Podcasts about Kelly Claes

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter features Sophie Bukovec, one of the fastest-rising defenders in the world. Anyone following the NCAA beach volleyball system has long known Bukovec is talented, when she won three National Championships at USC alongside Sara Hughes, Kelly Claes, Allie Wheeler, Nicolette Martin, and Terese Cannon, among others. But this good? Silver medal at World Championships good? She's even surprised herself. We chatted about that, and a whole lot more, including: How Bukovec became the first beach-only player in Canadian history How she came to USC, joining that venerated recruiting class Her decision to switch to defense, and how she and Brandie Wilkerson came to be partners The incredible run she and Wilkerson have had in 2022. And, as always, a whole lot more. ENJOY! *** NEW BOOK ALERT!!! Travis Mewhirter and Kent Steffes just published a seminal work on the history of beach volleyball in their new book, Kings of Summer: The Rise of Beach Volleyball. Check it out on Amazon!! https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Summer-rise-beach-volleyball/dp/B0B3JHFKM7/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1WGJFWHPBGPQ2&keywords=kings+of+summer+book&qid=1658922972&sprefix=kings+of+summer+book%2Caps%2C1328&sr=8-1 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 episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features the newest elite blocker on the AVP Tour: Taryn Kloth.  Kloth pulled off the virtually unprecedented in winning the first AVP event of her career alongside wunderkind Kristen Nuss, and in Manhattan Beach, the two claimed fifth, losing only to April Ross and Alix Klineman and Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes.  On this episode, we discuss: - How Kloth was able to manage the nerves of her first AVP main draw and win the whole thing, beating three Olympians in the process - Kloth's path to beach volleyball, from frigid South Dakota to hot and humid Louisiana - How a street sign was all she needed to turn down big offers indoors to pursue beach volleyball full-time - The mindset she has, and why choosing the difficult path is always the path for her And, as always, much, much more.  ENJOY!   *** 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!  

US swimmers sweep distant events + US breaks 4x100 relay! Gong Lijiao dominates women's shot put. Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil eliminated! Alexander Zverev wins gold and history is made in men's gymnastics. Xander Schauffele wins golf gold! Women's triple jump world record shattered + Lamont Marcell becomes the fastest man alive! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with (OLYMPIAN!!) Tri Bourne and (not Olympian) Travis Mewhirter is a unique one. Again, we are turning to fan questions, as Mewhirter and our popular new cohost, Savvy Simo, a phenomenal player in her own right, discuss the Tokyo Olympics. We go over virtually everything in Tokyo: - Tri Bourne's strange ride thus far, from a family vacation in Las Vegas to winning now TWO Olympic matches and ensuring a berth into the single-elimination phases. - Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil's all-college battle vs. Latvia's Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka - Is everything pointing towards a gold medal match of April Ross and Alix Klineman vs. Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan? - What will the rest of Phil Dalhausser's last dance look like? That, and much, much more from the Tokyo Olympic beach volleyball action. ENJOY! *** 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 SHOOTS!

Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil overcome huge odds! USA basketball stays undefeated + USA softball advance to final round. Japan wins gold in gymnastics! Kevin McDowell (Cancer Survivor) becomes US record holder + Katie Ledecky upset! Momiji Nishiya 2nd youngest to ever win gold. Luka Doncic is unstoppable! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Hosts Clarence Hughes and Stephen Munson begin a series of Olympic previews by sitting down with beach volleyball Olympic nominees Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil (6:36 - 39:00), who earned a berth to Tokyo in early June. They discuss Kelly and Sarah's excitement of qualifying for their first Olympic Games, preparation on and off the court for Tokyo, and check in with Kelly's attempts to get Sarah into video games. Clarence and Stephen also shoutout the U.S. Women's Sitting National Team, which recently won gold at the Golden Nations League in the Netherlands and announced the roster for the upcoming Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Today we're on the shooting range with Paralympian McKenna Geer. McKenna is a Paralympic bronze medalist in the sport of rifle shooting. At Rio she competed in the R4 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2 and earned 24th place and the R5 – Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2, where she took home the bronze medal. We talked with McKenna about how rifle works on the Paralympic side of the sport. Follow McKenna on Facebook, Insta and Twitter - and cheer for her this week as she competes at the World Cup event in Lima, which is the last qualification opportunity for the Tokyo Paralympics. What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from: Paralympian John Register Hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson Taekwondo athlete Madelynn Gorman-Shore Cross-Country skier Kikkan Randall Beach Volleyball player Kelly Claes BMX rider Connor Fields Modern Pentathlete Samantha Schultz Canoe slalomist Luuka Jones Diver Laura Wilkinson Karate athlete Tom Scott Plus, tons of news from Tokyo 2020 (including an Atlanta 1996-related moment!) and the International Olympic Committee. Guess what? More medal reallocations due to doping - can you guess which sport is responsible for some of them? Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive! Photo credit: Team USA   ***  Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown   Support the show:   Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod   Hang out with us online:   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022 Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348    

In today's episode, you'll hear about new achievements happening in women's sports. Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes are going to Tokyo as the youngest team in beach volleyball history. Aja Wilson reached a season-high in both scoring and rebounding!! 30 points and 13 rebounds!!! Don't miss the women's day 1 U.S. Gymnastics championships tonight!

The Shot Diva is here! 3x Olympian and Rio 2016 gold medal shot putter Michelle Carter joins us this week to talk about shot put technique, her strategies for managing her ADHD and dyslexia, her Olympic experiences and how looking her best helps her achieve her best. Follow Michelle on Instagram and Facebook, and check out her website for more information on her You Throw Girl sports confidence camp and other programs Michelle's created. What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from: Speedskater Erin Jackson Pin collector/Olympic volunteer Sid Marantz featured in the New York Times Gymnast Chellsie Memmel Diver Laura Wilkinson Branding consultant Vickie Saunders and Olympic team updates on: Shooter Ginny Thrasher 3x3 player Dominique Jones Beach volleyball player Kelly Claes Equestrian Phillip Dutton Artistic swimmer Jacqueline Simoneau Plus, tons of news on Tokyo 2020. With only 50 days to go, the world is still concerned about Covid, but the Japanese government and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee continue to take measures to ensure the Games will go on. Who's experiencing those measures first? The Australian softball team, who's the first team to arrive in Japan ahead of the Games. We also have updates on the Paralympic torch relay. Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive! photo: Getty Images, via ShotDiva.com ***  Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown   Support the show:   Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod   Hang out with us online:   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022 Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348  

American flyweight boxer Ginny Fuchs joins us to tell us more about how boxing works. Ginny is also coping with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, she tells us how OCD manifests for her and what sort of treatments she goes through to better manage it. Follow Ginny on Facebook, Insta and Twitter, and check out her website, Ginnyfuchs.com. Book Club Claire also joins us for a preview of our next Book Club Book, Sevens Heaven: The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji's Olympic Dream (affiliate link). She chats with author Ben Ryan about bringing this story to readers. What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got news from: Tom Scott DeAnna Price Dawn Harper Nelson Evan Dunfee Kelly Claes Roy Tomizawa - published in The Japan Times John Register - featured in The Colorado Springs Business Journal Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison tells us about the boxing tournament, Floyd Mayweather's bout, and (surprise!) questionable officiating. We also have Games Updates from Tokyo 2020, including the release of more Playbooks, a call for volunteer doctors and nurses (how popular is this request during the COVID-19? pandemic?), a Paralympic vlogger competition, some maranovela news and the winners of the Olympic Village dining hall recipe contest. Plus, the International Olympic Committee gave its website a facelift! Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive! ***  Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown   Support the show:   Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod   Hang out with us online:   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022 Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com VM/Text: (208) FLAME-IT / (208) 352-6348    

In this episode, hosts Clarence Hughes and Stephen Munson hit the beach while continuing the 100 Days Out celebration. Hear from Sean Scott (3:16 - 23:22) Director, National Beach Programs and Kelly Claes (30:45 - 1:02:50) of the U.S. Beach National Team about how teams qualify for the Olympic beach tournament, how it feels being in the middle of a tight battle for an Olympic berth, and the many ways Kelly Claes spends her free time.

3x3 basketball is one of the new sports on the Olympic program, and NY Harlem/Team USA player Dominique Jones joins us to tell us how it works. Mark your calendars now to watch this during Tokyo 2020. We predict it'll be one of the most exciting additions to the Olympics. Jill also reports back from her Tokyo test event - i.e., the International Olympic Committee's recent marathon Session meeting. What's in store for the new Agenda 2020+5 plan, and did TBach get reelected? Follow Dominique on Insta and Facebook (Dominique Jones). What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week? We've got updates from: Kelly Claes Jordan Gray Chloe Kim Clare Egan Throughout 2021 we're revisiting great stories from Atlanta 1996! For our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, Alison has the rest of the story on gymnast Kerri Strug's injury. We also have an update from the International Paralympic Committee on its new major project. *** Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown Support the show: Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod   Hang out with us online: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022   Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com VM: (208) FLAME-IT   Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!  

We're on a boat! Not really, but we're talking sailing this week. Americans Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea join us to talk about how the Olympic 49erFX class works, what the water in Tokyo is like and what it's like to try to consume five to six liters of water a day. Follow Stephanie and Maggie's endeavors on their website. On social they're on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobleSheaSailing/  Insta: https://www.instagram.com/roblesheasailing/ Speaking of sailing, it's our Atlanta 1996 moment this week, as we continue celebrating the 25th anniversary of these Olympics. If you want to talk about a city going all out to make this event an experience to remember, talk about Savannah. What are our TKFLASTANIs up to this week?  Laura Wilkinson had a nice write up in the Miami Herald. Josh Williamson Clare Egan Erin Jackson, who was featured on Forbes.com. Andrew Maraniss (affiliate link) Kelly Claes We also have Games Updates from Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 and Milan-Cortina 2026. Check out Milan-Cortina's logo competition and join its fan team at its website. And it's time for another International Olympic Committee Session meeting, so we have a report on the first day of proceedings (and Zoom rooms). Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!   Photo courtesy of Roble/Shea Sailing.

It's another week with a TBach press conference, so we take the opportunity to dive into the International Olympic Committee's new five-year plan/math problem called Agenda 2020 +5. We also have a report from the IOC's Future Host Commission. Could the Olympics go back to Australia in 2032? Plus, more feelings about the International Weightlifting Federation and Tokyo 2020's new leader. Our TKFLASTANIS in the news this week include: Beach volleyball player Kelly Claes XC skier Kikkan Randall Biathlete Clare Egan USA Weightlifting CEO Phil Andrews Speedskater Erin Jackson Plus we have updates from Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 -- and some doping news. ***  Keep the Flame Alive: The Podcast for Fans of the Olympics and Paralympics with hosts Jill Jaracz & Alison Brown   Support the show:   Tell a friend: http://flamealivepod.com   Bookshop.org store: https://bookshop.org/shop/flamealivepod   Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/flamealivepod   Paypal: https://tinyurl.com/yxkoxmcq   Hang out with us online:   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flamealivepod   Insta: http://www.instagram.com/flamealivepod   Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flamealivepod   Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312069749587022 Newsletter: Sign up at http://flamealivepod.com VM: (208) FLAME-IT   Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!  

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is with Jordan Cheng, the coach of Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, the 10th-ranked team in the world and No. 3 in the American Olympic race.  On this episode, we discuss: - Cheng's career as a coach, how his intentions to play professionally were constantly derailed by "once in a lifetime" coaching opportunities at Pepperdine, under Marv Dunphy, USA Volleyball under John Speraw, UCI, Reid Priddy and, now, Sponcil and Claes - How Cheng, 28 years old at the time, came to be the coach for Priddy, one of the best volleyball players of all time - His coaching philosophy: "I don't want to be a JV version of Jose Loiola. I want to be a varsity version of myself." - How he came to coach Claes and Sponcil - The importance of pursuing something bigger than beach volleyball This episode is, as always, brought to you by Wilson volleyball. They make the best balls in the game, and you can get 20 percent off by using our discount code, Sandcast-20.  Be sure to check out our new book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, on Amazon and, if you're feeling extra magnanimous, drop us a review! It goes a long way.  Thanks as always for listening! SHOOTS!

On the track, a relay team can make or break its race based on the quality of its baton handoffs. 2004 Olympic relay gold medalist and current Bethel University head track coach Andrew Rock walks us through the process of handing off the baton. And, we announce our virtual Closing Ceremonies meetup. You can follow Andrew's teams on social @bethelxctf and visit their website. As we mentioned on the show, the US women's 4x100 relay team had a tougher time qualifying for the finals at the Rio 2016 Olympics -- but check out this video, because the cameras really focus in on the handoffs, and you can see exactly what Andrew talks about. In our visit to TKFLASTAN, we check in on Kelly Claes, MCamp, Chellsie Memmel, Shiva Keshavan and Chloe Kim. Check out Shiva's interview with our next book club author Abhinav Bindra and Chole's interview on Just Women's Sports. In Tokyo 2020 new, the Paralympic schedule has been confirmed, and we have a short maranovela update. Plus, the USOPC has released its 2019 annual report, which means we get to see where all of the money goes. Thanks to all of our Patreon patrons who support the show. Please consider supporting us financially either with a one-time donation or ongoing support, as our expenses this year have greatly increased due to a forced rebranding. If you can't support us financially, please leave us a review on your favorite podcasting app or tell friends about the show. Thanks for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!   photo: courtesy of Andrew Rock

On this episode of SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, the hosts discuss the first of the AVP Champions Cup Series, the Monster Hydro Cup.  Bourne and his partner, Trevor Crabb, finished third in the event, which was won by Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena on the men's side, and April Ross and Alix Klineman on the women's.  In this episode, Bourne and Mewhirter discuss: - How it felt to be competing again for Bourne, who hasn't played many AVPs in the past few years.  - How the site setup in Long Beach was, and playing without fans.  - What players performed the best over the weekend, including: Skylar del Sol, Sara Hughes and Brandie Wilkerson, Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes, Dalhausser and Lucena, Traci Callahan and Crissy Jones.  - The improvement Bourne and Crabb have had on defense.  - What the rest of this three-week sprint will look like.    Thanks, as always, for listening to the show! This show is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball. To get a 20-percent discount on the best volleyball in the sport, head over to Wilson and use the code, Sandcast-20 for 20-percent off!

AVP/FIVB professional athlete and 2x National Collegiate Beach Champion at USC Kelly Claes joins Rob Espero on The Viral Volley Podcast this week. Kelly reflects on her High School career, potentially going to Long Beach St. for indoor and committing to Beach Volleyball with Sara Hughes. Her time as a Trojan saw Kelly write the history books for USC Beach Volleyball as she saw success at the collegiate level, but early success at the professional level. We then venture into her partnerships, winning, and her singing career with Sarah Sponcil-- who according to Kelly, "...is tone deaf." Their unique musical gifting landed them as the current-FIVB Beach Team of the Week!

It's a holiday week here in the US, so we've got a Lightning Round episode for you. Past guests Marnie McBean, Kelly Claes and Karolos Grohmann face up to the slow roll of our lightning round questions. Follow our guests: Marnie: Twitter | Insta | Website Kelly: Twitter | Insta | Website Karolos: Twitter Also, here's Marnie's amazing Barcelona 1992 Opening Ceremonies uniform. This is a national treasure. Thank you to all of our Patreon patrons! If you like what you hear, please support the show with a donation or by telling a friend! We'd love to hear from you--call our VM hotline at 208-FLAME-IT. Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!  

In this episode of the Viral Volley Podcast Rob Espero connects with 2x National Champion from UCLA and Professional Beach Volleyball athlete, Sarah Sponcil. Sarah reflects on her whirlwind 2019 season from Gulf Shores, the AVP and FIVB seasons, as well as Olympic Qualification. She also gives us insight to her play, partnership with Kelly Claes, upcoming projects and music videos. Of course we always close out with our fun segment, "The Rundown."

On Tuesday morning, what seemed to be the inevitable alas became a reality: The 2020 Olympic Games were postponed, to sometime in 2021. For some, it’s heartbreaking. “I can understand why other people are devastated,” said Sarah Sponcil, who is third in the Olympic race with Kelly Claes. “They waited literally four years and now they have to wait five.” Notice that Sponcil said “others” when mentioning those who are devastated. For some, the Olympic postponement is devastating. For others, it’s a blessing not even in disguise: It’s just a blessing. This week on SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, we discussed, among a number of covid-19-related topics – is there anything else to discuss at this point, anyway? – how each team in the Olympic race could benefit or set them back from the postponement. We dug into how, depending on the FIVB schedule and any changes the IOC makes regarding the qualification process, the postponement could put additional teams in the race. Here’s a team by team breakdown of the impact the postponement could have.   Women April Ross, Alix Klineman U.S.A. rank: 1 Points: 8,760 This one is difficult to pin down whether it hurts or benefits. On the one hand, Ross and Klineman were coming off their best season together, with five AVP finals in five tournaments and three wins on the world tour. They could have continued that upwards trajectory all the way to Tokyo. On the other hand, it gives Klineman another year to develop on the beach, which she has done at such a rate you’d be forgiven to think she hasn’t been playing on the AVP her entire volleyball career. It’s a bit neutral for these two, who are still all but a lock to go to Tokyo, no matter what year the Games are held. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry to play this year as it was, as they decided not to play in the Cancun four-star that was eventually cancelled, so perhaps this will be a good rest period to heal up the nagging injuries that build up. Until then, you can find Ross going viral with what has become the April Ross Challenge.   Kerri Walsh Jennings, Brooke Sweat U.S.A. rank: 2 Points: 6,960 The immediate reaction when thinking of these two is that it would have to negatively impact them. But the more one would think about it, the more that might not be entirely accurate. Yes, Walsh Jennings and Sweat are on the older side of the athletic spectrum, at 41 and 33 years old, respectively. Yes, they have quite a list of injuries and surgeries on the ledger. But Sponcil said it best: “Kerri is a machine,” she said on Tuesday. “She’s just going to keep going all out.” If there is one athlete in the world who can take this and benefit from it, it might be Walsh Jennings, whose three gold medals and five Olympic appearances did not come by accident. That, and she gets time at home, with her family, when she would otherwise be circumnavigating the world.   Sarah Sponcil, Kelly Claes U.S.A. rank: 3 Points: 6,640 There are two teams that I really don’t see any downside to this: Sponcil and Claes, and Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman. For these two, it’s all upside. “Everyone’s been asking how we feel about it and I feel great because the last year I’ve just been like ‘Ok, let’s get as many points as we can, let’s pass Kerri, it’s crunch time,’” Sponcil said. “It would have been crunch time right now and now I have the time to process the opportunity I have in front of me. I’m trying my hardest to slow down and be like ‘Whoa this is an amazing opportunity having another year to get experience, to slow down a little bit, and take it all in.’ It’s the best thing for our team and for me personally.” It gives them more time to develop, both as players and professionals, and it allows them, as Sponcil mentioned, to finally slow down. Catch a breath. Sleep for a change. Sponcil has been competing at a breakneck pace for the previous few years, going from UCLA to the AVP then back to UCLA straight into the Olympic race. A break could be just what she needed. It could be exactly what the team needed.   Kelley Larsen, Emily Stockman U.S.A. rank: 4 Points: 6,080 It is positively bananas that the fourth-ranked U.S. team is also the seventh-ranked team on the planet. America is deep. When you’re as good as Stockman and Larsen are, and you’re behind in the race, time and more events are what you need, and time and hopefully more events is what they’ll get. If they have a dozen more events to climb the ladder and take the second American spot, as they could, depending when the FIVB reschedules its laundry list of postponed events, they could very well do so. Their win in Warsaw proved they can compete with any team in the world. They just need some more time to do so. Now, they might have that time.   Men Taylor Crabb, Jake Gibb U.S.A. rank: 1 Points: 6,680 It is hard to imagine how another year added to Gibb’s career would be a positive for these two, but it’s also hard to imagine how Gibb played some of his best volleyball at age 43 as he did in 2019. He, like Phil Dalhausser and John Hyden, have hoarded a gallon from the fountain of youth and just continue to defy athletic norms. For Crabb, it’s just another year to get better. With his trajectory the way it is – a sharp incline upwards – the postponement isn’t going to do any harm. Perhaps this will be a useful rest period for Gibb, a bit of a sabbatical before one final charge in 2021.   Tri Bourne, Trevor Crabb U.S.A. rank: 2 Points: 6,360 Like Sponcil and Claes, and Larsen and Stockman, this is another team where it’s almost only upside. They held a slim lead over Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena for the second spot, slim enough where it was basically a tie. But now Bourne and Crabb have another year to dial in their team dynamic, which both admit they’re only just beginning to figure out. Bourne can dial in his world-class blocking again, while both can dig into the nuances of defense and different roles in transition. It’s inconvenient for anyone to have to wait another year, but as this is this only team where age is not a factor at all, there isn’t much downside to the postponement for Bourne and Crabb.   Phil Dalhausser, Nick Lucena U.S.A. rank: 3 Points: 5,840 It is impossible to say how this will impact Dalhausser and Lucena. Dalhausser has readily admitted that Tokyo was it for him. Then it was onto family time and working at his new facility in Orlando, Fla. This news obviously pushes that timeline back. Like Walsh Jennings, though, it could just mean more time at home with their families for what could be the remainder of the year. They live close enough to one another that practicing won’t be a burden. If there isn’t another meaningful event until, say, August, maybe later, that’s another five months at home they otherwise wouldn’t have had. It could be exactly what they need, or it could be difficult to sustain the motivation needed to make an Olympic push for another year and a half. Time will only tell. And time is exactly what we have in abundance.

We're hitting the beach with Olympic hopeful beach volleyball athlete Kelly Claes. Kelly and her partner Sarah Sponcil are currently ranked 8th in the world….although that might not be enough to get them to Tokyo. Kelly tells us all about the sport and how they're dealing with the pressure of the upcoming Games. Plus, the Tokyo 2020 ticket design has been released, and we talk about who might be throwing in bids for the 2030 and 2032 Olympics. Follow Kelly on Twitter and Insta (be sure to check out her videos!!) and visit her website. A little housekeeping from the show: This past weekend, Jill saw Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremonies performers Human Nature in Las Vegas (note: that link conveniently starts on a John Coates shot). Also, congrats to Team Olympic Fever member Dr. Micheal Warren for his first journal publication! Thanks to our Team Olympic Fever Update sponsor PinCollector.com. Collect Olympic pins? You need to be on PinCollector and take advantage of its great pin database! Enough said! We also want to give a shout out to our Patron of the Week, Stanley Yang! Stanley makes a recurring donation through Patreon, and we so appreciate his support of our show! Thank you, Stanley!! DISCLAIMER: OLYMPIC® is a trademark of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (“USOPC”). Any use of OLYMPIC® in the Olympic Fever podcast is strictly for informational and commentary purposes. The Olympic Fever podcast is not an official podcast of the USOPC. The Olympic Fever podcast is not a sponsor of the USOPC, nor is Olympic Fever associated with or endorsed by USOPC in any way. The content of Olympic Fever podcast does not reflect the opinions, standards, views, or policies of the USOPC, and the USOPC in no way warrants that content featured in Olympic Fever is accurate.  

Dain Blanton is smiling. For almost an hour and a half straight, sitting in a room talking about beach volleyball and a life that has revolved around it for almost three decades now, he smiles. At some point in the conversation, it just becomes almost impossible to be in anything but a great mood, because you’re around Dain Blanton, and Dain Blanton is, at 48 years old, living his best life, and he’s really, really happy about it. “I got a 22-month-old son, my first kid, and that’s keeping me busy,” he said on SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I got the new head coaching job at USC and that’s about four months old, so that’s been really busy. But I was telling Tri before we began the show, when you’re doing something that you love and it’s fun, you’re fired up to get up and get into work. It’s been awesome. It’s been really great.” The more you talk to Blanton, the more you wonder if there has ever been anything that wasn’t great. A Laguna Beach kid, he grew up as a dual-sport athlete, good enough in basketball and volleyball that he garnered scholarships for both. He opted for Pepperdine volleyball, and in 1992, he led the Waves to a National Championship. Five years later, he became the first African American to win an AVP event, when he and Canyon Ceman won the Hermosa Beach Grand Slam. That in itself would be a fine career for anyone. A college education, an historic win, decent prize money. And yet Blanton was only getting started. The next year, in 1998, he and Eric Fonoimoana began a push for the 2000 Olympic Games, in a men’s field that was as wide open as any, competing against some of the biggest names in beach history, including two who top the all-time wins list in Karch Kiraly, who was partnered with Adam Johnson, and Sinjin Smith, who was attempting to qualify for a second straight Games with Carl Henkel. No matter. Blanton and Fonoimoana, against all odds and most anybody’s prediction, pulled it off. Then they saved their biggest magic trick for last when they stunned one Olympic opponent after the next, shocking Ricardo Santos and Ze Marco de Melo in the gold medal match. “I remember going down to the Olympics and people were like ‘Take a lot of pictures, have fun’ you know what I mean?” Blanton said. “And you’re like ‘I see what you’re saying.’ And we went down there and we really enjoyed it. And Eric and I said ‘Let’s really immerse ourselves, we’re going to take it all in.’ It was awesome. Sydney was prepared so far in advance. They were so fired up to have it. “Me and Eric always said ‘Let’s bring home some jewelry, let’s bring home a medal.’ Bronze, silver, gold, we didn’t care. You want to win gold, but if you can focus one point at a time, and one match at a time, and that’s what we were able to do. And it’s cliché, you hear it a lot, but to actually do it, ‘next point, next point,’ but if you watch, Eric stuffs a point and he turns around and tackles me, I’m almost in shock because I’m so locked in to ‘We got another point.’” By now in Blanton’s life story, which at the Sydney Olympics was just 28 years in its authoring, it would be impossible to doubt anything Blanton would set his mind to do. What had he tried and not accomplished? So when he began to see the writing on his metaphorical beach volleyball wall, and he was tired of the travel, and his body wasn’t quite responding like he was used to, and he set out to pursue a broadcasting career, Blanton began like he did everything else: At the bottom of the ladder. And he relished it. He reached out to an executive producer at Fox Sports West named Tom Feurer and requested not job or a shot or a gig, but just to shadow. It took an entire year for the gold medalist Olympian to get a call back – to shadow high school football. “I went and I shadowed and they said the next yea next year we need a high school football sideline reporter. It was a cool thing to do, and a lot of people say how did you get involved in broadcasting and it was interesting to take a step back. People think ‘Oh you’re an Olympic gold medalist, you’re all this’ and you go and broadcast high school football,” Blanton said. “You have to leave the ego on the side, you want to learn a new trait, you’re late to the game, and it was the greatest place because you could totally mess up.” Here it all begins to make sense, why everything Blanton touches turns to gold. Why he was able to win Hermosa Beach, one of the biggest events on the AVP schedule, as the seven seed. Why he and Fonoimoana were able to pull off what Blanton labels, and not incorrectly, as the biggest upset in Olympic beach volleyball history. Heck, just to qualify for Sydney – leaping Kiraly and Johnson for the final spot – in the last tournament of the qualification period, he had to beat Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego and then, immediately after, Sinjin Smith and Carl Henkel. Once in, most didn’t give them a chance. “Once we got in, people were like, ‘You know, Karch should probably go. He won the gold medal in 96, c’mon, he’s Karch, he won ’84, 88, 96,’” Blanton recalled. “So that put a chip on our shoulder.” Not that he’s ever really needed a chip on his shoulder. Blanton’s found a way to earning everything he has in his remarkably decorated life. Which is why he had no problem shadowing a reporter for a high school football game, which led to a gig as a sideline reporter for high school football, which turned into a Clippers game, which turned into more Clippers games, which turned into five years of covering every single Clippers game, flying with the team, being the face of Los Angeles Clippers basketball media. “I remember I got on the [team plane] for the first time, and in the galley in the back there’s sushi, it’s a nice layout, and I’m just killing it,” Blanton said. “I’m thinking ‘Oh wow, this must be the food for the plane!’ So I’m grinding, feeling good, and I get in, no announcements, no anything, no one’s telling you to buckle up. Five minutes into the flight, the flight attendant says ‘What do you want to eat for lunch?’ And I’ve already killed it. But this was just appetizers. But then you land, you go to Four Seasons, the Ritz, you’re living the good life. It was a great experience.” And for five years, it was. But there was always a pull back to volleyball. Blanton knew it. Though the break away from the game was nice, at the back of his mind, it was always there. When he began entering the coaching ranks, he began – where else – at the bottom of the ladder: volunteering at USC, learning under Anna Collier. There, he’d win multiple national titles, coach the most dominant team in all of college sports in Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes, and observe Collier and how she ran the program. When Collier resigned, and the job opened up, Blanton, among dozens of others, jumped at the chance. By now you know what happened next: He succeeded. Because this is Dain Blanton we’re talking about here, and Dain Blanton is going to succeed. “It’s a totally different experience, being the assistant to being the head coach because every little detail, the buck kinda stops with you,” he said. “You can’t be like ‘Oh, what do you want to do?’ You need to be there and constantly be making decisions which is a lot of responsibility and you just want to create an awesome experience for the players, get them a good education and get them a couple of rings on their fingers because you know that’s what it’s all about. I’m having a blast so far for sure.” So Blanton is going to smile, because there really isn’t any reason for him to be doing anything else, is there? At 48 years old, Blanton’s still just living his best life.      

It was somewhere in the space between the Gstaad Major and the Espinho four-star when the façade came crashing down. How long had it been since Sarah Sponcil had decompressed? Relaxed? Reflected on all that had happened in her life in the past six blurs of months? In that span, she and Lily Justine, her partner at UCLA, established themselves as the best No. 2 NCAA beach pair in the country. In May, the Bruins repeated as NCAA champions. Days later, Sponcil was on a flight with Kelly Claes, her professional partner, to Itapema, Brazil, for an FIVB four-star where they’d play Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat in a country quota. They lost in 28 minutes. “It’s such a surreal fast-paced experience,  national championship to pro in three days, trying to adjust my game to match the opponents, the best in the world,” Sponcil said when she and Claes joined us on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I’m just speechless when I’m asked that question. You’re never ready. You never know what you’re really doing and if I didn’t (go for the Olympics), I’d regret it for the rest of my life.” On the outside, though, it very much appears as Sponcil is ready for all of this, as if she has keeping up with her rapidly-changing world, no problem. She and Claes rebounded from Itapema with four straight top-10 finishes, including a ninth at the FIVB World Championships. They didn't just look like they knew what they were doing. They made it look -- dare we say? -- easy. On top of all of that, in Warsaw the week before, while the rest of Sponcil’s teammates and classmates at UCLA were walking across the stage back home, Sponcil and Claes put on a comical photo shoot of Sponcil “graduating,” cap and gown included, diving for a ball on the sand. It can all look so glamorous sometimes -- the world traveling, the funny Instagrams, the hilarious videos of them running through airports and Sponcil walking around the world doing handstands -- that it’s easy to forget that she’s never done any of this before. “Sometimes I can’t even wrap my head around how stressful this year has been for her,” Claes said. “I think back to my first season coming out of college. We finished the USA Pairs Championship and jumped on a flight to Rio. We jumped on the world tour and it was so stressful and we had so many new things coming at me and I felt like my head was spinning and on top of that it’s an Olympic qualifying year for her.” And then, after dropping in the qualifier in Gstaad, now two months on the road with stops in Portugal, Tokyo, Vienna, and Moscow still looming, Sponcil let down her guard. “Sarah sent me a text to come outside and she’s balling,” Claes said. “And I’m like ‘OK, we’re doing this.’” They’re a fun-loving duo, Claes and Sponcil. They’re goofy and happy and wildly talented, two of the top players in the country despite being in diapers when Kerri Walsh Jennings, who they’re trying to beat out for the 2020 Olympics, was making her Olympic debut on the beach. But they are -- in spite of how magnificently tailored their lives may look at times -- human. Three months on the road is a monumental task for a human being, much less one who had never done any of this before. Full-time World Tour, Olympic race, figuring out flights and hotels and meals and how in the world to survive this thing. “Honestly, I felt like I had nothing together,” Sponcil said. “I was missing home, I felt like I was trying to change so many different things in my game, and you can’t change a whole lot and still feel like you’re playing free. Everything was just crazy in my mind, and definitely had some teary moments, and I was just honest with Kelly and open and vulnerable and I was like ‘I am not OK right now.’ “To get closer you have to be vulnerable in those positions and it sucks to acknowledge that you don’t have it all together, especially coming off of college where you had everything. You did so well and now you’re being pushed in ways you didn’t think you could be pushed because you won a month ago, on cloud nine, and now it’s ‘Oh, shiz.’ “But Kelly had been in the same position and her listening to me means everything. It was a step in the right direction to know if we win, we lose, whatever, we’re still in this together, and that’s really powerful. That was a huge moment for us.” Claes may be the perfect partner for Sponcil, old enough to have done this for three years now, young enough to still be able to fully empathize with where Sponcil is in life. Perhaps that explains why, once considered underdogs by many in this race, these two are eighth in the world in the Olympic ranks and third in the U.S. They trail only April Ross and Alix Klineman and Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat, with another 12 or so events -- depending on what they want to play -- left in the qualification period. Theirs is a chemistry wholly unique to them. Last October, Claes was still unsure with whom she was going to partner for this run. She and Walsh Jennings played a few events, and when Walsh Jennings turned to Sweat, Sponcil turned out to be an easy decision. “Chemistry is huge for me. So that’s why when Sarah and I initially started talking I was leaning towards her,” she said. “Once we started talking and hanging out and training together, I was like ‘Shoot, we line up on so many things.’ I get that a lot of people see a partnership as more of a business but I think it’s important to have that chemistry. There’s so much time off the court.” On flights, they write rap songs together, which they debuted, hilariously, terribly, on SANDCAST. How much fun they can have off the court allows them to play free and creative on it, allowing them to stretch their full skillsets without fear of making mistakes. “We had a flight from Czech to LA, and literally the entire flight we wrote songs,” Sponcil said. “The lady was like ‘Do you want something?’ and we were like ‘No! We’re working on something!’” Indeed they are. They’re working on an Olympic run. A full album of songs. How to get from one place to the next, be it in the air or on the ground. They’re figuring this thing out, Claes and Sponcil, and the first step to doing so is acknowledging that they have absolutely nothing figured out. “You’re trying to force yourself to figure it out, whether it’s transportation or strategy in a game. It’s so different than in college and I think when you accept that you’re never going to have it all figured out and just accept it -- moral of the story, we don’t have it figured out,” Sponcil said. “So don’t try to figure it out. Delayed flights, canceled flights -- just smile and wave. We’ll somehow find our way to the next destination, we just don’t know how yet.”

The incredible and lovely Kelly Claes joins the show to tell us about her Olympic Dream! Kelly is an amazing Beach Volleyball player that won 3 national championships at USC during college and is now a professional Beach Volleyball player! We discuss everything around her Volleyball career from the crazy way she started, to her decision for college, and what her goals are moving forward.Kelly is also an avid video game player, Comic Con Conqueror, and loves DND so we thankfully got to discuss all of this, too!Make sure to follow Kelly!https://www.instagram.com/kellyclaes3/https://www.facebook.com/KellyMClaesOfficial/https://twitter.com/kellyclaes3https://www.kellyclaes.us/Follow us too!https://www.instagram.com/ourathletes.us/https://twitter.com/Ourathletesusahttp://www.ourathletes.us/Please rate this show 5 stars and share it with your friends!

Anna Collier is sitting on Tri Bourne’s couch, and she is – if you can believe it – relaxed. She hasn’t been to the beach in months, aside from when she rides her bike down the strand. She’s getting facials, going to the spa. Reconnecting with old friends. Getting fit. “Just call me Soccer Mom Anna Collier,” she said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. For anyone who knows, or has known, Collier, this is a near-impossible thing to imagine. For the past four decades, Collier hasn’t had time for facials. Trips to the spa. Relax? How can you relax when your day job, for just shy of 40 years, included acting as the Athletic Director, compliance office and volleyball coach at Santa Monica College? Most coaches take the summers off, do they? Not Collier. That was for FIVB, for AVP, for juniors. Non-stop the coaching cycle went, around and around and around. Until, on June 6, it came to a halt. Collier announced her retirement from USC, where she had built not only a beach program, the first of its kind, but had played an integral role in building beach volleyball as a sport at the collegiate level. “It was time,” she said. There is never any one reason for such a monumental decision in one’s life. But as those reasons accumulate over the course of 40-plus years, sometimes it takes one gentle nudge, from a former protégé, to tip you over the edge. That came, in part, from Misty May-Treanor, whom Collier had once coached. “When,” May-Treanor wondered, “are you going to have won enough?” On Collier’s fingers, figuratively, were seven National Championship rings at USC. On her resume were 206 wins and only 38 losses at SC. To her name is virtually every coaching record one can imagine: 62 consecutive wins, an NCAA recore; two-time Coach of the Year; first head coach to reach 100 wins, and 150, and 200. Enough victories over rival UCLA for the rest of the university to be happy. The more Collier thought about it, the easier it became for her to admit, both to herself and to the public, that “it’s time.” And for the first time in as long as she could remember, she slept like a rock. No longer was her mind whirring over recruiting – Who to call, when to call them, who to look for – or how she could tinker with this lineup or that partnership. Her biggest decision, suddenly, was: “Do I take my bike this way, or that way?” And she loves it. “I haven’t had a summer off in a long time,” she said. “This is literally the first summer I’ve had off in four decades.” What she leaves behind is a legacy and coaching epoch that will be labeled as iconic. She, alongside similarly Hall of Fame caliber coaches such as Nina Matthies at Pepperdine, helped usher in an entirely new era of beach volleyball, growing the college game into the fastest growing sport in NCAA history. And it all began with crashing a golf cart. In 2013, Sara Hughes was one of the best indoor players in the country. A four-year starter at Mater Dei, an athletics powerhouse in Santa Ana, Hughes was named team MVP in three consecutive seasons, the Female Athlete of the Year. All-American. All-League. All-Everything. And Anna Collier had a shot. Hughes had grown up playing sand in Huntington Beach. When she was touring schools, she made a firm rule that it needed to have a beach program, which less than 20 in the country did when she was making her decision. USC had launched its program in 2012, with only one scholarship athlete, Geena Urango. Collier had no idea if she could even offer any others, but this was Sara Hughes. She’d find a way. There was only one problem: Her recruiting trip was a complete disaster. Collier loaded up Hughes and her father, Rory, in then-indoor coach Mick Haley’s golf cart, and off they went, driving around campus, which Collier was hardly any more familiar with than Hughes was. She was still working at Santa Monica College at the time, and hadn’t had much availability to learn USC’s campus outside of anything volleyball related. So they toured, and Collier “just made stuff up,” about the buildings, making a mental footnote to actually learn a thing or two. But she can’t make up the next part, about Collier coming to a structure of arches on campus – and crashing the golf cart directly into them.    “She walks out the door and I look to my assistant and I’m like ‘We’ll never see her again. That’s it. We’re done,’” Collier said. She’s able to laugh about it now, because, as you know by this point, Hughes became a Trojan, launching one of the most dominant four years in all of college sports. And it wasn’t just Hughes. With five more scholarships than had been originally budgeted, a rapid increase thanks to “an anonymous tip,” Collier said, laughing a surreptitious laugh, she locked in Kelly Claes, Allie Wheeler, Nicolette Martin. Born was the indomitable power that would become USC beach volleyball. Now that power is in the hands of Dain Blanton, who coached under Collier for four seasons as the volunteer assistant. Collier knows USC is in good hands. Blanton’s the right man for the job. As for her? She’s already had requests to coach at the professional level. Her answer every time: I’m not doing anything. Not this summer, at least. She’s enjoying the Summer of Anna Collier. She likes being Soccer Mom Anna Collier, where she gets to wake up and wonder: Do I go left on the strand, or right? For the first time in more than 40 years, it really doesn’t matter. “This,” she said, “is sweet.”

Alas, we get our first look. It was supposed to come this past week, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., site of the late Fort Lauderdale Major. But with the plug pulled on the season-opening Major of the beach volleyball season, we were forced to wait. For some, that wait ends this weekend, as four U.S. women’s teams, all new partnerships, will make the trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a two-star FIVB. Typically, no, two-stars would not garner much attention, but the four pairs heading overseas are four of the more intriguing partnerships on the women’s side. While the men’s scene was turned upside down and shaken sideways, with all but two of the top teams breaking up, the women’s was relatively quiet. Nearly all of the top teams remained together, while the mid-tier partnerships, the ones seeking breakthroughs, sought new partners to make that jump. Four of those – Amanda Dowdy and Corinne Quiggle, Jessica Gaffney and Molly Turner, Brittany Hochevar and Carly Wopat, Caitlin Ledoux and Geena Urango – will be competing in Cambodia. It made for a unique episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, one in which the hosts break down what individuals and teams are primed to make the biggest strides this year. Now, we left out the blue chips that are unquestionable, the Dalhaussers and Rosses, Klinemans and Hughes, because they’re already blue chips. Our focus was on the players and teams to make the biggest moves. Here are the five best female and male beach volleyball stocks, either as individuals or team, to buy this year:   Men Chase Budinger: It seems incredibly unappreciated, what Budinger was able to accomplish last season, his first on the AVP Tour. Not only was it his rookie year as a professional, it was the first time he had picked up a volleyball in a legitimately competitive arena since high school, and even then, it was indoor. And in just one season, Budinger was able to make a final? Beat Evandro? Win Rookie of the Year? With a full season under his belt, Budinger should be one of the biggest risers this year.    Tri Bourne, Trevor Crabb: Every time Bourne won a match last season – and he won many, including one over Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena and two over the Spanish, whom he had never beat – a large part of me wanted to remind people how absurd it was that he was winning. For a year and a half, he basically couldn’t sweat. And now he was beating the best team in the U.S. and another he had never beat with John Hyden playing defense? Bourne and Crabb were an excellent team even before either had learned how to play defense. Now that they’ve had Jose Loiola coaching them for an entire off-season, and Bourne is healthy enough to, you know, sweat, who knows how high they can climb this season.   Troy Field: The comparison I like to make with Troy, relative to the stock market, is Tesla. Here’s Tesla, a product of, honestly, genius. It has incredible upside, a potentially limitless ceiling. Sometimes it’s brilliant, and looks as if it could very well revolutionize the industry. Others, it busts. Anybody who has seen Field play has seen him make plays you simply can’t teach. It’s a rare type of athleticism that is going to win points, matches, attract partnerships (and sponsors). And then sometimes that athleticism gets a tad out of control, a bit like Elon Musk at Tesla, and he takes a few steps back. But he’s new to the game, and with two years of high level beach under his belt, a number of those odd mistakes should be smoothed out, and the ascent he’ll make this year will be quick.   Eric Zaun, Jeremy Casebeer: This is without a doubt the most interesting beach volleyball team in the United States, mostly because any team with Eric Zaun on it will be interesting, but what a dynamic. Here we have two bombers from the service line, who swing upwards of 80 percent of the time, who are a bit combustible in both good ways and bad. This is a team that could just as likely dump two straight matches and take 13th as win an entire tournament. Currently, they’re training in Brazil, against the best in the world, getting team-focused reps. I wouldn’t voluntarily bet against them.     Andrew Dentler, DR Vander Meer: It’s hard for me to lump these two together as a team, because qualifier teams are not exactly known for their longevity. But from what they’ve shown so far, this is going to be an excellent team. They’ve played in three AVP Nexts, winning one, placing second in another and fifth (I don’t know what happened there) in the next. Plus, Dentler, who was the unofficial adult of the year in 2018 – he got married, had a kid, finished his masters, bought a house – should have a little less on his plate to focus on volleyball.       Others to watch Ben Vaught Eric Beranek Kacey Losik Miles Partain Logan Webber Tim Brewster John Schwengel Ian Satterfield     Women Brittany Howard, Kelly Reeves Last year was really only the second year in which Howard’s focus was solely beach volleyball. She competed for Pepperdine in her grad year, and then she came out and won Rookie of the Year in 2018 on the AVP Tour. The vast majority of rookies in any sport come with no small measure of volatility, but Howard and Reeves were models of consistency, finishing in the top 10 in every AVP, including a third in San Francisco, while picking up a pair of bronze NORCECA medals and competing in four FIVBs. Year two should be another step up.   Geena Urango, Caitlin Ledoux When Urango made her SANDCAST debut, in December of 2017, she said that playing international volleyball wasn’t really a priority of hers. She loves to travel, just not to play volleyball. She enjoys actually enjoying the places she visits without the burden of competition. Now, however, with Ledoux, it seems she’s reprioritizing, if just a bit. They went to Chetumal, Mexico for a three-star in October and made the finals. In the three prior tournaments they had played together, they made the finals (in San Francisco) and the semifinals (in Hermosa Beach) and claimed seventh at p1440 San Jose.   Carly Wopat Wopat has known success at every level of beach volleyball – state champ in high school, All-American in college, National Team level afterwards. Now she’s on the beach, already scooped up by one of the most consistent defenders in the game in Brittany Hochevar. With her focus entirely on the sand, Wopat should be expected to make big moves in 2019.   Kerri Walsh Jennings, Brooke Sweat Remember when it was December of 2017, and Tiger Woods was the 1,199th ranked golfer in the world? And by August of 2018 he was back in the top 25? That’s a little bit of what 2019 could be for Walsh Jennings and Sweat. Not that Walsh Jennings could have ever fallen that far in the sport, but it’s still a parallel of one of the greats in the game being sidelined for a bit and now making one final push. At no point would it be wise to count out Walsh Jennings, especially since she’s playing with perhaps one of the more underrated players of this generation in Sweat, who has won with essentially everyone she’s played with.   Kelly Claes, Sarah Sponcil Classic case of the rivals turned teammates, who put on a delightful run through The Hague, winning a silver medal, which will pair nicely with a bronze from their debut tournament in Qinzhou, China, in October. This is a team that could very well supplant the top teams in the U.S. in spite of the fact that Sponcil is still competing for UCLA.   Others to watch Corinne Quiggle, Amanda Dowdy Delaney Knudsen, Jessica Sykora Molly Turner, Jessica Gaffney Allie Wheeler Nicolette Martin Falyn Fanoimoana Emily Hartong, Alexa Strange

The mailbag is back!  On the second SANDCAST mailbag, Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, alongside Podcast Mama Gabby Bourne, answer a wide variety of questions from you, the listeners. Before we get into the questions, a way to reach out to SANDCAST. If you have any questions, feedback, tips or suggestions, email us at sandcastpodcast@gmail.com.  Thanks to all who sent in questions for this week! We answer one of the most oft-wondered questions in American beach volleyball: Aside from Phil Dalhausser, who has been the best American male in the past decade? Jake Gibb? Sean Rosenthal? John Hyden? Nick Lucena.  - The AVP has stopped at Madison Square Garden and played in front of a sold out crowd. If you had to pick one venue or site to play a tournament, where would it be? Both hosts, shockingly enough, may have biased answers based on hometowns and rooting interests.  - The United States, when compared to countries like Brazil, Poland, and Norway, among a number of others, is woefully behind in the development of young male talent. What's being done to produce higher-level talent at a younger age for the men?  - Finally, beach volleyball is slow to the game in terms of statistical and tangible analysis and breakdowns. Is that a direction the game is going, and if so, how?  If you like us, let us know and subscribe give a review on iTunes! Follow us on Podbean to catch up with all episodes! If you’re digging what we’re wearing, go ahead and give our sponsors some love at Plastic Clothing! If you’re looking for some new board shorts or bikinis, check out Rox and their 80 PERCENT OFF SALE! Popular on SANDCAST:SANDCAST 20: Brotherly love with Maddison McKibbinSANDCAST 17: Is p1440 the next big thing in beach volleyball?SANDCAST 13: Sara Hughes embraces new responsibility: Role modelSANDCAST 12: Talking’ sh** with Trevor CrabbSANDCAST No. 9: Chase Frishman and the AVP’s next wave of talentSANDCAST 8: Phil Dalhausser has another mountain to climbSANDCAST 6: A glimpse into greatness with April Ross, Part 2SANDCAST 5: A glimpse into greatness with April Ross, Part 1SANDCAST 3: It’s finally (finally) video game season for Kelly ClaesSANDCAST 1: The new Tri Bourne: Buddha Tri Bourne Recover the right way with Firefly: Accelerated Athletic Recovery Choose the ball the pros use. Choose Wilson, and use our 20 PERCENT DISCOUNT CODE: WILSONSAND!

It would seem that Kelly Reeves and Brittany Howard have been playing together for years. At the very least, it would seem as if they've been close for quite some time. They smile constantly. Laugh even more. On more than one occasion on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, one finished the other's sentence or filled in a blank. Little about their natural chemistry, which is evident both on a volleyball court and in a podcast studio, suggests that the two have only recently begun a partnership and, by extension, deepening a friendship. And yet here they are, exactly two tournaments in, complete with two bronze medals in a pair of NORCECA events, in Aguascalientes and La Paz, respectively, with a main draw just one week away for FIVB Huntington Beach. For Reeves, this is no longer a novel concept, to pick up with a new partner and enjoy immediate success. She's done this at every level of her career. Doesn't matter if it was at Cathedral Catholic High School, where she won four straight CIF titles and graduated as the all-time kills and digs leader in San Diego County. “I think that's been passed,” she said, laughing. She one-upped herself at UCLA, winning a national championship indoors in 2011 –- technically, she was also a member of the 1991 national championship winning team, rooting on the Bruins from the womb as her mother, Jeanne, was an assistant coach -- before hitting the beach and becoming the first UCLA All-American on the sand. The AVP was no different, either. Reeves' career began in 2016, in Huntington Beach, and a fifth-place finish with Ali McColloch assured her that she wouldn't have to grind through an AVP qualifier again. She was named rookie of the year, and a year later, partnered with Jen Fopma, she reached the semifinals twice. Two events into the 2018 season, she's matched that total, with a partner who is a bit stunned herself by the pair's quick success. “A year ago, if you would have told me this is where I would be, that I'd be partnered with Kelly Reeves, playing in a NORCECA, I would definitely not believe you,” Howard said. “It's just been really cool and awesome experience.” A year ago, Howard had no plans to play AVP at all. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in Science, Technology and Society, Howard had a job offer in El Segundo. She planned to take it, maybe play in a few CBVAs. Nothing more, save for maybe the occasional local AVP tournament. But Corinne Quiggle, her partner at Pepperdine, where Howard competed for a fifth year as a grad student, asked if Howard might want to play a few, beginning with New York in early June. They had just come off a third place finish at the USAV Collegiate Beach Championships, pushing USC's indomitable duo of Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes to three sets. Why not? So off to New York they went –- and lost in the first round of the qualifier. Then to Seattle with the same result. San Francisco saw a second-round exit before a breakthrough in Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, where they coasted through both qualifiers in straight sets. By season's end, Howard, who had no plans to play on the AVP Tour, was a three-time main-draw player, a stunningly fast learning curve from a girl who readily admits she had a “rough start” to the beach at Pepperdine. The rough start is firmly in the rearview, as Howard, technically still a rookie, is now partnered with one of the most athletic defenders on Tour, taking thirds in NORCECAs, enjoying champagne showers before the season has really even begun. “We definitely celebrated on the podium for sure,” Reeves said, laughing. “That was my first time doing the champagne and I just sent it. Full send … It was our last pair of nice clothes and we were just drenched in champagne.” A good problem to have. Or, rather, as the ever-affable Reeves is prone to saying: A “Gucci” problem to have.

To read through the old LA Times archives, to dig through all of the gushing, flattering pieces, is to remember Jose Loiola as a man of near mythical proportions, a beach volleyball Paul Bunyan. How hard he could hit! How high he could jump! How entertaining he was to watch! How loud and brash and charismatic he was! Loiola laughs at those memories. He laughs through a glass of wine, even though he has sworn off alcohol during the week. It's just one glass, right? Nothing compared to what he and the boys could put down during the 90s, when the AVP was a rollicking party dishing out tens of millions per year and Brazil was in its nascent stages of becoming a bona fide beach volleyball power. Loiola was the first, and for the 48-year-old there is no forgetting the day he and Eduardo Bacil took down the Gods. Back then, in the late 80s and early 90s, the Gods were known as Smith and Stoklos. In the 86, 87 and 88 seasons, Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos would win 44 of 71 AVP tournaments and three of four FIVBs. You could count on one hand the teams who had a shot at beating them, and Jose Loiola would not have been among them. It is with a delicious stroke of irony that Loiola and Bacil, a fellow Brazilian, stunned the Americans in their primes. Beach volleyball had been a weekend activity in Brazil prior to 1987. Nothing more. It was a soccer-mad state with beautiful beaches and recreational volleyball. It was Smith who had a vision for the sport to grow internationally, Smith who worked with then-FIVB president Ruben Acosta to grow the game overseas, Smith who helped form an exhibition match in Rio de Janeiro, awakening the dormant beach volleyball giant that is the nation of Brazil. Without Smith's and Acosta's efforts to establish the game in Brazil when they did, it's quite possible we might never have heard of Loiola and Bacil. Without the FIVB establishing a beach volleyball branch to its indoor league, there may not be beach volleyball in the Olympic Games, and by extension no reason for Americans to pay attention to Brazilian beach volleyball at all. But in 1993 there was no longer a choice. They had to watch, and with rapt attention, as Loiola and Bacil, who earned a wildcard to a pair of AVP events, in Fort Myers and Pensacola to begin the season, and then made every main draw after that on points, established themselves as one of the only international teams who could be reasonably expected to beat the Americans. “I had the opportunity to play with and against the players I had grown up idolizing, the players I had grown up watching,” Loiola said on SANDCAST. “To me, that was the best thing. I'm competing with them and I'm beating all of them. From that point on, I realized if I put my time in and I become more professional and learn the hoopty-hoops, with the discipline and the perseverance, I knew I was going to get far.” Loiola is not a man prone for understatement, and yet for him to describe his career as able to go far, and not to distances never before seen by a Brazilian beach volleyball player, is an understatement indeed. For at the end of that 1993 season, Loiola had been awarded the AVP Rookie of the Year, the first international player to do so. In '95, playing in an indoor beach tournament in Washington D.C., he and Bacil beat Stoklos and Adam Johnson in the finals, marking the first time an international team had claimed an AVP title. “The AVP was the NBA of volleyball,” Loiola said. “It attracted the best players on the planet. It was, by far, the best tour.” So much so that the AVP's status as the premiere tour began to create animosity both in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Brazilian federation wanted Loiola to quit playing on the AVP and join the Brazilian national team so he could represent his native country in the 1996 Olympics, its inaugural year as an Olympic sport. The Americans, meanwhile, fought over a similar fault line: Why would they compete on the FIVB, an inferior tour with inferior money, to qualify for the Olympics? What could possibly compel them to travel overseas to play in a tournament for less prize money, against teams that couldn't compete on the AVP, rather than stay home and play against the best? While the Americans fought for a U.S.-based Olympic trial, Loiola demurred. He wasn't going home to compete for a Brazil on the FIVB. He didn't care about the Olympics. He cared about playing against the best. And in those halcyon days, the AVP featured the best. “In 1996, I had the choice,” Loiola said. “Either I go to the Olympics or I stay here and play AVP. I didn't go to the Olympics. Why would I want to go to the Olympics when I could stay here, play 25 or 26 tournaments, making three times more money, why would I want to go to the FIVB and travel all over the world?” He didn't, choosing to remain in America while Brazil sent Emanuel Rego and Ze Marco de Melo and Roberto Lopes and Franco Neto to Atlanta. Neither finished better than ninth. Loiola had no real reason to change course. Named the AVP Offensive Player of the Year from 1995-1998, he was one of the best players in the world playing on the best tour, with the top competition and more prize money than the sport had ever seen. And then the AVP tanked. Years of financial mismanagement had been masked by packed stadiums and electrifying volleyball and a rabid fan base. In 1997, the façade crumbled.   The AVP went bankrupt. The script had been flipped. To the FIVB Loiola went, rising up the world rankings with Rego, winning the FIVB World Championships in 1999, holding the No. 1 ranking heading into the 2000 Olympics, in Sydney, only to succumb in a stunning upset, finishing ninth. “We just had a bad game,” Loiola said. “No excuses. Sometimes that just happens.” It is one of the great shames of the sport that beach volleyball success is measured by Olympic success, for Loiola would never return to the Games. His hips went bed, to the point that he said he “was playing on one leg.” His final event came in 2009, in Atlanta with Larry Witt. He's since been inducted into the CBVA Hall of Fame, the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, the Volleyball Hall of Fame. A living legend. And one who's now imparting his wisdom on the next generation of them, serving as the coach of Sara Hughes and Summer Ross. The fire's still burning, the embers still hot, even as a coach. So disappointed was he after Hughes and then-partner Kelly Claes finished ninth in Fort Lauderdale that he hopped on the first flight out. Now it's Hughes and Ross. He loves Hughes' fire, Ross' spunk. He wants to win FIVB Huntington Beach in the first week of May, knowing how much it would mean to Hughes, a Huntington native. “That's the one we want to win,” Loiola said. “In our home, our homeland. We're excited, we're on the right track. It's just a matter of time.”

In Wellness Force Radio episode 189, Professional Beach Volleyball Player and motivational speaker, Kelly Claes along with IntelliSkin Inventor, Dr. Tim Brown share what it means to be fearlessly authentic despite what other people believe, the keystone habits that young athletes can put into practice, and how we can help shape future generations through optimal mindset, movement, and sports. Find out why skill and talent both pale in comparison to heart, attitude, and ambition when it comes to movement ad sports. JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP | REVIEW THIS PODCAST  20% OFF ORGANIFI - USE CODE: WELLNESSFORCE "It's okay to be different or weird and I want everybody to go out there and feel comfortable about being themselves. I want people to pursue things that they want to do and not be wavered by others' opinions or what anybody says." - @kellyclaes3 http://bit.ly/wfpodcast Join The Surf Movement Masterclass Only 2 weeks left to join Dr. Tim Brown and Wellness Force Radio host, Josh Trent, at the 2-day Surf Movement Masterclass at Hurley Headquarters in Costa Mesa, CA on April 28-29. Head over to wellnessforce.com/Hurley  for more information.  The Surf Movement Masterclass is an opportunity for the Surf Healthcare Community to spend two days with experts who treat and train surfers on the WSL Tour and USA Surfing. They have assembled a dream team panel to discuss the Mind, Body, and Movement of the Surf Athlete. Their MasterClass Faculty will teach movement based restoration through observation, examination, treatment, training, recovery and athlete education. Join the 2-day Surf Movement MasterClass this April to see, hear, work and play with their MasterClass Faculty. Listen To Episode 189 As Kelly Claes Uncovers: How she became involved in volleyball and what she loves about it. How she was able to get in contact with Dr. Tim Brown and his own involvement in volleyball. Why height isn't a determining factor for success in volleyball; it's about heart and attitude. The example she's putting out for the world of volleyball right now. Differences between indoor and outdoor volleyball and why she chose outdoor volleyball. What it was like to grow up in an environment heavily focused on athletics. What fascinates her about wellness as a pro athlete. What posture issues she was experiencing before she started using Intelliskin and met Tim. The various injuries and forms of pain she has experienced and still feels. How she sets up her mindset whenever she experiences an injury. Why she's so vocal about her love of video games. What it means to be fearlessly authentic despite what other people believe. The example she's setting for teenagers, young adults, and future generations. How she remains true and centered in her beliefs around social media. What sports can teach us about life and how it drives us to improve and refine our character. How taking a breath and singing a song in her head helps calm her down and get rid of the negative voices in her mind. Her strong Christian faith and how that impacts how she sees life. How she gets over bad habits and picks up on new skills. How parents can instill this passion in sports and athletics in their children's interests. How she uses gaming as a way to recover, decompress, and recharge. Power Quotes From The Show "I fell in love with outdoor beach volleyball because it's just you and one other person on the court. The chemistry that goes into a partnership is so important. It's so vital to know that other person both on and off the court." - @kellyclaes3 http://bit.ly/wfpodcast "Any type of a rotational athlete that's unilateral - a pitcher, quarterback, or volleyball player, there are inherent dangers to only playing with one side of your body. Whether right handed or left handed, we use one side of the body differently than the other. So, I encourage all my athletes to be ambidextrous and use both sides of their body because the body will become more balanced that way." - Dr. Tim Brown  "My love of video games is what makes me 'me' and I think everybody's interests are different and whatever you love, you speak more passionately about, you do better at it, and those are the things that you should advocate for and do. Don't try to be anybody else. If you see somebody else being successful in a field, but it's not your passion, then don't try to copy them just because they're doing it. Do what you love." - Kelly Claes "It's just a matter of taking the imbalances that volleyball creates and that life has created in Kelly and testing her body through movement methods that allow me to understand what's been overused and overstretched versus what's been underused and undertoned. In the areas that are underused and undertoned, I create length and circulation to allow Kelly and others like her to move towards that symmetry that we never, ever reach." - Dr. Tim Brown  "Being fearlessly authentic means becoming comfortable with yourself. It is recognizing that you are unique and your path is unique. Most people don't want to walk down the same path that others have walked before so they choose to be bold and take a different approach to things and that's what we need to celebrate with future generations. That's what's going to help us grow as a community." - Dr. Tim Brown "It didn't really click with me until I was a Junior at the university that there were a lot more factors to wellness. I would wear the Intelliskin a lot to study and to get my posture in check, but I didn't really think about food as a huge factor or how sleep and recovery can greatly affect your performance. There are so many little nuances to wellness and I began to integrate that focus into my life." - Kelly Claes Links From Today's Show Kelly Claes Facebook Twitter Instagram Dr. Tim Brown Facebook LinkedIn Intelliskin Facebook Twitter Instagram IntelliSkin & Wellness Force Partnership USC Women's Beach Volleyball - Kelly Claes Team USA - Kelly Claes SANDCAST No. 3: It’s finally (finally) video-game season for Kelly Claes Sara Hughes & Kelly Claes: Set to Become The Next Superstars of Beach Volleyball Stand Up Tall: IntelliSkin Posture Apparel Put to the Test Why Intelliskin? Take the IntelliSkin Posture Test With Dr. Tim Brown Sports Chiropractor of the Year (Dr. Tim Brown – 1998) Dr. Tim Brown: 5 Tibetan Rights WFR 117 - The Future of Wellness Technology WFR 137 Dr. Tim Brown WFR 166 Craig Cooper About Kelly Claes Kelly Claes is a Professional Beach Volleyball Player, a motivational speaker, USC alumni and in her free time is a self-proclaimed Comic Con Conqueror and Video GameLover.With partner Sara Hughes, Claes helped win a fourth-consecutive national championship for USC and stunned the 2016 Olympic gold medalists to claim a bronze medal in the World Series of Beach Volleyball. About Dr. Tim Brown Dr. Tim Brown is a world-renowned Chiropractor and Movement Specialist who treats athletes at the highest levels of professional sports. Dr. Brown is the Founder ofIntelliSkin, a human technology company, and the Co-Medical Director for the WorldSurf League, Northern Hemisphere.   Get More Wellness In Your Life Join the WFR Community on facebook Send Josh Trent a personal message Tweet me on Twitter: Send us a fun tweet (or a what's up) Comment on the Facebook page Sign up to get an email alert whenever we release a new episode Support This Podcast Leave a 5 star review on iTunes Share this episode with someone you care about Contact Wellness Force Radio for podcast sponsorship and partnership opportunities Rate & Review Wellness Force ---> REVIEW THE PODCAST Ask A Live Question For The Next Episode ---> Click here to leave a voicemail directly to Josh Trent to be read live on the air.  You May Also Like These Episodes Food Freedom Forever With Melissa Hartwig Nir Eyal: Breaking Bad Habits, Technology Addiction, & Emotional Triggers Healthy, Happy & Harder To Kill w/ Steph Gaudreau of Stupid Easy Paleo Beyond Meditation: How To Get A Better Brain With Ariel Garten Living A Healthy Lifestyle In A Modern World With Dan Pardi Creating A Life Worth Living With Michael Strasner Join the Wellness Force Newsletter: www.wellnessforce.com/news Don't miss next week's show: Subscribe and stay updated Did you like this show on Ketosis? Rate and review Wellness Force on iTunes You read all the way to the bottom? That's what I call love! Write to me and let me know what you'd like to have to get more wellness in your life.

Perhaps you needed proof. Proof that Sara Hughes is, indeed, the one to fit the headline of this very podcast: That she is fit to become the next face of beach volleyball. Had you stopped by Huntington Beach last Friday morning, you'd have had all the proof you'd need. There, on court one, was Hughes, this week's repeat guest on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, and partner Kelly Claes. There was coach Jose Loiola and mentor Misty May-Treanor. There was Ben Vaught and Tanner Woods, because, yes, Hughes and Claes train with professional men on occasion.   And there, lining the court was a dozen or so girls, member of the Long Beach City beach volleyball team, watching, studying, looking on. Taking notes on Hughes. Yes, they were at the Huntington Beach Pier that day because they had practice – but a Long Beach-based team doesn't necessarily need to come to Huntington Beach to practice. There were there because that's where May-Treanor, the director of beach volleyball operations at LBC, was, and May-Treanor was there because, well, Hughes. There's a reason Hughes and Claes have landed one Hall of Famer (Loiola) and another who could go down as one of the greatest talents in volleyball history as their coaches. It could be argued – and it often is – that Hughes and Claes, both 22 years old, have more potential than any individual or team in the world, more, even, than the precocious Duda, the 19-year-old Brazilian star and 2016 FIVB Rookie of the Year. Already, Hughes and Claes have won an AVP, the 2017 season-finale in Chicago. Already they have reached FIVB quarterfinals and landed some of the game's top names as sponsors. Already they have broken previous goals and established new ones. In their first season as professionals, breaking pool in international play was the goal. In their first event, a four-star in Rio, they finished fifth. Now, in just one season as full-time professionals, and a truncated one at that, seeing as they had to miss the early season events while they wrapped up what figures to be the most dominant college run for quite some time, Hughes and Claes see anything less than a podium finish as a shortcoming. Finishes, though, are but one tangible measurement for the success of Hughes and Claes. There is no barometer through which to measure their “inspiration” to the next generation of beach volleyball players. For now, you can see it yourself, right there, on the sidelines of court one, watching, observing, taking notes – figuring out ways to become the Next Sara Hughes.

On one of the walls in Sara Hughes' bedroom is a poster of Misty May-Treanor. It's been there since she was little, when Hughes began getting into volleyball, serving as a reminder of what she might become one day should she continue to pursue this beach volleyball dream of hers. So it struck her when, during a tournament this season, a parent of a young fan approached her and told Hughes that, on one of the walls in her daughter's bedroom, is a poster of Hughes. “I was like ‘No way that's actually happening,'” Hughes recalled on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “I am so grateful for that and I hope I can keep being a person young people can look up to for a long time and thank you to everyone who does.” Did you catch that, at the end? Hughes thanked the fans for looking up to her, not the other way around. In an era where celebrities grow more and more closed off, taking instead to social media to communicate behind iPhones and laptops, Hughes remains open, willing to talk to anyone, pepper with anyone, give back any way she can. “I'm always just trying to help people,” she said. “If anybody wants to ask, just come up to me, you can ask me directly.” No different than May-Treanor continues to treat her.  When her age could still be measured with a single digit, Hughes would head down to the Huntington Beach Pier and sit on the wall, waiting for a chance, any chance, to simply shag balls for May-Treanor. Sometimes May-Treanor would let her pepper or hop in for a drill or two, creating an indelible memory that Hughes will cherish more than likely the rest of her life. “I love talking to people and I love talking to young girls because I don't think I'd be in the position I am today if I didn't have the coaches I had and people like Misty May taking the time to talk to me,” she said. “I love doing the same to everyone else.” She's a sponsor's dream, Hughes. She has the looks – blonde hair, blue eyes, Colgate smile – the smarts – she's currently on a one-year track to earn her Master's degree, just a year after delivering a graduation speech at USC – the media savvy, the talent, a voracious competitive drive juxtaposed with a disarmingly charming personality. Oh, yes. She has earned this position, the right to have Mikasa run her through photo shoots and turn those shoots into posters for young girls to hang on their walls, to point to each night and morning and say “I want to be like that.” Her accolades at USC could fill a small book's worth of pages, and it's a wonder if some of her records – four consecutive national titles, a winning streak that eclipsed 100 matches, a perfect 48-0 junior season, four-time All-American – will ever be broken. Justifiably, this drew no small amount of media coverage, and while she was appreciative – always thanking anyone for taking the time and interest in her – it drove her a bit insane, how those reporters would invariably walk right past her exceptionally talented teammates. On the occasion that the media showed interest in the rest of USC's indomitable team, more often than not they'd ask questions not about how their match went, but what they thought about Sara and her partner, Kelly Claes. “I hated that when it was just ‘Oh! Sara and Kelly and Team USC!'” Hughes said. “I was like ‘No, you don't realize, these girls who are on [teams] two, three, four, to the eighth team, they're our support system. We would not be close to being good or successful without our teammates. They deserve just as much fame and respect as we do because we're out there on the same hot court at USC and we're training, every day, together.” Her teammates, as she said, were plenty talented, and a number of them – Nicolette Martin, Terese Cannon, Jenna Belton, Sophie Bukovic, Allie Wheeler, to name a few – have already begun making a name for themselves on the AVP Tour. Yet Hughes, as May-Treanor was, will be the name fans point to as the next in this massive wave of beach volleyball talent rising from the college ranks. She will be the one on the posters, and in the commercials for Oakley and KT Tape and Mikasa and any other sponsor wise enough to sign her.   She's becoming the next generation's version of May-Treanor – the one everyone looks up to – quicker than she could have possibly realized.   The final question of SANDCAST is reserved for the athletes to discuss anything else they'd like to discuss, anything the hosts may have missed. Most demur, maybe shout out a sponsor or two, thank us for the time. Hughes, instead, had a message for her fans: “For the young players and any parents who are listening, I love the indoor game and the beach game, of course. So a lot of players are making this decision where they love the indoor but they have to play the beach in college because they think that's the only thing they can play. I just think it's huge for young girls to play both if they love both.” You can teach any volleyball skill there is. But to become the next face of a sport, as May-Treanor once was? That's a trait passed down, from one legend to the one who might just become the next.  

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." 

In a frenetic span of 120 days, Kelly Claes was able to accomplish what the vast majority of the beach volleyball world would be satisfied with in a career.  She won a national championship with USC, which was preceded by the USAV Collegiate Beach Championships. She stunned 2016 Olympic gold medalists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst to claim a bronze medal in the World Series of Beach Volleyball. She won an AVP during the season finale in Chicago, which came with the added bonus of boosted prize money, money she was alas able to accept. She even won a NORCECA qualifier – playing defense with Lauren Fendrick. And Claes isn't done yet. Not even close.  “I want to be the best blocker in the world,” she says repeatedly throughout the podcast. She's not far off, despite playing professionally for less than one full season (she had to skip the AVP's opener in Huntington Beach). While her and partner Sara Hughes, the FIVB Rookie of the Year, finished the collegiate season No. 1 in the country and national champs for the fourth straight season, they also finished No. 16 internationally and sixth on the AVP.  On the podcast, Claes discusses her remarkable partnership with Hughes, which includes a record 103-match winning streak, and what she learned by playing with Fendrick and AVP MVP April Ross in an FIVB in China. “You can only learn so much from one person,” she says. “I feel like reaching into another hat is always helpful. I feel like I learned from both of them and I wouldn't trade that for anything. It was a really cool experience.” With a little less than three months to go before the opening event of the 2018 season, in The Hague, Claes and Hughes are back on the sand. Claes discusses what her training looks like, what events she's looking forward to in the 2018 season, her aspirations both immediate and long term, and how she plans on developing into the best blocker in the world. Where you can find Claes: Twitter: @kellyclaes3 Instagram: Kellyclaes3 Facebook: Kelly Claes Of course, this podcast would not be possible without our generous sponsors from Marriott Vacation Club Rentals, which offer the best vacation accommodations in the world's best vacation destinations. Wherever you travel… Florida to Hawaii, Europe to California, choose to rest in our luxurious guest rooms, suites or villas for your next getaway. Villas offer all of the comforts of home including a full kitchen, living and dining area and separate bedrooms. Stay with the Marriott name you know and trust.    Book Big Spaces in Great Places today.  Visit www.MVCRentals.com!

Sara Hughes was eight years old when she knew exactly what she wanted to do: She was going to play beach volleyball. And she was going to do it in the Olympics. Fifteen years later, she's on pace to do just that. A standout at Mater Dei, Hughes was the Orange County Player of the Year and an All-American, which has preceded a brilliant, unprecedented career at USC. As a Trojan, Hughes has won three consecutive pairs national championships. In her junior year, partnered with Kelly Claes, the two went undefeated, dropping just one set the entire season. Though still playing under the amateur status of the NCAA, Hughes has already made an AVP final and taken a set off of Kerri Walsh and April Ross. Listen in as we discuss her life of beaches and volleyballs and uninterrupted dominance.