international points, so it was just sign up,” Slick said. “Back when I started playing it was ‘Hey can we play in this tournament?’ and they said ‘Great!’” So he did. He played with Mark Burik and Billy Allen, Even Engle and Will Montgomery, John Mayer and Casey Jennings, Priddy and Marcin Jagoda. Seventeen of them. Enough to get Slick on the map. Enough to get him a partnership with a gold medalist in just his second year attempting to qualify. Enough to kickstart a career that, two years from now, could turn Slick into an Olympian himself. Indeed, he has come a long way from the guy with the blonde Viking locks who didn’t know who Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser were. Back with Allen, with whom he won his first AVP tournament, Slick is no underdog to make Tokyo, should that be their goal. "When it came time to make that decision, it was something that just fit," he said. "It was something that just made sense. That was a big part of our conversation was 'Do our goals align? Are we making a run for Tokyo?' I"m excited. I'm hopeful." Popular on SANDCAST:SANDCAST: Eric Zaun, the Happy Gilmore of the AVP TourSANDCAST: Taylor Crabb, AVP Seattle championSANDCAST: Sarah Sponcil, Pac-12 Champ, National Champ, AVP FinalistSANDCAST: Jake Gibb ain't finished playing yet!SANDCAST: Tri Bourne is BACK ON THE BEACH Train like the pros, with the pros, at VolleyCamp Hermosa! Recover the right way with Firefly: Accelerated Athletic Recovery Choose the ball the pros use. Choose Wilson and use our discount code: WILSONSAND FOR 20 PERCENT OFF!

Part 2 of our crossover with the NCOPD Podcast. Jordan Smith interviews Billy Allen. The post NCOPD interviews Billy Allen appeared first on Gold Medal Squared Blog.

It’s fitting that John Mayer would spend much of his retirement podcast talking about everyone except John Mayer. Much of it was spent discussing Trevor Crabb, despite Mayer even catching himself midway through and mentioning that he didn’t want it to be “a full Trevor Crabb podcast.” It didn’t stop him from singing Crabb’s praises further, though, nor did it stop him from elaborating on the positives of former partners Jeremy Casebeer, Ryan Doherty, Brad Keenan as well as his podcast partner, Billy Allen. Almost anyone who Mayer came into contact with over the course of a career that spanned from 2003-2018, he made sure to bring up. It was a podcast as fitting as the manner in which he made his retirement known, which is to say, completely on accident. “I didn’t want to make a deal of it,” he said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I had known this year – it’s just been so hard to do LMU and play at a high level, and I felt like I was being average at both. And plus, my passion’s gone to coaching. I just love it, I get consumed by it. I thought this might be my last year [playing]. I just thought I’d see how I feel in the off-season, if I felt like I was missing something. I still loved all the coaching and I wasn’t missing the lifting and conditioning. “I told my wife on our way to the AVP banquet, because she’s the one who would say something, just ‘Please don’t say anything. I don’t have a speech prepared, not that anyone would care’ but I knew she might say something to Mark [Schuermann, the AVP’s emcee]. She said ‘Oh, yeah, I won’t say anything,’ so the night was going through fine, ‘Alright, I’m off the hot seat, having a good time, just hanging out,’ and at the end of the night, Mark starts talking about me, and I’m like ‘What is he doing?’ And he says ‘Come up here!’ And I’m like ‘Why do I have to go up there?’ And he says ‘You gotta say something!’ My absolute nightmare.” The reception, of course, was warm across the board. Quiet and humble, soft-spoken and endearingly self-deprecating, Mayer is retiring as one of the most respected players in the country, both for the way he played and the manner in which he carried himself. Retiring, too, almost seems like a misnomer. He’s retiring as a player, yes, but Mayer actually might be on the beach more now than in the past decade. With the time he’d typically devote to the weight room, he’s now available to coach beach teams, the first of which to hire him is Billy Allen and Stafford Slick. He’s helping launch a beach division of Gold Medal Squared. He’s devoting more of himself to Loyola Marymount, the program he has helped improve from 6-17 to 15-14 to 22-14. And even the unquestionable, objective improvement he has overseen at LMU, he had to shed the credit. “I think I just scheduled more matches so we could get more wins,” he said, laughing. Ah, yes, it’s never to his own credit. The four AVP wins, two FIVB gold medals, 2015 AVP, 2015 Best Defensive Player – all a credit to someone else who helped him along the way, be it a coach (“I owe Tom Black everything,” he said), a partner, his wife, anyone. That’s Mayer. He even mentioned that perhaps he would have had a more successful career in spots had he chosen to focus on improving himself a little more as opposed to always, always, always attempting to bring the best out of his partner. But that just wouldn’t have been Mayer. He’s a coach, after all. Through and through. Now he’s set aside to become the best he can be at that, a role in which his own improvement will mean the inevitable improvement and development of those around him. A role befitting the man who has always put others first.

Dane Selznick has seen it all. Seen every last one of beach volleyball’s many evolutions. He was there when players competed for little more than pride and maybe – maybe – a free dinner. He was there when two men named David Wilk and Craig Masuoka formed a promotional company named Event Concepts and began hauling in the Millers and Cuervos of the world and throwing legitimate prize money into tournaments. He was there when the AVP Tour was founded, in 1984, and when it collapsed, and when it formed again, and when it collapsed once more, to be revived in its current iteration under Donald Sun. He’s seen both the golden era, financially, when 10 players once banked more than $100,000 in prize money alone, and he’s seen the most dominant era, when Kerri Walsh-Jennings and Misty May-Treanor once rattled off 112 straight wins and three consecutive gold medals from 2004-2012. And now he is witness once more to the latest permutation in professional beach volleyball, the upstart event series, p1440, founded by Walsh-Jennings and her husband, Casey, and former college teammate Dave Mays. In March, Selznick, who had been a tournament director for the California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA), founding the Gene Selznick Invitational, an eponymous nod to his father, was hired as p1440’s Director of Competition and Sport. “About a year ago, Kerri approached me and said ‘Dane I have a project I’d love for you to be a part of,’” Selznick said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “She gave me a little bit of background, I brought it to the head staff at CBVA, got their opinion to see if it would be a good fit, and here we are. Everything’s moved along pretty quickly.” Blindingly fast may be a more apt description. P1440 has announced dates for four events in its inaugural season, one of which will be an Olympic qualifier in Las Vegas, while the other three are partnered with the FIVB as international exhibitions. They’ve announced a lengthy list of sponsors that includes ROKA (eyewear), Alsa Energy (water), RX (protein bars), Brand X (strength and conditioning programs), AcuSpike (volleyball training), NormaTec (recovery), among a host of others. They’ve formed a developmental training program, replete with an armada of the finest coaches in the world, and a partnership with the CBVA, the pipeline from which many of the top players in the country cut their teeth, and where p1440 is now hosting what’s known as “satellite qualifiers,” allowing players to compete locally, weeks prior to the event itself, for a spot in the main draw. “They looked at our [CBVA] schedule extensively, and they were trying to select those certain events that they felt fit the mold to be a qualifying point-getter for the players,” Selznick said. “There are specific tournaments that we have that award you p1440 points. The qualifying satellites are enticing for the players because it gives them something more than playing in a tournament. Now they’re playing for a main draw spot in tournaments that offer high level competition, a lot more prize money – you’re guaranteed more money just getting into the tournament. I think being an alternative tour to what we’ve got going on, as long as it’s not conflicting, I see no problem with it, because it really gives players a lot more opportunities to make money.” More opportunities has been the theme of the past few months. In 2018, the AVP put on eight open events, one of which was partnered with the FIVB in Huntington Beach, before adding invitationals in Hawai’i and Huntington Beach. The upstart King of the Court series hosted another handful, to go along with upwards of 40 FIVBs of varying levels. And now there’s p1440, adding events at the end of September (San Jose), mid-October (Las Vegas), end of November and early December (San Diego) and mid-December (Huntington Beach), with events on the horizon in Texas, Florida and Los Angeles. “It seems like a pretty exciting time right now for the sport in general,” Tri Bourne said. “It’s cool, I think the sport is gaining a lot of momentum right now. There’s a lot of people like yourself and p1440 and AVP and King of the Court and FIVB and CBVA that are all kind of creating opportunities in their own way. I think it’s great. It seems like the sport is gaining some momentum.” That next opportunity begins Thursday, with the San Jose on-site qualifier, and extends through the weekend, in a domestic event that features the top two teams in the world of each gender – Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sorum and Brazilians Carolina Salgado and Maria Antonelli – as well as a host of the best talent in the United States – Sean Rosenthal and Chase Budinger, Jeremy Casebeer and Reid Priddy, Billy Allen and Theo Brunner, Chaim Schalk and Piotr Marciniak, Walsh-Jennings, Nicole Branagh and Lauren Fendrick, Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman, Caitlin Ledoux and Geena Urango. “It’s just great to have more opportunity,” Selznick said. “Bottom line. Every entity should take care of its athletes. It’s like the Olympic Games, the athletes are No. 1.”

Better Horses Radio Worldwide with Ernie Rodina and Ed Adams, featuring special guest interviews from Sarah Leonhard, Amy Wilson, and Billy Allen.

Rafu Rodriguez-Bertran was not supposed to win an AVP this year. Heck, he wasn’t even sure if he’d play an AVP this year. This past winter, he had a son, Nico, his first child. His club in Temecula, Viper Volleyball, was growing and taking off. He’d had an excellent career, one that took him as high as the 2015 World Championships. It was time for a shift in priorities. He told this to his partner, Piotr Marciniak, who nodded and went to Ty Loomis for Austin. Rafu sat out. And then beach volleyball happened. Partners changed. Eric Zaun moved from Ed Ratledge to Tim Bomgren, leaving Ratledge without a partner. Which brings us to another point: Ed Ratledge was not supposed to win an AVP this year. He’s 41, been trying for 18 years. Dumped by the partner with whom he’d had his most career success, Ratledge, it seemed, was on his way out, no different than Rafu. Like Rafu’s club, Rateldge’s business, VolleyOC, was constantly expanding. And so the most wonderful band, one quasi-retired, one sort of reprioritizing, was formed. “It’s sort of stepping out, kind of doing it part-time slash full-time,” Rafu said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I have some other stuff to do but I still want to train and I still want to compete because In like competing but for sure, I never had it in my mind that I would be in that final. Ed is the same way: he loves playing. We do it for fun because that’s what we want to do. That takes away all of the pressure.” So what did their pre-semifinal routine look like? What was the master strategy to toppling Billy Allen and Ryan Doherty and then Sean Rosenthal and Chase Budinger? What was the key to unlocking 18 years of championship buildup for Ratledge? “It’s like, ‘Let’s just go out and play.’ We didn’t even have a strategy going into the semifinals,” Rafu said, laughing when saying it aloud, as if it just occurred to him how outrageous that is. “[Sunday] morning he was on the phone, setting up his tournaments back home, on the phone, and then we skateboard down to the site and ‘Hey, let’s just play!’ It worked out. I don’t know why. No pressure. Just play. It’s so fun because there’s never a single drop of pressure between us.” They play free and weird, and in this world, weird is the most supreme of compliments. Ratledge’s dialogue with the fans is one of a kind, and his arm swing, coined the “wet noodle” by Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb on the New York livestream a year ago, is the most frustrating swing on tour, one that doesn’t bring a tremendous amount of pace but was, by tournament’s end, the most effective of any player in San Francisco. “And,” Rafu added, “he optioned at least 50 percent of balls I passed.” Unconventional. Weird. Quirky. From the dialogue to how they’ve both taken half-steps back in order to achieve their career bests. But really, is there any other way it could have gone? “It’s kind of crazy, all the messages and all the people that are interested and are aware of what’s going on and watching,” Rafu said. “It’s pretty fun, it’s pretty cool to have all that support. Even when you don’t know there’s not many people watching you. It’s cool.”

Patricia Orozco knew Mike Dodd was serious the day he picked her up at UCLA in 1985. She knew he was serious because, after taking her to Marine Street for a crash course in beach volleyball, he took her to The Kettle for lunch in Manhattan Beach. “And it was like ‘Whoa!’ If you get taken to The Kettle for lunch then this he’s serious,” she said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. Serious enough that, a year later, they wed, and Patty took Dodd’s last name, and 33 years later they remain not only happily married, but business partners and elite coaches in the Manhattan Beach area where Patty began to learn the beach game. Well, Patty is at least an elite coach. Mike is technically, and hilariously, the equipment manager at MB Sand Volleyball Club, and he takes his job seriously enough that when Patty couldn’t make it one day, one of the 12-year-olds commented that MB Sand must be running terribly low on coaches because the equipment guy had to fill in. She had no idea the equipment guy was a five-time Manhattan Beach Open champion and Olympic silver medalist. “The mom just could not wait to call me, because she knows Mike’s background,” Patty said, laughing. “That’s what 12-year-olds can say. The janitor is going to run practice.” Some janitor. And some janitor’s wife, too. Let’s, for a moment, put their prolific playing careers aside – and indeed they were prolific – and examine only their coaching backgrounds. When Patty graduated from UCLA, she took up an assistant opening with the Bruins indoor team. They won a national championship in the very first year. “I knew early on that I wanted to do this,” she said. “I just fell into being a graduate assistant in my fifth year and we won NCAA and it’s like ‘Oh, yeah, alright, I like this. I really like this.’ I was so young at the time, but the fact that what you said had an effect on the player or the play or the outcome, I was hooked. “It just took me a while to get to the coaching part because I was doing my playing part.” And she did her playing part well. A native of Bogota, Colombia, Dodd graduated from high school in 1980 and moved to Santa Fe Springs, where she could learn English and play volleyball for a local club team. Within those six months she had offers to play for UCLA, Hawaii, USC and Oregon. "I remember when I first saw her at a Christmas tournament," then-UCLA women's volleyball Coach Andy Banachowski, who has led his teams to four national championships, told the Los Angeles Times. "I was looking down in the Sports Arena and I saw this girl move incredibly well. What really caught my attention is that I didn't know who she was because I know all the kids in the area with talent." "When Andy came up to me," Orozco told the Times, "I couldn't even understand him. I was even named all-tournament and didn't even know what that meant." The accolades, she’d soon become quite familiar with, setting UCLA single-season kills (627), single-match kills (33) and single-match digs (30). As a senior in 1983, she led the Bruins in kills with 403. She still had yet to step foot on a beach. She finished her grad year at UCLA and competed for a year in Italy, where she initially met Dodd. Who better to teach her the beach game, then, but the man she met in Italy who was in the midst of winning four consecutive Manhattan Beach Opens? Yes, the janitor can coach, too. She proved a quick learner, too, Patty. By 1989, just four years after Mike took her to Marine Street and provided the Beach Volleyball 101 crash course, Patty, partnered with Jackie Silva, won 11 of 13 tournaments. Four times that year, Patty and Mike won tournaments on the same weekend, becoming the first married couple to do so. By the time they finished competing, with six total Manhattan Beach Opens to the family name, the Dodds combined for 89 wins and nearly $2 million in prize money. Now they’re teaching others to compete and thrive like they once did. Aside from serving as the most over-qualified equipment manager in beach volleyball history, both Mike and Patty help with USAV National Team practices. She loves the quiet tenacity of April Ross, the genial intensity of Kelly Reeves, the efficiency of Taylor Crabb and Billy Allen. More than that, above all, as it almost always has been, she loves to coach. Loves to teach. Loves to pass on the gifts that to this day she’s still developing herself. “I’m really enjoying MB Sand,” she said. “It really gives me immense joy to see the kids develop their game and to see them make friendships and different partners. It’s such a healthy environment to build beach volleyball. “I love that about beach volleyball, that the kids need to be great at all of the skills. It just brings me a lot of joy to do it.” 

One day. That’s it. That’s all Tim Bomgren and Taylor Crabb had for practice prior to AVP Austin. Crabb needed an emergency fill-in after Jake Gibb broke his toe. To the lefty from Minnesota he turned, despite never having played with Bomgren before, despite never having played with a lefty before. Not that any of this is unusual for Bomgren. He lives in Minnesota yet is one of the best blockers in the country. While many in Southern California are training four or five days a week in April, sometimes using sand socks because it’s too hot, Bomgren is shoveling snow, sometimes using sand socks because it’s too cold. The only other time Bomgren had made an AVP semifinal was in New Orleans of 2015, in which he and his brother, Brian, practiced for maybe two weeks prior. One day? Sounds about right. “We talked about blocking calls and all that, we talked about who’s taking middle, who’s making the call when someone’s serving,” Bomgren said. “Taylor and Jake run a push to the outside – high, middle, low. Most teams do the same thing and I do the same thing with Brian. We talked about what his calls are, what my calls are and where to err. “I prefer the ball to be further inside than outside and Taylor’s the same way. Talking those things out makes a huge difference in how the game flows.” Indeed. Whatever adjustments Bomgren and Crabb made, they worked. In a 16-team draw that featured a fully-loaded field, in which the only absent American was the one for whom Bomgren filled in, they made the finals. Every team on their road to the finals had made at least the semifinals in the past year. “It was extremely difficult,” Bomgren said. “I personally had to take myself out of the play, just kind of take it step by step, and I’m not trying to look at ‘I need to win three more matches today.’ It’s ‘I need to pass this ball, where it needs to be, so Taylor can set me.’ It was breaking it down for me, when we’re serving and receiving, taking it step by step and doing what you can, seeing how the plays turn out.” Most turned out quite well. Some didn’t. They lost their second match, against Ryan Doherty and Billy Allen, a match in which Bomgren sprained his ankle, though he made sure to note on SANDCAST that the sprain was not the reason they lost. Allen and Doherty played better. That was it. “In the first game, we controlled the match, we controlled our side of the net, and what happened was game two and game three we had a slow start, and that was largely due to what we did on our side of the net,” Bomgren said. “They were things we can control. So we tried to refocus that, and credit to Billy and Ryan, they played phenomenal volleyball. They ended up controlling the last two games and, ultimately, the match. “We tried to refocus and we kept things simple on our side. Control our side of the net, do what we can do, and not do too much.” And in not doing too much, ironically, Bomgren, on a bum ankle, with a partner he had never played with, after just a week or so of touching a ball, in heat that is entirely foreign to his native Minnesota, did more than he ever has on the AVP Tour. He and Crabb won their next four matches, including the always-alluring Crabb on Crabb quarterfinal matchup, including a three-set, nearly two-hour grinder in a rain-soaked semifinal against Reid Priddy and Jeremy Casebeer. Just Tim being Tim. “I think I played once and had four drilling sessions,” he said of his preparation, laughing. “Brian and I are both the type of players, and we’re very gracious for it, but we’re not the type of players who need 1,000 reps a day to stay fresh and stay on top of our game. We kind of pick it up as we go. “Ultimately, what it comes down to, you get into that game situation, especially on the AVP Tour, and it doesn’t matter.  If you’re focused, you know what you’ve been practicing, you know what you’ve been doing. Once I’m focused, and I’m into the game, I’ve done it 1,000 times. Once you get into that game mindset, everything comes back to you.” All the way from Minnesota to the finals.

It's a wonder how they're not brothers, John Mayer and Billy Allen. Similar demeanors – calm, collected, neither too high nor too low. Similar styles of play – crafty, ball-control-oriented, hyper-efficient. Similar hobbies – reading, coaching, dadding. Mayer thinks Allen has always been the better of the two. Allen thinks the same about Mayer. Any pandering to the crowd is done mostly in jest, Allen flexing after a float serve ace or a poke kill, though that's more than Mayer will generally do. He might offer the slightest of smiles. One of their chief similarities one might notice – and will inevitably notice if you listen to their podcast, Coach Your Brains Out – is the importance they place on mindset, emphasizing the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. “One thing I've learned is that we all have fixed mindsets and we don't even realize we have fixed mindsets,” Mayer says on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “It's really hard and the shift is never ending.” And neither, it's become evident, is their improvement. Mayer, after making just three career AVP finals in his first 11 years on Tour – it should be noted that he also made a pair of Corona Wide Open finals in 2011 – made four in 2015 alone, winning in New Orleans with Ryan Doherty. It culminated in him being named AVP MVP. Allen has seen a similar ascent. From 2004-2015, he failed to make a single AVP final, which set up a breakout pair of seasons in 2016 and '17, winning his first career AVP in Seattle in 2016 with Theo Brunner and following it up the next year with Stafford Slick. His win with Slick was sandwiched between a pair of finals appearances, the first in New York, where he fell to Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb, and then San Francisco, where an injury limited Slick. Allen and Mayer discuss their ascents, their shifts in mindsets and what their future looks like on SANDCAST.

The 2018 beach volleyball season is, remarkably, upon us. In a way, at least.  The FIVB kicked off the 2018 year in the very first week of the year, hosting an indoor beach tournament at The Hague, a four-star event to open the season, hauling in a variety of new partnerships and unfamiliar faces. One of those new partnerships, of course, was that of April Ross and Alix Klineman, who took the longest road possible, battling through a pair of country quota matches, two more in the qualifier, and then running off six straight-set wins in the main draw to claim gold, beating Brazil's Maria Antonelli and Carolina Salgado – another team that came out of the qualifier – in the finals. “I'm going to be riding high on this win for awhile and this week in The Hague was a blast,” Ross wrote on Instagram afterwards. “Pretty excited or this journey.” It was Klineman's first international beach tournament, though far from her first time on a big stage, having played on both the Brazil and Italian indoor leagues. As for the rest of the U.S. teams, though, it wasn't quite the start to the year many would have desired. Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes finished ninth, while Brooke Sweat and Summer Ross took a 17th and Lauren Fendrick and Karissa Cook finished 25th. The men didn't fare much better, with the new partnership of Billy Allen and Ryan Doherty claiming the highest finish of American teams at ninth. Casey Patterson and Stafford Slick and Miles Evans and Billy Kolinske both finished 17th. "It was definitely a little weird overall," said Trevor Crabb, who failed to make it out of the qualifier, on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. "Me and [Sean Rosenthal] pretty much decided we won't practice together before we left for the trip because I went back to Hawaii for the offseason and pre-season for six weeks, doing some training there, and I'm not exactly sure how much training he was doing. It was so early in the year, it's the end of off-season and beginning of pre-season, and it affected us for sure." 

Much to the disappointment of the listeners of Coach Your Brains Out and SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, there will be no Anchorman-esc battle between the two podcasts. We're now on the same team. That's right. VolleyballMag.com is now the distributor for both podcasts, which are as similar as they are different, both focusing on the same sport while diving into it in vastly dichotomous angles. Coach Your Brains Out began as many podcasts do: A few friends with a similar interest, an iPhone, and a bit of editing know-how. John Mayer, Billy Allen and Nils Nielsen put an iPhone on a table and just talked about whatever volleyball and coaching topics came to mind. Allen would edit, they'd post, and, as they joke frequently on the show, maybe a few people would even listen.    They enjoyed doing it. Soon, they realized more than a few actually enjoyed listening. The show expanded in every way a podcast could. The audience grew, the technology evolved from one iPhone to a few mics. Guests have been some of the top performers in their respective spaces, including the likes of volleyball legends Phil Dalhausser and Karch Kiraly, authors Joshua Medcalf and James Kerr, and coaches John Kessel and Tom Black, among dozens of others. It isn't just coaching they analyze, but traits and features of high performing individuals and teams, digging into the various recipes for greatness, both physiological and psychological. “Around the time we were starting it we were turned on to ideas like Train Ugly's website, a lot of ideas like motor learning and different ways to teach the game,” Allen said. “That was a lot of what sparked our first couple episode and we were fired up on that. Before we did the podcast it was fun to pick [John's] brain and just talk, that kind of stuff, and now we're still able to do that and get some great coaches from around the world too.” “We try to find people striving for mastery in whatever they do,” Mayer added. “Whatever ways we can find to be our best.” Coach Your Brains Out publishes on Thursdays, typically in 30-minute episodes. 

This week I sit down with Billy Allen and we discuss enlisting in the Army, Afghanistan, getting started flipping, rentals, land contracts, his nonprofit helping homeless vets, and more! Show Quote of the Week: “A single idea can transform a life, a family, a business, a nation, a world.” - Dan Zadra Billy Allen: Service Disabled Veteran Owned & Operated Business 1600 E Grand Blvd, Suite # 305 Detroit, MI 48211 (865)686-2313 William@allendevelopmentco.com http://allendevelopmentco.com http://facebook.com/allendevelopmentco https://www.linkedin.com/in/wjallenjr Renegade Detroit Investors http://RenegadeDetroit.com http://MeetUp.com/RenegadeDetroitInvestors http://Facebook.com/DetroitInvestmentClub http://Twitter.com/JeremyBurgess http://Youtube.com/user/DetroitWholesalers http://SoundCloud.com/RenegadeDetroitInvestors http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/renegade-detroit-investors

Billy Allen, a member of the AVP Tour for more than 10 years, joins Travis Mewhirter on Paper Courts. Allen discusses everything from rooming with the guy, Ty Tramblie, who was battling for the setter position at Cal State Northridge; life on the AVP Tour; winning his first AVP event in Seattle this past year; discovering the Frankfurt Airport, and Europe in general; and balancing family duties with a life on the beach.

The Lord has continued to bless Morrison Heights over and over for which we are abundantly grateful. Billy Allen shares with us an update on how the church is ministering, serving, and giving during this difficult year. He also reminds us how the Spirit can guide us each and every day.