Podcasts about Sara Hughes

Welcome back to another SOLO EPISODE of SANDCAST, where Travis Mewhirter provides a comprehensive overview of a wild weekend in the world of beach volleyball, breaking down the AVP League qualifier, the Saquarema Elite16, and the Cal Poly Center of Effort Challenge. Namely, he chats: - The surprise success of Corinne Quiggle and Megan Rice - The more surprising success of Hagen Smith and Logan Webber - The puzzling decision of the AVP not to give Kelly Cheng an injury sub for Sara Hughes, so she'll have to qualify via qualifiers - Anders Mol and Christian Sorum returning to the Beach Pro Tour in style And a bit more! SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Get 10 PERCENT OFF VBTV using our discount code, SANDCAST10 Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

Though lead pipes were outlawed in 1986, the EPA estimates that more than nine million lead service lines still distribute water across America. And though many people believe treatment plants are enough to keep our drinking water safe, the Flint water crisis proved this very wrong. Sara Hughes explains how this city's contamination in 2014 has changed the visibility of water politics in America for the better. Learn More: https://radiohealthjournal.org/how-flints-water-crisis-revealed-the-underbelly-of-water-politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Mykel Jenkins, the longtime personal trainer of Bourne – and John Hyden, Sara Hughes, Emily Stockman, and several others – and is a wide-ranging one. Bourne has worked with Jenkins for more than a decade, and together, they discuss: The significance, and critical importance, of personal training, especially in elite sports like beach volleyball. Why you have to build a unique training approach tailored to individual athletes The role of trust in the trainer-athlete relationship, and the necessity of being present in every moment. Tri gets into his own challenges, the mindset of elite athletes, and they talk about the journey of Sara Hughes, who made her Olympic debut in Paris this year And, per usual, much, much more. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Love the insights from this episode? Make sure you never miss a beat with Chatpods! Whether you're commuting, working out, or just on the go, Chatpods lets you capture and summarize key takeaways effortlessly. Save time, stay organized, and keep your thoughts at your fingertips. Download Chatpods directly from App Store or Google Play and use it to listen to this podcast today! https://www.chatpods.com/?fr=TravisMewhirter   Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/  

Welcome back to Beach Access, where Travis Mewhirter and occasionally Kyle Friend break down professional beach volleyball on both the AVP Tour and the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. This week, Travis, fresh off a week in Tallahassee at Florida State, takes a look at the AVP League and its week one debut, talking: How were the teams assigned, and how in the world is Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander on the same team as Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes? (the New York Nitro) What's the prize money for the AVP League? Why is the AVP League in the fall, competing with the NFL and College Football? Why are the sets to 15 as opposed to 21, 21, and then 15? And a bit more. Feel free to drop a comment, ask questions, whatever you need. Here to answer as many as we can! SHOOTS and GO NOLES! *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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  

The Hermosa Open was AWESOME, one of the purest beach volleyball tournaments we've been to in a long time. All good vibes from the players and fans, streamed on VBTV, fun new teams to watch -- all of it. And, we had some scintillating play, INCLUDING: - A DOUBLE-FINAL on the women's side between Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes and Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft - Finally a domestic win for Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, long-awaited, in a fun final against Miles Partain and Alex Ranghieri - April Ross' final tournament as a sub with Lexy Denaburg - Travis Mewhirter's final tournament as a professional, taking a fifth with Andy Benesh in a very fun run SHOOTS!  *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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

Welcome back to Beach Access, where Travis Mewhirter and Kyle Friend break down, preview, and chat about all things AVP Beach Volleyball and the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Today, we're previewing the Manhattan Beach Open, which begins with Thursday's qualifier and ends on Sunday with someone getting their name on the Pier. The big question: Who?   We chat about that and a whole lot more, including: How will Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, and Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, rebound from a disappointing finish at the Paris Olympic Games? Will Miles Partain and Andy Benesh resume their dominance on the AVP Tour? Why Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft are sneakily a contender to win their first Manhattan Beach Open A look at Tri Bourne and Ryan Wilcox as they make their AVP Heritage Series debut Why Evan Cory and Alison Cerutti are a dangerous, dangerous 10 seed And a whole lot more! SHOOTS! *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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 Bert Kreischer. Wait…Bert Kreischer? On a beach volleyball podcast? YUP! Kreischer, one of the highest-grossing comedians of all-time, wanted to get into beach volleyball during the Paris Olympic Games, so he had the SANDCAST crew at his studio to simulcast Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes as they played the Czech Republic's Bara Hermannova and Marie-Sara Stochlova, then again as Cheng and Hughes played Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli. This episode is the audio of our first sit-down with Bert, where we have maybe one of the funniest chats of all-time about beach volleyball. Grab some popcorn and enjoy this one folks! Here is the link to our second livestream with The Machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxGzNl_-5Sg&t=49s   And here is the link to our first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCPC1nIb5sQ&t=177s   SHOOTS! *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try! Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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

Welcome back to the Paris Pod, where Travis Mewhirter and occasionally a guest break down the Olympic volleyball action. Today we're in the Bayview Studios with producers 1 and 2, previewing the Olympic beach volleyball playoffs, where all four USA teams -- Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth -- have made the playoffs, and a shout-out to the indoor teams for making it to the quarterfinals as well! On this episode, Travis chats about: Chase and Miles' excellent performance against Australians Thomas Hodges and Zach Schubert in a lucky loser win Why pool play should be replaced by double-elimination ASAP Cuba's brutal draw, getting Sweden in the first round Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth getting a rematch of the AVP Huntington Beach finals with Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson… in the first round And much more! Thanks as always to the producers, and thanks to all y'all for tuning in! SHOOTS! *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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  

Welcome back to the Paris Pod, where Travis Mewhirter and now Kyle Friend break down and analyze the Paris Olympic Beach Volleyball. It has been a wild few days, with the standout storylines in women's Olympic beach volleyball being: Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner upsetting their way to the round of 16 The USA women, backed by an undefeated run from Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth and a 2-0 start from Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, are off to a strong start The Brazilian women, too, are undefeated, with Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa sweeping their way to the top spot in pool The effect the deep sand is having on many of the players Been an AWESOME Olympics thus far! SHOOTS! *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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  

For beach volleyball players Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, the 2024 Paris Olympics are a reunion. The two began their professional careers together in 2017, before splitting to pursue the Tokyo Olympics with different partners. Now, they're reuniting on the court in Paris as the reigning world champions.

This women's Olympic beach volleyball preview is sponsored by BetOnline! Finally we have a betting sponsor y'all! Use our specific link to sign up and SANDCAST gets a $70 bonus! https://www.betonline.ag/?btag=l2Q0kqrs0suk3WqdcAbDv2Nd7ZgqdRLk&affid=111149   ***   This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is our women's Olympic Beach Volleyball Preview, guest starring Brian Cook, a former professional indoor and beach player who is now the co-founder of TruVolley, diving deep into the analytical side of the game. On this episode, we chat about: Why USA Volleyball, with Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth and Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, has an 80 percent chance to win a medal Why Nuss and Kloth are the heavy favorites to win gold, even bigger favorites than Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa What makes Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli such an interesting team to watch through the Paris Olympic Games Why Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are a value pick to win gold And a whole lot more. Absolute blast on this episode with Brian, who we hope to bring on a lot more. SHOOTS! *** Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  We have a new book! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! 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/ 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  

Beach volleyball World Champions Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng are sharing what it's like preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games! From how they're processing this huge milestone in their careers to the key ingredients that make up their winning partnership, Sara and Kelly give incredible insight and advice on how to navigate wins and losses. The queens of the court share how they manage moments of high stress and anxiety as professional athletes, and how they're learning to be proud of themselves and stay in the moment no matter what. Tune in to peek inside the minds of a dream team crushing goals on an Olympic scale. Go Team USA! Sara's Instagram: @sarahughesbeachKelly's Instagram: @kellychengSponsors:AG1: www.drinkAG1.com/realpod code REALPODQuince: www.quince.com/realpodProduced by Dear MediaThis episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kelly Cheng is a beach volleyball player with Team USA. She and her partner Sara Hughes won the bronze medal at the 2013 U19 World Championships, the silver medal at the 2014 U21 World Championships, the gold medal at the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and back-to-back NCAA Championships in 2016 and 2017 in college at USC. Today on the podcast, Kelly Cheng joins our Sports Spectrum managing editor Jon Ackerman to talk about her  journey with Jesus, reading the Bible in a year, preparing for Paris 2024 and rooting her identity in Christ.  Sign up for our Sports Spectrum Magazine and receive 15% off a 1-year subscription by using the code PODCAST15 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://SportsSpectrum.com/magazine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Do you know Christ personally? Click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn how you can commit your life to Him.

In preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, TODAY's Craig Melvin is sharing a series of conversations with athletes competing for the chance to represent Team USA in Paris. Join Craig, along with NBC News Correspondent Stephanie Gosk and TODAY Contributor Ally Love, and hear from medal contenders as they share their preparation, what success looks like in Paris and what they're most looking forward to at the Olympic games.For beach volleyball players Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, the 2024 Paris Olympics will be a reunion. The two began their professional careers together in 2017, before splitting to pursue the Tokyo Olympics with different partners. Now, they've reunited on the court and are heading to the Olympics as reigning world champions.

Dain Blanton is an American Beach Volleyball Coach, Commentator and former playing legend. The hall of famer remains the only male player to hold an Olympic gold medal, and AVP crown, and an NCAA championship as a player AND a coach, with this year being his fourth consecutive NCAA beach volleyball chip with the USC women of Troy 01:53 - On the 4-peat (how many of those exist), coach of the year 09:03 - Fan question, maximizing potential, longevity, sustainment, process and technique that leads to that, mastering your craft 16:03 - The genius of the dual system in college beach volleyball, about Tina Graudina, Sara Hughes, Kelly Cheng, plus, could there be an all-American finals? 22:54 - How the NCAA helped a generation of girls move out their predecessors, getting after it vs the "feeling out" process, and where is Alexa Strange? 32:59 - Fan question: How do you keep the peace and maintain the happiness of players joining the program? What surprises freshmen coming in? 35:11 - What does "be coachable" mean? 41:20 - What old rule would you change back, and what rule are you glad is gone? 47:45 - What rule in volleyball should be two points? 50:24 - Three venues that the AVP should bring back? 58:22 - Lightning Rounds 1:00:59 - What does your preseason look like (training, on and off the court), The dual system, being roommates with Vern, what does Marv Dunphy mean to you, and Huntington Beach being next year's NCAA venue

In this episode, Clarence welcomes back guest host Sevrin Lavenstein while Stephen is out on Family Leave. They sit down with beach volleyball world champion and U.S. Beach National Team athlete, Sara Hughes (9:50 - 47:18). Sara talks about her beach volleyball journey including her early partnership with Justine Wong-Orantes, her reunion with Kelly Cheng and her hopes for the Olympic season. Sara shares what it would mean to her to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games. We also hear about peppering with Snoop Dogg and so much more! This is a great episode that you won't want to miss! 

A study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute and LinkedIn reported that 80% of the content created by marketing teams goes unused by sales. So how can organizations make sure that the content they create is not only relevant to sales, but being used in the right ways? Here to discuss this topic are Sara Hughes, senior manager of marketing operations, and Lindsay Simons, senior director of acquisition marketing at Limeade. Thanks for joining, Sara and Lindsay! I'd love for you to tell us about yourselves, your backgrounds, and your roles. Sara, let’s start with you. Sara Hughes: Hi, I’m Sara. I’ve been at Limeade for just over six years now, and I have played many different roles on the marketing team here, from project management to marketing operations, and have quite a bit of experience using Highspot and how to really leverage it for our organization. SS: Welcome, and Lindsay, how about a little bit of background on yourself? Lindsay Simons: Hi, I’m Lindsay, and I’ve been at Limeade for nine years. I started off smiling and dialing in an inside sales position, and today I am the senior director of acquisition marketing. The budget line item for Highspot is under me, and so is Sales Enablement, as well as a couple other fun programs too that we’ve made Highspot a key part of the function. I am excited to be here today. SS: Wonderful. I’m excited to have you both here. Now, prior to Highspot, tell me what were some of the challenges that your organization was facing and how is that impacting your roles in the marketing world? Sara, if I could send this one to you, I’d love to hear your perspective. SH: Yeah, absolutely. One of the biggest issues that we had in our organization was that since we are a SharePoint org we have all of our files and all of our documents there. One thing that was very difficult for us to control and manage was version control. The introduction of Highspot really helped us leverage the tool in order to not only protect the content that we have but also protect our employees so that they’re leveraging the latest and greatest and so that all of sales and marketing is really singing from the same songbook. That’s something that was a huge issue for us especially, as you know, in marketing you’re constantly revving and iterating on all of your different assets and constantly trying to stay as current and up to date as possible. That was one of the biggest reasons we really got Highspot and signed on in addition to just the need for sales enablement and really enabling our sales teams to do the best work that they can with the materials that we would create for them just on sales enablement. LH: On that note, for a while there, marketing became almost a service counter for just content, and then the content would be in the wild, and we’re like, how’s it going out there, content? This really helped us start to be a leader and to proactively say, here’s the content, how to use it, when to use it in a playbook style, and then have great insights into usage. For a while there, we were flying blind with content and just saying yes. I think that was a huge shift. Now the team just knows it as sales enablement, but for a while there, there was a lot of pain. SS: I bet. How have you overcome some of those challenges? You guys have touched on it a little bit, but how have you overcome some of these challenges since implementing Highspot? SH: We’ve actually integrated our Highspot instance with our SharePoint so that we’re updating it in one location on SharePoint. Once we’ve gotten new content, new creative, new angles, and even embracing new industries that we might be selling to, things like that, and creating custom content. By uploading it to SharePoint and having that integration with Highspot, we are able to stay automatically up to date with the latest and greatest. I keep going back to the version control piece, but that is such a huge piece, especially as messaging is constantly changing. It’s also helped us really create and form that link between marketing and sales so that they know exactly what we’re working on or what is the latest and greatest based on what is showing up in Highspot for them so that they know they’re not missing something. They’re always getting the latest and greatest from us. LS: I would just say in addition to that, because you’re spot on Sara, and I think as we onboarded new employees and showed them our content and how we use it, we started to really leverage Highspot as a great onboarding tool and create these homepages for different teams. They can get familiar with the content and then have some self discovery and then the search functionality is incredible. Then we kept it simple on the enablement side, and because the links made it so easy to either link to a spot or a homepage or a specific piece of content, we love a link farm, an email just really heavy with links that points to Highspot, but then we just recreate that within Highspot.  It was a really great tool to meet the sales team where they are, but then use that as a broader tool for the rest of the company even if we didn’t have the entire company necessarily on a seat, you can always pitch a Spot, like with a bunch of content. We termed it microsite. That’s the term that made sense internally. We use a lot of microsites to pitch content and to make sure that the broader company is just even familiar with the latest marketing campaigns and that they can share it with their network and that we can still see how broad it goes. Content management was why we bought it, but I just want to highlight all the reasons why it’s been such a sticky tool because we’ve seen the impact and overcomes challenges that we’re experiencing, which is a broader strategy. SS: I love that and I definitely want to drill into that. SH: To tack on to that as well, we have been able to leverage Highspot for various other departments. Things like onboarding our own employees has been a really unique use case for the tool and giving all employees, instead of looking at a stagnant or stale SharePoint site, they’re looking at a customized curated microsite, as Lindsay said, of materials, talking about who we are, where we’ve been, where we’re going, and it really helps I think with onboarding new employees, especially when you’re in a remote world. I think that’s become so important to have them have as much information and an ease in the way that they can navigate through that information and find what they’re looking for. SS: I love that. Now, I know we’ve talked about all the different ways that you guys have been leveraging Highspot, and I know that you guys started in terms of leveraging it from a content management perspective. I would love to understand from your perspective, what does good content management look like? In other words, what are some of your best practices for effectively managing that content? Sara, I’d love to send this one to you. SH: Clear organization is just the name of the game when it comes to content management, it’s organization and version control. One of the things that I actually find super important when it comes to this is searchability. If you have a list of content or a list of assets you could have millions of things in there. The thing that I think is really important with content management is to make sure, one, that everyone can easily search and find what they’re looking for. If they’re looking for something to sell to a particular industry, they can use the search field and look up that industry, and we have curated a bunch of things already. We also have the microsites that help people navigate if they’re not sure what they’re looking for yet and they want to browse. It’s organized in a way that’s by topic, it’s intentional, and it’s not just a never ending list of things. It’s constantly being curated in that way. That’s really one of the most important things. It also really enables our sales teams and other teams to be as self sufficient as possible without having to go through and navigate and find out where did this go, I thought this was here? Oh, I moved it. There’s none of that with Highspot because even if a location has moved, you can always search for it and you can favorite spots and things like that and even create your own spot so that your most used tools and assets are really relevant at just the click of a button. SS: Amazing. You have clearly been doing an amazing job because Limeade has improved content efficiency by 78% with Highspot, which is a ratio of the time spent using content to the time spent now looking for content. What are some of your best practices for optimizing the findability and the usability of your content, Lindsay? LS: I think one from a broader strategic lens, helping the sales team and broader company understand the rhyme and reason to why we create content first and foremost. When we start to launch content, they understand where it sits in our broader strategy, and they can start to anticipate what’s coming down the pike for them. Also, having a lot of channels to make new content to put in their awareness. For us, we have quite a large tech stack. We even have our own platform, Limeade, which we sell. It’s our well being solution that also provides engagement and we would plug some of our great content that we’re putting out there on that tool. It starts at the top of just making sure that there is a way to plug content in and let people understand where it’s coming from and what it’s trying to solve for. Just on that note on what it’s trying to solve for, we mapped content to a buyer’s journey and their whole company is starting to kind of buy into what this buyer’s journey and what are our point of views out there. When it comes to the type of content marketing is creating, it gets more scientific there. That’s where Sara just thrives with tagging it and making sure that there’s a universal way to upload it so that internally and externally there again, some rhyme and reason to why we’re doing it that way and just making sure that we hold people accountable. If it’s all inputted in a strategic way, then the tool remains strategic. I think that’s what we’ve successfully done. The operational rigor is really where it’s at, so Sara just went over of this like content management and what that’s helped us with and what best practices are, but from what made that 78% possible was getting the sales team bought into our strategy and then seeing that come to life within Highspot and all the goodies. Once you finally get to see the ebook or the video or the infographic and get to use it and pitch it and then get to pair it together, they start to see the magic. SS: I love that. Now, as you mentioned, Lindsay, it’s really important to make sure that you are tracking what works and what doesn’t so that you can optimize things. Sara, I know one of your areas of expertise is driving program and initiative performance through reporting. How have you been leveraging Highspot Analytics to measure what works and what doesn’t so you can optimize content effectiveness? SH: The analytics area of Highspot has been super helpful for us because as marketers we’re constantly generating content and iterating on existing content. Obviously over the years that list grows and grows and becomes a bit of a bear and it has this extensive library essentially. The way that we’ve really leveraged the analytics specifically with activity logs and content lists and scorecards is to basically see who’s using what and how and how often. It essentially tells us exactly what the most popular assets are so that we also know where to focus future updates. Say they’re using a sales deck that we’ve created. Maybe we haven’t touched it in a month or something like that, but we’re noticing that everyone on sales loves this deck. Knowing tha, being able to see that in analytics and having that information is super helpful because then we know we need to pay a lot of attention to the sales deck. That is the most important thing to sales. They use it constantly. We see them using it. It also helped us interact with people there. People can send through feedback and then we can get those requests, which is great. It really keeps it just this live dialogue happening where we’re constantly able to really improve on the assets that we do have. On the other hand, looking at an asset, say we spent hours and lots of manpower and things on a particular asset that’s not getting any sort of use, it forces us to be a bit reflective to say is this the right asset? Do people not know where it is? How do we need to enable them? Is that content just not what they’re looking for or not helpful to them? In a remote world, it’s so key to understand that because you’re not having the hallway discussions, you’re not having the water cooler impromptu conversations. It’s super helpful to have that information at our fingertips all the time because it really gives us a little bit more of a finger on the pulse of what’s going on with the other organizations, but specifically sales. SS: Absolutely. Now, a lot of the time I think some folks don’t necessarily know how to think about the relationship between content and sales productivity, but by optimizing the impact of your content, how have you guys been able to influence sales productivity? Lindsay, I’d love to hear from you on this front. LS: We had an awesome CMO who came and joined us, who really helped us refine our focus. Our focus going into 2023 was to talk to the right person at the right time with the right content. We spent a lot of 2022 just really honing in on the right person and studying that buyer persona and understanding what type of content they want to consume, like what kind of content is for more self education at the top of the funnel versus they’re showing some buying signals and they might be ready to buy and market for a solution like us. I think a large part of our time for a long time was just spraying and praying that the content was sticking and that people just loved how much we loved it. What our CMO helped us really understand is it has to hit them at the right time, and seasonality is everything. When it comes to productivity, we love a slogan; ‘work smarter, not harder', and that’s what we made playbooks of just like what works and how do we figure out what works? Sara showed a large part of just like what they’re actually using, but then we also have leveraged Visible, as part of a relationship with Marketo. The attribution also shows when key contacts are engaging with set Highspot content at key moments in the funnel and mapping those activities to certain milestones. It is super complex because our buying cycle is about 18 months, so it’s hard to point to one piece of content and then poke into that content to say, like, why did it work, but you can see a lot with the correlation of just like, okay, brochure, you get a lot of clicks late in the funnel. What does that tell us? I just think the right content at the right time mixed with works smarter, not harder, helps with productivity. The link farms and pointing people in the right place to finding those channels and how to proactively inform, and then let them have a voice to help inform back. If they are like, I want this piece, we’re like, we’ll say yes, because again, it fits into this larger content strategy and what we’re trying to solve for. It’s not just a one-off conversation. Also, to Sara’s point, Gong tells us we have a piece on participation because the word participation is used so much. That wasn’t the word that we like to use, but we prefer engagement. If you think it’s participation, we’re going to make a lot of content with the word participation. To answer your question simply, we let the sales team into the marketing’s brain, let them understand why we’re doing content, and then show that it is impactful if they follow the playbook and use the party tricks that their teammates are showing them. SS: I imagine it has to help though, Lindsay. As you mentioned in your introduction, you have a background in sales at Limeade before you transitioned over to marketing. Tell us a little bit about how your sales background impacts how you approach your role and how you collaborate with sales? LS: My background is in sales development, inside sales, whatever you want to call it, and really figured out that when you personalize the outreach it isa lot more effective. That’s account based marketing basically, is it creating these experiences that feel very targeted, very personalized, and the whole why me, why now coming to life within it. My background in sales was just like, how do you do that at scale? We will do some account research and be like, okay, here’s your pain points in a perfect world we’ll spend two hours crafting this up, but like, you can’t do that at scale. How do you package up your content in little ways that make it pretty easy to customize, segment, target, however you want to say it. That is what you’re doing is packaging up your content and positioning it in a way that says, wow, I need to read this exactly right now or consume it. My background in sales helped me understand how to make that easy for the sales team and how to make it feel like that is the path of least resistance versus just knocking on a lot of doors and uncovering rocks with cold outreach. How can you kind of figure out what are they interested in by using some of the MarTech that we’re investing in to drive that behavior and then serve up this content that we’ve either curated by industry, pain point, point of view, product or solution? We’ve tried to position and package it so they can just go, okay, here’s a menu, use it versus be left to your own devices and just add logos to random things. SS: You talked about how you are bringing sales into the fold and getting their feedback. I imagine that that has helped significantly in terms of collaboration and alignment. Can you talk to us about what that looks like now at Limeade with your sales team since you’ve implemented it in an enablement platform? SH: I think the best thing you can hear from a salesperson is I got what I wanted and like yeah we will deliver and like here you go, and the rest of you guys can all use it too. Also, getting that trust from the sales leader of the confidence of like I know what my sales team is doing out there. That requires collaboration and so having a tool that you can still have your ability to make it your own, but you’re staying within the sandbox gives people autonomy to do what they want, but the accountability to stick to the songbook. We always sing from the same song sheet, because it does sound better. The whole goal of ABM is that it feels like an orchestration, that, yes, it’s the same message, maybe said a little bit differently. What Highspot does a great job is telling the teams here is the science is there, here’s all the content, and yes, you can piece it together, you can add your own, because it’s customizable. I just think that there’s so much content going to waste, and then certain content bubbles up again. For collaboration it really depends on the organization we’ve been fortunate to work with some badass sales leaders who just like want to talk shop and be like, oh, in a perfect world, I’d like to talk about this and like, okay, but like, let’s go with like Gong’s telling us, or let’s look at why we’re losing deals and these common themes. How do we be proactive and think of something that will break through the noise and we can have a unique perspective on it. They’re like, oh yeah, that’s fun to talk about too and then they’ll talk about that with us and we’ll get their unique insights, but ultimately we’re trying to just empathize with the buyer to prove like you have a pain point and we’re just here to help you make some progress. And if you hire us, buy us, rent us, whatever, that’s good too. But I think content management really helps. Sales feel involved, but also marketing to have a bird’s eye view and not have to fly blind. SS: Absolutely. On that note, I’d love to understand what are some of the key business results that you have achieved since implementing Highspot? I’d love to understand any key data points you might be able to share. SH: I can definitely share a really fun one that we are hanging our hats on. For a long time, we had too many KPIs, let’s be real. We were measuring everything under the sun, and a lot of them were just vanity metrics. Our CMO came in and really helped us focus on the thing that matters most. When you really think about it for what we sell into the enterprise space, the SaaS solution, the win rate really matters. Unfortunately we were stagnant for five years, same win rate, so if you’re going to go that way, the only way to grow is by volume and it’s exhausting just adding a lot at the top of the funnel from a marketing perspective. After a huge overhaul of our sales enablement, we redid a lot of the homepages within Highspot. We made a company KPI that was making sure at 85% usage each week across the company. What we were successfully able to do is increase our win rate by 75%, which is huge in a market like ours. We can’t take credit for it and be like, yeah, it’s content that did it. It’s a huge team effort, but we can point back to the fact that we were singing from the same song book, but we know why we’re winning. We know why we’re losing and we increased our velocity and win rate, which is the best case scenario. So no, it’s not a causation of Highspot, but is it correlated? Absolutely. We feel really proud of that. It was nice that we were all marching towards the same metric and really connecting the sales and marketing organizations. SS: I love that. Well, thank you, Sara and Lindsay, so much for joining me today on the podcast. I appreciated the insights you shared and your lens on both sales and marketing alignment with enablement. Thank you both. LS: Thank you, this was so much fun.  SH: Thank you. SS: To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Join us for a discussion on the ever-evolving landscape of corporate governance and the future of boards with expert guests Sara Hughes and Mauro Cunha. We explore significant developments in corporate governance, diversity and inclusion in boardrooms, the role of specialized expertise, the shift towards strategic innovation, and the ethical aspects of technology adoption, particularly AI. We delve into ESG, continuous learning in boardrooms, and envision the future of boards amid rapid business transformations. For an insightful exploration of corporate governance and the board dynamics of the future, tune in to this engaging roundtable discussion with Sara Hughes and Mauro Cunha.

Until 2014 St David's Memorial Church sat on an unassuming spot on an ever-busier Kyber Pass Road in Auckland. But it was up for demolition after failing stronger earthquake regulations. Paul Baragwanath's family had been involved in running the church across two generations, and the news spurred him into action. Over the next nine years with the Friends of St David's Trust he helped the building secure heritage status, and then the funds to be bought from the church. Kahui St David's has secured another lease on its life as a centre for music. On Monday night a series of commissioned works by artist Sara Hughes will be unveiled inside the Great Hall and North Chapel, with more details available here.

Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Champions! Becoming the first @USAVolleyball team to win a World Championship gold medal since April Ross and Jen Kessy did so in 2009. Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth added a bronze medal to the slate, becoming the first American team to win a World Championship bronze medal since Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs in 1999 -- which was also the same year multiple USA teams won a World Championship medal. Big weekend. On the men's side, for the first time in history, three countries won their first World Championship medal in the same event: The Czech Republic's David Schweiner and Ondrej Perusic, Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, and Poland's Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl. Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner made history of their own, as they are now the only players in history to finish fourth multiple times (Brunner has done it thrice, Crabb twice). All that and a whole lot more on the final World Championship recap on The Road to Paris! SHOOTS!  *** We FINALLY have an alcohol sponsor, y'all! Bartender In A Box is here. SANDCAST and Bartender in a Box invite you and 12 of your friends to enjoy just one Box of their Premium Bar Quality Libations for around $20 bucks.  Bring in the fall right and Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code SANDCAST at Manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use code SANDCAST. As the leaves fall, make sure you have it all with MANSCAPED™. Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter have a NEW BOOK! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! NEWWW SPONSORRR!! If you're looking for a better way to reset your body and mind and begin your cold therapy journey, try Ice Barrel and get $150 off your order. Go to IceBarrel.com and use code SANDCAST. That's IceBarrel.com and use code SANDCAST for $150 off your order. Get Colder. Feel Better! A huge shoutout to our new sponsor, Goodr! Making the best shades on the beach, for the easy price of $25! Goodr makes $25 active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are 100% Polarized! If you want to support the show and pick up a pair, goodr is giving SANDCAST listeners FREE SHIPPING on your first order! You can go to goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. goodr offers a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 100% Satisfaction. Find your pair at goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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 SHOOTS!  

During Baby loss awareness week Lisa the host of Vision Board Blueprints Podcast has brought together a special series which will feature real life stories from herself and other women. She has also brought on guests from Tommy's and HeartTalks, two very important charity and support group which help women and families during loss. This episode Lisa is joined by Sara Hughes who shares her story around loss in the aid to help raise awareness. Sara - https://m.facebook.com/groups/1385033668895092/?ref=share If you are triggered by any of the content shared in any of these episodes please do reach out to any of the helplines or support groups below.  https://www.tommys.org⁠ https://www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk https://www.sands.org.uk/https://ectopic.org.uk/ ___________________________________________ Show Host Lisa Williams - www.lisawilliams-lmg.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/groups/visionboardqueen ______________________________________

The Beach Volleyball World Championships have arrived, and we are halfway through, with six  @USAVolleyball  teams winning their pool: Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, and Miles Partain and Andy Benesh. But as anyone knows: The real tournament begins Wednesday, where it's single elimination from here on forward. ENJOY! *** We FINALLY have an alcohol sponsor, y'all! Bartender In A Box is here. SANDCAST and Bartender in a Box invite you and 12 of your friends to enjoy just one Box of their Premium Bar Quality Libations for around $20 bucks.  Bring in the fall right and Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code SANDCAST at Manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use code SANDCAST. As the leaves fall, make sure you have it all with MANSCAPED™. Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter have a NEW BOOK! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! NEWWW SPONSORRR!! If you're looking for a better way to reset your body and mind and begin your cold therapy journey, try Ice Barrel and get $150 off your order. Go to IceBarrel.com and use code SANDCAST. That's IceBarrel.com and use code SANDCAST for $150 off your order. Get Colder. Feel Better! A huge shoutout to our new sponsor, Goodr! Making the best shades on the beach, for the easy price of $25! Goodr makes $25 active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are 100% Polarized! If you want to support the show and pick up a pair, goodr is giving SANDCAST listeners FREE SHIPPING on your first order! You can go to goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. goodr offers a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 100% Satisfaction. Find your pair at goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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 SHOOTS!  

Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are one of the best teams in the world, currently ranked No. 4 in the Olympic race, with a gold medal in Tepic, silver in Gstaad, and two AVP wins in 2023. They're also coached by Kelly's husband, Jordan, which has created, as you might be able to guess, an interesting dynamic, one that is both a dream and also extremely difficult. It's working, both on the court – they are one of the top teams on the planet – and off – they are still happily married. We chatted all about their lives as a husband-wife, coach-player, as well as: Why Jordan is the right man for the job, not just the husband for the job How Kelly Cheng has dealt with a constant stream of criticism dating back to her college days at USC How Kelly Cheng continues to break the mold of beach volleyball, from an aggressive on-two system to now jump-setting Why they have built an “army” of coaches, including Gustavo Rocha and Jake Gibb And so much more. Super fun chat with the Cheng Family as they head down to Mexico for this week's World Championships! ENJOY! *** We FINALLY have an alcohol sponsor, y'all! Bartender In A Box is here. SANDCAST and Bartender in a Box invite you and 12 of your friends to enjoy just one Box of their Premium Bar Quality Libations for around $20 bucks.  Bring in the fall right and Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code SANDCAST at Manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com and use code SANDCAST. As the leaves fall, make sure you have it all with MANSCAPED™. Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter have a NEW BOOK! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! NEWWW SPONSORRR!! If you're looking for a better way to reset your body and mind and begin your cold therapy journey, try Ice Barrel and get $150 off your order. Go to IceBarrel.com and use code SANDCAST. That's IceBarrel.com and use code SANDCAST for $150 off your order. Get Colder. Feel Better! A huge shoutout to our new sponsor, Goodr! Making the best shades on the beach, for the easy price of $25! Goodr makes $25 active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are 100% Polarized! If you want to support the show and pick up a pair, goodr is giving SANDCAST listeners FREE SHIPPING on your first order! You can go to goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. goodr offers a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 100% Satisfaction. Find your pair at goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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 SHOOTS!  

What's up with the AVP's streaming? Is Alix Klineman making a run at the Olympics? Are Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes on a slump? (if so, I'd like to slump like them). Can ANYONE stop Miles Partain and Andy Benesh? These are but a small sampling of the questions we tackled on this week's SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball With Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, as well as Savvy Simo. AVP Atlanta seemed to be a tipping point for the fans, as more than 60 percent of our record-setting number of questions was on the AVP streaming. As Savvy says on the podcast, “we have no control,” but we did have fun fielding and answering your questions! Including: A lot of fans have complained about streaming matches this year. What do the athletes think? Do we know any details about the AVP Championships? Can anybody stop Andy Benesh and Miles Partain? Can Alix Klineman still make a run at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games? And a wholeeeee lot more! ENJOY! *** Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter have a NEW BOOK! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! A huge shoutout to our new sponsor, Goodr! Making the best shades on the beach, for the easy price of $25! Goodr makes $25 active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are 100% Polarized! If you want to support the show and pick up a pair, goodr is giving SANDCAST listeners FREE SHIPPING on your first order! You can go to goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. goodr offers a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 100% Satisfaction. Find your pair at goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. We have a new -- but temporary -- sponsor with the Saucedwear Tournament, a $17,000 open with $5k to the winners down in Navarre Beach, Fla., where Travis Mewhirter first learned to play. Registration ends on July 14, and players can sign up at saucedwear.com!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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 SHOOTS!  

Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson should be crowned the real queens of Canada after their GOLD MEDAL at home in the Montreal Elite16. They were phenomenal all weekend long, surviving one three-setter after another – against Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, Xinyi Xia and Chen Xue, Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles – to win their second gold of the season. On this episode of The Road to Paris, where Travis Mewhirter breaks down the beach volleyball Olympic race, we cover that, as well as: How Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles jumped up to No. 7 in the world in the Olympic race The incredible and budding rivalry of Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, and Anders Mol and Christian Sorum The rise of Xinyi Xia and Chen Xue, who are quickly becoming an elite team Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri extending their lead in the Italian race (and entertaining us all while doing so) A huge shoutout to Montreal for delivering an awesome event! ENJOY! *** Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter have a NEW BOOK! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! A huge shoutout to our new sponsor, Goodr! Making the best shades on the beach, for the easy price of $25! Goodr makes $25 active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are 100% Polarized! If you want to support the show and pick up a pair, goodr is giving SANDCAST listeners FREE SHIPPING on your first order! You can go to goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. goodr offers a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 100% Satisfaction. Find your pair at goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. We have a new -- but temporary -- sponsor with the Saucedwear Tournament, a $17,000 open with $5k to the winners down in Navarre Beach, Fla., where Travis Mewhirter first learned to play. Registration ends on July 14, and players can sign up at saucedwear.com!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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 SHOOTS!

This is episode No. 8 of The Road to Paris, where Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. This episode follows the  @volleyballworld  Gstaad Elite16, where Andy Benesh and Miles Partain just won perhaps the most significant gold medal since Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser won gold at the Beijing Olympic Games. That's not all, either: Twice, they topped Anders Mol and Christian Sorum. Meanwhile... - Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes took another silver medal and a cowbell - Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth won bronze - Germans Cinja Tillman and Svenja Muller are back on tour with a big fourth - George Wanderley and Andre Loyola won their first Elite16 medal of the season - The Grimalts are kinda sorta maybe back (who knows with them) And a whole lot more! Thanks as always for supporting the show! SHOOTS! *** Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter have a NEW BOOK! Playbook of Champions: The habits, routines, and stories of Olympians, Champions, and world-class athletes. If you listen to the show – which, if you're reading this, then you are – then this is the perfect book for you, as it is a distillation of the best golden nuggets from our first five years of the podcast. Check it out on Amazon! A huge shoutout to our new sponsor, Goodr! Making the best shades on the beach, for the easy price of $25! Goodr makes $25 active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are 100% Polarized! If you want to support the show and pick up a pair, goodr is giving SANDCAST listeners FREE SHIPPING on your first order! You can go to goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. goodr offers a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 100% Satisfaction. Find your pair at goodr.com/SANDCAST and use code SANDCAST to get FREE shipping. We have a new -- but temporary -- sponsor with the Saucedwear Tournament, a $17,000 open with $5k to the winners down in Navarre Beach, Fla., where Travis Mewhirter first learned to play. Registration ends on July 14, and players can sign up at saucedwear.com!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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 SHOOTS!

In this episode, Teran Rodriguez recaps week 12 of the NCAA men's volleyball season and previews week 13 as once again, there's a new No.1 atop the AVCA Men's National Collegiate Coaches Poll. Rodriguez also recaps week 5 of the NCAA Beach Volleyball season as an unranked pulled off an upset. Finally, Rodriguez recaps Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng winning gold in the Elite 16 Tournament in Tepic and the AVCA appointing Dr.Jaime Gordon as the new executive director following Kathy DeBoer's soon-to-be departure. Timestamps for each part: Intro 0:00 IE Sports Radio Read 2:37 NCAA Men's Volleyball Week 12 Recap 4:21-49:11 Postgame Interview with USC Men's Volleyball Coach Jeff Nygaard on 3/24/23 41:12-45:57 AVCA Men's Volleyball Coaches Poll (3/27/23) 49:13 Commercial Break 54:06 Return From Commercial Break 58:15 NCAA Men's Volleyball Week 13 Preview 59:21 NCAA Beach Volleyball Week 5 Recap 1:20:57 Emma Monks Transfers to Pitt 1:29:30 Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng win the Elite 16 in Tepic 1:30:29 The AVCA Announces Dr.Jaime Gordon as its new Executive Director 1:34:43 NEXT WEEK! 1:42:51 Outro/Closing 1:43:29 All of the thoughts and opinions are that of Teran Rodriguez and the guests he brings on and not of any second, third- or fourth-party organizations. Twitter of host: @TeranRodriguez1 Twitter of show: @Set_PointIE Theme Music: Song: Move Out - MK2 [Free Download | No Copyright] Music provided by Mr. OATIIZ Video Link: https://youtu.be/Sqk3B2041uk IESR Disclaimer Unless specifically stated otherwise, the views and opinions of hosts, guests, callers, and sponsors expressed on all IE Sports Radio shows broadcast are entirely those of the hosts, guests, callers, and sponsors, who are entirely responsible for all show content, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of IE Sports Radio or its staff. These broadcasts are presented and made public AS ENTERTAINMENT, in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience.

Episode 58 features Sara Hughes - The No. 9 ranked pro beach volleyball player in the world, youngest team to win an AVP event alongside Kelly Cheng (Claes), and a top recruit for both beach and indoor volleyball, Hughes is a Nike Sponsored Athlete, has been names as the 2017 FIVB Top Rookie, the 2018 AVP Best Defender, and Sportswomen of the Year in 2017. Idolizing Misty May-Treanor throughout her youth, Hughes aspired to have her name among Misty May-Treanor and the best of the best as the champion of the Manhattan Open. Her determined mindset and consistent work-ethic inspires others to be the best athletes they can be through physical/mental preparation, mindset, learning how to deal with pressure, competing fiercely, and being a coachable player. Sara's Social's:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahughesbeach/?hl=en Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahughesbeach?lang=en Link to Shoe Dog Book: https://amzn.to/3CQ1E0nIn this episode we discuss:0:00 - Intro1:15 - What Inspired Living means to Sara3:00 - How to get through the days that you don't want to be there8:10 - How Sara plays for her Grandmother10:11 - Ready Fit Go11:12 - Support Systems11:35 - Being a Nike Athlete14:40 - The Flow (Inside and Outside the Sport)18:50 - Getting into a Focused Mindset24:10 - Champion Mindset29:55 - Emotional Management33:15 - Anchoring36:15 - Mykel Jenkins and preparing to preform39:37 - Sara's Coaches41:45 - Being Coachable45:00 - The Switch and Being a Fierce Competitor54:10 - Pressure56:52 - How to block out negativity online58:20 - Reframing1:00:23 - Staying Mentally Healthy1:01:48 - Rest1:03:24 - Sara's Upcoming Season1:06:52 - Fulfillment1:07:37 - Sara's Socials/Sponsors1:08:22 - Outro

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is our always popular fan question segment, a Christmas special! Savvy Simo is typically our lovely host of these episodes, but she's been out of town for a bit, coaching at SOB Volley Vacations and spending time down in New Orleans. So it's just the boys, answering as many of your (nearly 100!) questions as we could, including, but certainly not limited to: Who are the new partnerships for 2023 and the Paris Olympics? Are we buying into the Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes hype? Three stops to keep and three stops to drop from the AVP season If we had to sum up our season in one word, what would it be? So much fun on this episode, and so much fun chatting volley for all you listeners again this year. We love you guys, appreciate you guys, and hope you have the merriest of Christmases! SHOOTS! *** 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 are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Stay healthy with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter and get your greens today! https://athleticgreens.com/partner/d35ctoffer-strength/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=sandcast_d35ct__a3172__o27&utm_term=cac__a3172__o27&utm_content=sport__a3172__o27 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  

In this episode, Teran Rodriguez recaps Week 12 NCAA Women's Volleyball season, which saw a couple of upsets occur and quite a number of reverse sweeps. Rodriguez also previews week 13 of the NCAA Women's Volleyball season and its noteworthy matchups. Finally, Rodriguez recaps the Huntington Beach Open that he attended on the second day, the watch of Cathedral Catholic High School's girls volleyball team and a breakdown of 2 NCAA men's volleyball schedules. Timestamps for each part: Intro 0:00 IE Sports Radio Read 2:37 Loyola Men's Volleyball Schedule Release 4:10 Penn State Men's Volleyball Schedule Release 10:04 AVP's Huntington Beach Open, Teran's Experience 17:53 Huntington Beach Open Women's Recap 23:31 Post-Tournament Interview with Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng 28:13 Huntington Beach Open Closing (Women's) 30:19 Huntington Beach Open Men's Recap 31:59 AVP Closing, Central Florida Open Mini-Preview 39:22 Teran Rodriguez's Night at the USC-Stanford Women's Volleyball Match 43:38 CIF State Open Division Talk 52:55 Commercial Break 1:00:22 Return From Commercial Break 1:04:29 NCAA Women's Volleyball Week 12 Recap (Reverse Sweeps) 1:05:16 NCAA Women's Volleyball Team of the Week (Week 12) 1:10:30 NCAA Women's Volleyball Upsets from Week 12 1:16:15 Unfortunate News 1:25:40 Stat-Stuffers/Notables 1:31:16 AVCA Women's Volleyball Coaches Poll (11/14/22) 1:36:10 NCAA Women's Volleyball Week 13 Matches to Watch for 1:38:05 Outro/Closing 1:58:15 All of the thoughts and opinions are that of Teran Rodriguez and the guests he brings on and not of any second, third- or fourth-party organizations. Twitter of host: @TeranRodriguez1 Twitter of show: @Set_PointIE Theme Music: Move Out - MK2 [Free Download | No Copyright] https://youtu.be/Sqk3B2041uk IESR Disclaimer Unless specifically stated otherwise, the views and opinions of hosts, guests, callers, and sponsors expressed on all IE Sports Radio shows broadcast are entirely those of the hosts, guests, callers, and sponsors, who are entirely responsible for all show content, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of IE Sports Radio or its staff. These broadcasts are presented and made public AS ENTERTAINMENT, in the hope that they will be entertaining to the audience.

Alexis Downie recaps the weekend for the Anaheim Ducks, while going through goal calls from around the NHL. After, Downie is joined by NHL Network and NHL on TNT broadcaster Jackie Redmond to talk about her broadcast journey (7:41). Later in the show, professional beach volleyball player Sara Hughes chats with Downie about her career as a figure in women's beach volleyball and how she is preparing for the Olympics (30:26).

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

Several years after feeling unsafe while at a notorious bus shelter in Tauranga, artist Sara Hughes is transforming it into a brightly coloured and illuminated work of art. It will be suspended above the Willow Street bus shelter, and wrapped around the wall and front of Tauranga Art Gallery to Wharf Street creating a corridor that bathes those walking through it in coloured light. The artwork's big, covering about 260 square metres of glass panels. It's called Midnight Sun, referring to times when the sun remains visible through the night at the Poles - just as the artwork will be illuminated 24/7. Sara is a past winner of the Wallace Art Award. She also made her name creating public art on a grand scale. She built the largest integrated public art work in Aotearoa when she covered all four sides of the New Zealand International Convention Centre in Auckland. But it's her new Tauranga public art work that Lynn Freeman first asks her about. Midnight Sun will be unveiled on the 21st of June at the Willow Street bus shelter in Tauranga.

Sara Hughes has known she wanted to be a professional beach volleyball player since she was 8 years old. For nearly 20 years, that's exactly the path her life went on: tabbed by USA Volleyball's developmental program, the first scholarship athlete on the USC beach team, National Champion, AVP Champion, Olympic favorite. Until an injury to Summer Ross kept them out of the qualification process for the Tokyo Olympics. It left Hughes in a strange spot: Not on top of the beach volleyball world. Now she's back again, winning a gold medal in Itapema with Kelley Kolinske, a team coached by Evie Matthews and trained by the podcast favorite Mykel Jenkins. On this episode, we chat about: How Hughes and Kolinske got together, and why they've been such a good fit so quickly The refreshing aspect of starting a new team: new partner, new coach, new trainer The two years of struggle when Ross was out with an injury, which left Hughes without a partner and running mate for Tokyo How she used those two years to only get better, something we're all witnessing now ENJOY! *** Like our content? Leave us a tip :) We don't charge a subscription fee, so everything is much appreciated: https://motivated-author-4500.ck.page/products/sandcast-tip-jar We now have SANDCAST MERCHANDISE!! Rock the gear of your favorite podcast today! https://www.sandcastmerch.com/ If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/ This episode, as always, is brought to you by Wilson Volleyball, makers of the absolute best balls in the game, hands down. You can get a 20-percent discount using our code, SANDCAST-20! https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Check out our book, Volleyball for Milkshakes, written by SANDCAST hosts Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter: https://www.amazon.com/Volleyball-Milkshakes-Travis-Mewhirter/dp/B089781SHB

In Conversation With Cynthia Parker-Ohene   This month CLP editorial assistant Sara Hughes sits down with Cynthia Parker-Ohene to discuss her debut collection, Daughters of Harriet, part of the Mountain/West Poetry Series published by the Center for Literary Publishing. In a wide-ranging discussion, Cynthia and Sara talk about the legacy of Black women, namely Harriet […]

In this dynamic and unique discussion, Unraveling Religion brings together five former guests of the show: Chris, Henry, Rich, Sara and Bettie. Together with Joel, the panel explores the fundamentals of spirituality including what it is, what means, its potentials, and practices. Lively, invigorating, and warm​ -​​ our discussion centered around exploring definitions, meaning and difference, perspective, and awareness. ​Topics covered were enlightenment versus separate self, spiritual experiences, ​connection and relationship, being at home in the world. Process? Change? Spirituality as life, with a Creation story. What role does suffering and healing play in spirituality?Biographies of the panel:Chris Barbera's biography includes currently 3 areas of spiritual life and work: working with and in relationship with the Network of Religious Communities, an interfaith human rights project; Chirs also directs a prison theology writing program with inmates and faith communities; and writes, meditates and supports his local community. Henry Cretella is a retired psychiatrist, active spiritual guide, and teacher. He studied Sufism becoming a senior teacher before deciding to pursue his interests independent of any organization. He has co-founded Amber Light International, revolving around mysticism and humanism. He hosts his own podcast, Alchemical Dialogues, through Amber Light.Richard Grego is professor of philosophy and cultural history at Florida State College at Jacksonville. His research interests focus on comparative and cross-cultural philosophy of religion and science, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, the philosophical implications of theoretical physics and scientific cosmology, and history of World Civilizations. His recent books-publications include: Sensual Austerity and Moral Leadership: Plato, Confucius, and Gandhi on Building a Peaceful Society.Sara Hughes (she/they) is a Relationship Artist who seeks to live in right relationship to all in the Web of Life. Sara's relational work has been primarily focused on improving conditions for young people in the unceded Seneca/Haudenosaunee region of the land currently known as Rochester, NY. More information may be found at https://mama-sara-says.comBettie Scullin's previous life activities included working in accounting and quality management in the steel, high tech and food industries. Retired and living in Florida she offers Akashic records consultations and classes, devotes time to spiritual practices and meditations, writes poetry and enjoys participating in her grandsons’ lives.

In this fascinating episode with Sara Hughes and Joel, the conversation examines the activism surrounding ‘relationship’ in our human experience within the Web of Life. Sara's work has focused on transforming relationships with young people, and ways of doing so including Eco-farms, intentional communities, 'unlearning' habits of cultural norms, to create a safe world for all. The terrain dialogue looks at the evolution and calling of Sara to this work, how it came to be, as well as the philosophical and spiritual influence in Sara's maturation as an activist. Also, how to learn from animistic cultures and indigenous people the ways of reciprocal relationship and walking the Earth respectfully. Organizations mentioned in this talk: https://soulfirefarm.org https://pachamama.org https://designingasociety.org Sara Hughes (she/they) is a Relationship Artist who seeks to live in right relationship to all in the Web of Life. Sara's relational work has been primarily focused on improving conditions for young people in the unceded Seneca/Haudenosaunee region of the land currently known as Rochester, NY. More information may be found at https://mama-sara-says.com

Heyo - the alleged "twins" from Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. In the "SCM" group, we cover everything marketing-related as it pertains to baking - mostly cookies, but we love our bread, mac, and cheesecake peoples.Here's what we're covering this week:IntroMarketing Minutes - Dynamic  PricingThe Business of Baking - The "Wal-Mart Effect"Voicemails / Texts / Emails (571) 556-5644)Group Stuff - Upcoming Lives and such.Twinterests - things I'm into that I think you should know about.In The Marketing Minutes, Corrie wanted to talk about this unique little thing we have up here in Northern Virginia called the Express Lanes. These lanes use dynamic pricing to control flow and somehow Corrie ties this into baking. But trust me - it kinda makes sense once you hear it.Read more about our commuting financial nightmare: https://www.tollroadsinvirginia.com/Facility/ExpressLanes95/In The Business of Baking, Heather covers the Wal-Mart effect and how you can't sustain low prices unless you're a billion-dollar corporation - which, if you are, we'll need you to do a Facebook Group live. Thanks.The Wal-Mart Effect: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/294987/the-wal-mart-effect-by-charles-fishman/ Next, in Voicemails, I read a text from the Yukon, we got an adorable "thank you" from Sabrina, and we cover content buckets. Call / Text: (571) 556-5644Email: hello@sugarcookiemarketing[dot]comFinally - Group stuff. We had an awesome live with Sara Hughes last week covering everything Farmer's Markets, and we have three upcoming lives next month (and working on a few more - you know who you are) also linked below.How to Nail Mother’s Day Presales with Gina Marie Burke - Thursday, April 15th @ 8:00PMEverything You Ever Wanted to Know about Teaching Sugar Decorating Classes with Corrie Miracle - April 22nd @ 10:30AMHow to Create, Build, and Grow a Cookie Business Newsletter with Jennifer Groh - Thursday, May 6th, @ 7:00PMPorch Pop-ups for Rural Communities and Small Towns by Jes Clapper on May 13, 2021Coming Soon: Instagram Marketing with Kourtney of Bakery Tee CoAnd lastly - whatever I find interesting (twinteresting - come on people, that's a perfect pun).Daylio: https://daylio.net/Corrie never gave me the link to the mix for the icing. Take that up with her.

Hey! YES WE HAVE A PODCAST - and it's featuring info we talk about in Sugar Cookie Marketing Group. In the SCM group, we cover everything marketing-related as it pertains to baking - and mostly baking sugar cookies, but we allow the "mac folks" to grace us with their presence.First off - follow us on the Toks (yes - I said that)Here's what we're covering this week:IntroMarketing Minutes - Anchor PricingThe Business of Baking - Hate that we Love that we Hate ClientsVoicemails / Texts / Emails (571) 556-5644)Group Stuff - Upcoming Lives and such.Twinterests - things I'm into that I think you should know about.In The Marketing Minutes, Heather covers what price anchoring is, and why it matters because you're probably experiencing it on a daily basis. "Price anchoring refers to the practice of establishing a price point which customers can refer to when making decisions. Every time you see a discount with “Was $100 Is Now $75”, the $100 is the price anchor for the $75 sales price."In The Business of Baking, Corrie talks about the love and hate relationship we have with customers - but we need to remember - these clients are 1) our livelihood and 2) probably not cookie experts; so when dealing with client communication, we need to keep that in mind. BE KIND. Without these folks, we can't pay the mortgage, so even when we have to tell them no, we need to do it by telling them yes. Not everyone is our ideal client, but everyone is human and compassion should abound.  Next, in Voicemails, I read a bunch of texts. Call / Text: (571) 556-5644Email: hello@sugarcookiemarketing[dot]comWe are all going to Twinsberg, Ohio for Twin Day. LoL.Mel asks, "Hey ladies! I'm having a blast listening & learning from you all! ❤️ Just now finished episode 6 & have an email list question... I've been using a texting service for my direct sales gig & hello... I'm paying for it anyway, might as well use it for cookie peeps also! I spaced on using it for Easter presales, but did send out a mass text for my pop-up. By mass, I mean the 30 (

Hey! It's back to BOTH twins from the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group here to teach you about marketing, talk about business, and cover things going on in the group. In the SCM group, we cover everything marketing-related as it pertains to baking - and mostly baking sugar cookies, but we allow the "mac folks" to grace us with their presence. Here's what we're covering this week:IntroMarketing Minutes - Pricing and why it differs.The Business of Baking - Business burnout.Voicemails / Texts / Emails (571) 556-5644)Group Stuff - Upcoming Lives and such.Twinterests - things I'm into that I think you should know about.In The Marketing Minutes, Corrie talks about why the question "what would you price these at?" is so dangerous. My costs do not equal your costs, and if your costs exceed mine, you will be undercharging and losing on each sale.  Plus - when to charge more, what happens when you charge more, and how to deal with the inevitability of losing clients when you up those prices to cover your costs, labor, and profit.BakeCalc.com - https://www.bakecalc.com/ In The Business of Baking, Heather covers business burnout and what it takes to stay motivated when those late nights and long hours over the oven get you questioning if this is even worth it. She references a TedTalk with Mel Robbins (note - may have some rough language, so perhaps not ideal to play over the speakers of your minivan), but it's linked below.“A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose - a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.” - John MaxwellMel Robbins - https://www.ted.com/talks/mel_robbins_how_to_stop_screwing_yourself_over?language=enNext, in Voicemails, I read a bunch of texts. Call / Text: (571) 556-5644Email: hello@sugarcookiemarketing[dot]comWe take Jennifer Groh's win voicemail where she tells us she sold out on Easter Orders using mostly her email marketing - which is awesome - more on that later. And we get an interesting question on "what should I do if I've gotten better? Should I reach out to old customers? Or should I forget them?" Lastly, we referencing some confusion with GMB listings (if you missed this acronym - listen to last week's podcast episode 5.Finally - Group stuff. We had an awesome live with Sara Hughes last week covering everything Farmer's Markets, and we have three upcoming lives next month (and working on a few more - you know who you are) also linked below.How to Nail Mother’s Day Presales with Gina Marie Burke - Thursday, April 15th @ 8:00PMEverything You Ever Wanted to Know about Teaching Sugar Decorating Classes with Corrie Miracle - April 22nd @ 10:30AMHow to Create, Build, and Grow a Cookie Business Newsletter with Jennifer Groh - Thursday, May 6th, @ 7:00PMAnd lastly - whatever I find interesting (twinteresting - come on people, that's a perfect pun). Corrie is trying this new thing called "drinking water" and Heather is lovin' YNAB after a year with this budgeting app.YNAB https://www.youneedabudget.com/

Heyo, my people! It's twin 1, aka "your favorite," aka "The Original" and I'm flyin' this podcast plane solo so buckle up, because it's going to be a rough ride! I'm Heather Miracle with the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group, and I'm here to give ya some learnin'. In the group, we cover everything marketing-related as it pertains to baking - and mostly baking sugar cookies, but we allow the "mac folks" to grace us with their presence. Here's what we're covering this week:IntroMarketing Minutes - Google My Business(es)The Business of Baking - Cookie Contracts!Voicemails / Texts / Emails (571) 556-5644)Group Stuff - Upcoming Lives and such.Twinterests - things I'm into that I think you should know about.In The Marketing Minute, I wanted to talk about a social media profile most people don’t have that all side hustlers and big boys should have - it’s a Google My Business profile, and - before you turn down that volume - I’m going to give you 3 reasons why you need this, and I’m going to tell you how to make one.So what is Google My Business? Often shortened to “GMBs” in the marketing world, this is essentially Google Maps crossed with social media. Creating a Google My Business means you can collect reviews across Google, you can post events that are attached to your store name when someone Googles your business, and you can connect your website, phone number, and more all in one really convenient place.Create your GMB: https://business.google.com/In The Business of Baking, I read through an awesome post we had goin' in the group - "Let's Crowd Source a Cookie Contract!" Now - is the one-size-fits-all answer to customer expectations? Not a chance. But will it help? Absolutely. Pick it apart, steal the bits you want, and go and set those client expectations.Let's Crowd Source a Cookie Contract!Next, in Voicemails, I read a bunch of texts. Call / Text: (571) 556-5644Email: hello@sugarcookiemarketing[dot]comProfit Labor Cost SheetFinally - Group stuff. We had an awesome live with Sara Hughes this week covering everything Farmer's Markets (link below), and we have two upcoming lives next month (and working on a few more - you know who you are) also linked below.Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Farmer’s Markets with Sara HughesHow to Nail Mother’s Day Presales with Gina Marie Burke (from Prep to Pricing)Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Teaching Sugar Cookie Decorating Classes with Corrie MiracleAnd lastly - whatever I find interesting (twinteresting - come on people, that's a perfect pun). I'm digging minimalism. I found a podcast called "The Minimalist Podcast" and they recommend a concept called the "90-90 Rule." The Minimalist WebsiteThe Minimalist Podcast on SpotifyNetflix: MinimalismNetflix: Less is Now

Hey guys! Heather and Corrie Miracle back with the Sugar Cookie Marketing "Baking it Down" Marketing podcast - can you believe we're already 4 episodes into this!? We hail from the Sugar Cookie Marketing group on Facebook - join us here!Here's what we're covering this week:IntroMarketing 10 Minutes - changed to 5 because Corrie is extra this week.The Business of Baking - Ideal ClientsVoicemails / Texts / Emails (571) 556-5644)Group Stuff (I know, catchy title)Twinterests - random things we wanted to tell you.In the Marketing Minutes - I asked Corrie what FIVE essentials she'd recommend when it comes to product photography - those five things you should have, or you should be saving for (stimi checks whaaaa). Here's what they are:BackdropPropsNatural Light SourceCamera GearEditing AppLinks: Backdrops (use code "SUGARCOOKIE" for 20% at AECore)Lightroom app (get that college discount code off ya kiddos)As far as what those are specifically - listen to the podcast to find out that we apparently all need a prop fridge (kidding... or am I?). In the Business of Baking, we wanted to cover Client Avatars which happens to coincide with what the Sugar Cookie Bookies are covering in "Start with Why." Laura graciously made us an ICA worksheet - ICA = Ideal Client Avatar. This helps you narrow down who you're talking to in your marketing messaging. For example, for our sugar cookie decorating classes, we are talking to this person:FemaleTeen kids / recent empty nesterBetween 35-54 years of ageWorks / Recently retiredLoves being out of the houseFinally, in our voicemails / emails / texts portion, we answer these questions:Which twin is better? (kidding)Can you talk about marketing budgets? What should I do when I boost a Facebook post?How do you decide and stick to a logo and bakery name?Awesome questions - I love them all. You can text or leave a voicemail too and if we have time, we'll definitely answer it (571) 556-5644. I promise, NO ONE will answer it. Then - group stuff. This podcast was uploaded on 03/17/21, so all these timestamps are relative to that date. Here's what we got:Farmer’s Markets with Sara Hughes is Friday, March 19th at 12:30PM EST.3x3x3 Challenge - 12 Days in. 18 days left.Why is the group closing to new members?That last one sounds totally clickbait, but I promise, it's not! And then in our last segment - Twinterests. Anything random we liked this week enough to pass onto you guys. Asana - a FREE project management software Heather is totally digging.Canon EF 100mm 2.8 - A Canon macro lens Corrie is considering for product photography.

O Bom Dia Top desta segunda-feira, 08/03/2021, Dia Internacional das Mulheres, conversou com a empreendedora educacional, Sara Hughes, que falou sobre como o Mindset pode ajudar as mulheres a serem protagonistas de suas escolhas e de suas histórias. Série de entrevistas Mulheres Protagonistas. Acompanhe o Bom Dia Top de segunda à sexta, das 7 às 10h na TOP FM Bauru (101,3 MHz) Produção e apresentação: Eduardo Magalhães Saiba mais em www.topfmbauru.com.br Siga-nos nas redes sociais: topfmbauru

O episódio 21 do NexoCast traz Sara Hughes, que tem atuação na empresa familiar Grupo Lwart e também na Scaffold, empresa que se dedica à educação dos temas de governança e gestão. Sara conversou com os diretores do Nexo Cristina Pacheco, Miguel Vieira e Ronaldo Grangeiro sobre os desafios e aprendizados que são fundamentais no planejamento do futuro da família empresária. Falou sobre harmonia, conversas difíceis e sobre os três únicos caminhos possíveis da empresa familiar: vender, fechar ou planejar a governança para construir valor com as próximas gerações. No momento da dica do podcast, Sara fala da série “Dinastia”, do Netflix, que as pessoas olham como algo muito impossível, mas que segundo ela é um bom exemplo de falta de governança. E para o livro, ela sugere “A empresa familiar no divã”, de Kets de Vries. O NexoCast é um conteúdo original de Nexo Governança Corporativa e tem produção técnica da Rádio União FM. Tem apoio de PWC e Sicredi Pioneira.

Tina Graudina is a Latvian beach volleyball player, currently playing for Dain Blanton's NCAA sand team at University of Southern California. She is also on her way to the Olympic games, winning an Olympic qualifier tournament in 2019. Arguably one of the best sand players in college beach volleyball today, the sky is the limit when she represents her home country for the Tokyo games. Join us, as we chat up flying back and forth to train, upsetting a powerful Czech team to win a bid for the Olympics, playing for Coach Blanton, Rob Espero's volleyball knowledge, dealing with the "Goofy-foot approach, "tears of joy," when she started playing, an ideal partner for Sara Hughes, political science and its application, the importance of good coaching, and MORE!

Rob Espero is an American Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Commentator. The man with the 'gift of gab' has called some pretty exciting matches on the indoor and outdoor scene. From FIVB World Series, to the Big West Championships, from NCAA to p1440 to AVP, wherever you go, there he is. He is currently the host of the Viral Volley Podcast. Tune in, as we chat up great players from Irvine and Cal Baptiste, Keeping men's volleyball alive amid the pandemic, the smart way the NBA and AVP created "the bubble," how the Viral Volley Podcast got started, the foundation of the new men's professional indoor volleyball league, the high hopes of the US national team, the benefit of international experience before going to the Olympics, being human before being political, ways that sand volleyball improves your indoor game and ways it does not, psychological "hooks" to get players to listen to coaching, how (if) we can save Stanford's Men's Volleyball team, the diversity of our guests, star power vs best person for the job (coaching and commentating), potential partner choices for Sara Hughes, transgender players in MMA and volleyball, showing how to connect/live stream from your house, and MORE!

The importance of data and statistics in the healthcare industry cannot be overstated. Sara Hughes, SVP & Head of Biostatistics at GSK joins the show to discuss the role of data in health, and shares how leveraging statistics can create a healthier world.

TOO MUCH TV. Watching TV and writing songs about it. Who will be on our heavenly reality TV show? Matty broke their ass. Sam is trying out new transitions. We have a cute and wholesome conversation with Bake Off stans Josiah and Sara from Pre-Nup, blink-155 and Gawdie. LINKS: https://twitter.com/Rappin4Safety https://www.patreon.com/blink155 https://jigsawrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pzl143-pre-nup-oh-well https://gawdie.bandcamp.com/releases https://twitter.com/josiahhughes?s=20 https://twitter.com/sarajeanhughes www.prettymatty.com www.ponytheband.ca twitter.com/prttymtty twitter.com/PONYtoronto

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!

Brandie Wilkerson is one of the rising stars on the world stage of beach Volleyball-- and she's only been playing Beach since 2013! This week Brandie and Rob discuss upcoming AVP Champions Cup Series, her AVP/USA partnership with Sara Hughes, her Volleyball Canada partner, Heather Bansley, Tokyo 2021 Olympic Qualification and some of her off-court life with music, unknown blogs and tattoos. 

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!

O Bom Dia Top desta terça-feira, 30/06/2020, conversou com Sara Hughes, mantenedora da FourC Bilingual Academy e da Scaffold Education, que falou sobre a volta às aulas no segundo semestre deste ano. Acompanhe o Bom Dia Top de segunda à sexta, das 7 às 10h na TOP FM Bauru (101,3 MHz) Produção e apresentação: Eduardo Magalhães Saiba mais em www.topfmbauru.com.br Siga-nos nas redes sociais: topfmbauru

O Bom Dia Top conversou com Sara Hughes, mantenedora da escola FourC Bilingual Academy e da Scaffold Education , sobre as iniciativas dos governos do Estado de São Paulo e de Bauru para as aulas à distância. Entrevista realizada em 07/05 ao jornalista Eduardo Magalhães. Acompanhe o Bom Dia Top de segunda à sexta, das 7 às 10h na TOP FM Bauru (101,3 MHz) Saiba mais em www.topfmbauru.com.br Siga-nos nas redes sociais: topfmbauru

Nestes tempos de quarentena, em que pais e mães estão com os filhos, como lidar com a educação dentro de casa? Nesta conversa com Sara Hughes, mantenedora da Escola FourC Bilingual Academy, de Bauru , e CEO da Scaffold Education, falamos sobre os desafios da educação em tempos de isolamento social e mudança de mentalidade para um tempo de qualidade entre pais e filhos. Entrevista realizada no dia 16/04/2020 - com Eduardo Magalhães. Acompanhe o Bom Dia Top, de segunda à sexta, das 7 às 10h na TOP FM Bauru (101,3) Saiba mais em www.topfmbauru.com.br Siga-nos nas redes sociais @topfmbauru

In this episode, we talk continue talking with several TBEX Europe attendees who still went to Catania Italy after TBEX Europe 2020 had been postponed. We will hear about their impressions of Sicily and Catania; what it was like to be traveling when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire country of Italy on March 10th; How they got home and how things are on the ground where they are now.  Their stories give great context to how fast the Covid-19 Pandemic broke out of Wuhan China and quickly consumed the entire world. Doro Staub is our first guest. Her blog is MissMove.ch where she writes about cycling in Italy. Doro is still in Sicily, staying in Aci Castello a neighboring seaside town to Catania.   Our next guest is long time travel writer Carla Rupp who is in New York City on lockdown and self-quarantine with her son Jason Rupp. She explains what it is like to be social distancing at home in the center of the Covid19 pandemic. Here is a recent example of Carla’s writing at Jim Ferri’s Never Stop Traveling Site. Then we talk with full time nomads Nathan Sado and Sara Hughes of Live Dream Discover. They are currently sheltering in place in Budapest Hungary.  Nathan and Sarah were two months into scheduled months long trip through Europe including six weeks in Sicily when the pandemic struck. They have a great post on their short time in Florence here and have lots more content coming about Sicily. Then we talk with Alex Kalimanis publisher of Wanderlust Marriage from Washington DC. Alex has a great post here where he details what he went through to get home here. Lastly, our co-host, Radio Vagabond Palle Bo is currently weathering the lockdown in Cape Town South Africa. While he isn’t able to explore on this trip, In this episode he shares the Top Ten Things You Can See in Cape Town in a Week during normal times.

Sara Hughes (Costa Mesa, CA | Mater Dei HS | USC | USAV) joins Rob Espero in this episode of the Viral Volley Podcast.  In it she shares about the challenges of the current pandemic, her connection to family-- Rory, Laura, Connor ("The Condor") and pregnant sister, Lauren, this last year in competition, her love of volleyball and her passion for people. She even touches on being one of the inspiring new faces in volleyball.  Click or tap into The Viral Volley Podcast! 

Scholars like Ben Barber have suggested that cities provide the democratic culture to pragmatically problem-solve challenging policy issues – such as climate change. Many North American cities have announced ambitious goals to mitigate climate change, particularly the reduction of green house gases. In her new book Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto (Cornell University Press, 2019). Sara Hughes creatively combines the literature on cities with a comparative case study of three American cities to explore how New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto moved from making commitments to fulfilling them. She uses qualitative interviews, government reports, policy and program documents, newspaper articles, and climate data to demonstrate that climate change mitigation in large cities is underpinned by a common set of government strategies rather than any particular city characteristic or policy agenda. Her book identifies institution building, coalition building, and capacity building as the foundation for any effort to repower cities regardless of whether it is in the service of increasing solar power or energy conservation. Our conversation includes discussion of Michael Bloomberg’s ambitious plan for NYC (and the puzzle of why he did not emphasize his success when running for president) and some thoughts on how the dense cities in this case study might deploy their institutions and leadership to address COVID-19. Susan Liebell is associate professor of political science at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution: Science for Citizenship (Routledge, 2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sara Hughes is one of beach volleyball's most historic college players. Winning multiple NCAA Championships, multiple PAC-12 Championships, and setting countless records at USC, she has made her mark in the sand and has been continuing to do the same at the professional level. After peaking at No. 9 in the world beach volleyball rankings with her partner Summer Ross, a heartbreaking injury stopped their climb to the olympics. Sara had to pick up the pieces to figure out how she would qualify before time ran out. To hear her story of resilience and why she's never giving up, listen to this episode!

Scholars like Ben Barber have suggested that cities provide the democratic culture to pragmatically problem-solve challenging policy issues – such as climate change. Many North American cities have announced ambitious goals to mitigate climate change, particularly the reduction of green house gases. In her new book Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto (Cornell University Press, 2019). Sara Hughes creatively combines the literature on cities with a comparative case study of three American cities to explore how New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto moved from making commitments to fulfilling them. She uses qualitative interviews, government reports, policy and program documents, newspaper articles, and climate data to demonstrate that climate change mitigation in large cities is underpinned by a common set of government strategies rather than any particular city characteristic or policy agenda. Her book identifies institution building, coalition building, and capacity building as the foundation for any effort to repower cities regardless of whether it is in the service of increasing solar power or energy conservation. Our conversation includes discussion of Michael Bloomberg’s ambitious plan for NYC (and the puzzle of why he did not emphasize his success when running for president) and some thoughts on how the dense cities in this case study might deploy their institutions and leadership to address COVID-19. Susan Liebell is associate professor of political science at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution: Science for Citizenship (Routledge, 2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars like Ben Barber have suggested that cities provide the democratic culture to pragmatically problem-solve challenging policy issues – such as climate change. Many North American cities have announced ambitious goals to mitigate climate change, particularly the reduction of green house gases. In her new book Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto (Cornell University Press, 2019). Sara Hughes creatively combines the literature on cities with a comparative case study of three American cities to explore how New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto moved from making commitments to fulfilling them. She uses qualitative interviews, government reports, policy and program documents, newspaper articles, and climate data to demonstrate that climate change mitigation in large cities is underpinned by a common set of government strategies rather than any particular city characteristic or policy agenda. Her book identifies institution building, coalition building, and capacity building as the foundation for any effort to repower cities regardless of whether it is in the service of increasing solar power or energy conservation. Our conversation includes discussion of Michael Bloomberg’s ambitious plan for NYC (and the puzzle of why he did not emphasize his success when running for president) and some thoughts on how the dense cities in this case study might deploy their institutions and leadership to address COVID-19. Susan Liebell is associate professor of political science at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution: Science for Citizenship (Routledge, 2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars like Ben Barber have suggested that cities provide the democratic culture to pragmatically problem-solve challenging policy issues – such as climate change. Many North American cities have announced ambitious goals to mitigate climate change, particularly the reduction of green house gases. In her new book Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto (Cornell University Press, 2019). Sara Hughes creatively combines the literature on cities with a comparative case study of three American cities to explore how New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto moved from making commitments to fulfilling them. She uses qualitative interviews, government reports, policy and program documents, newspaper articles, and climate data to demonstrate that climate change mitigation in large cities is underpinned by a common set of government strategies rather than any particular city characteristic or policy agenda. Her book identifies institution building, coalition building, and capacity building as the foundation for any effort to repower cities regardless of whether it is in the service of increasing solar power or energy conservation. Our conversation includes discussion of Michael Bloomberg’s ambitious plan for NYC (and the puzzle of why he did not emphasize his success when running for president) and some thoughts on how the dense cities in this case study might deploy their institutions and leadership to address COVID-19. Susan Liebell is associate professor of political science at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution: Science for Citizenship (Routledge, 2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars like Ben Barber have suggested that cities provide the democratic culture to pragmatically problem-solve challenging policy issues – such as climate change. Many North American cities have announced ambitious goals to mitigate climate change, particularly the reduction of green house gases. In her new book Repowering Cities: Governing Climate Change Mitigation in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto (Cornell University Press, 2019). Sara Hughes creatively combines the literature on cities with a comparative case study of three American cities to explore how New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto moved from making commitments to fulfilling them. She uses qualitative interviews, government reports, policy and program documents, newspaper articles, and climate data to demonstrate that climate change mitigation in large cities is underpinned by a common set of government strategies rather than any particular city characteristic or policy agenda. Her book identifies institution building, coalition building, and capacity building as the foundation for any effort to repower cities regardless of whether it is in the service of increasing solar power or energy conservation. Our conversation includes discussion of Michael Bloomberg’s ambitious plan for NYC (and the puzzle of why he did not emphasize his success when running for president) and some thoughts on how the dense cities in this case study might deploy their institutions and leadership to address COVID-19. Susan Liebell is associate professor of political science at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Democracy, Intelligent Design, and Evolution: Science for Citizenship (Routledge, 2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus may be decimating the global and American stock markets, but one place you won’t find its impact is the annual SANDCAST Beach Volleyball Stocks to Buy. This week, as we did in 2019, Tri Bourne and I broke down the top up and coming prospects of the season as our stocks to buy this year. I’m only writing about 10 – five men, five women – so to find the rest, you can listen to our podcast, which also answered fan questions, discussed the new partnerships being formed, and talked a little college volley.   Men’s stocks to buy Miles Partain How good is Miles Partain? He already has his own emoji among the beach volleyball community. He's emoji good. You can always identify when Partain is at a practice, as any video of him playing will include the baby emoji, referring to him as “baby Miles,” whereas Miles Evans would be the not so baby Miles. Baby or not, the 18-year-old UCLA recruit’s fifth-place finish in Chicago was no fluke. He’s spent the off-season training with the USA Volleyball groups, and has been called up into similarly high-level practices when he isn’t.  Andy Benesh/Eric Beranek By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the Beranekquake that’s gone viral on social media, the one where he takes a back shoot set from his new partner, Benesh, and pounds it somewhere to Mexico. Granted, there was no defense, and their only tournament to date ended with a second in Treasure Island to Raffe Paulis and Ricardo, but this is a young, up-and-coming team with loads of potential and, better yet, dedication. They have a coach and what appears to be an organized, productive off-season heading into what could be a breakout year for both.  Kyle Friend Last year was Friend’s first as a defender, and it was also the best of his career. After relieving himself of blocking duties, he scooped up Duncan Budinger and qualified in five of seven tournaments, tying a career-high ninth in Austin. Like Partain, Friend has been a regular in the USAV training sessions, and with a year of defending under his belt, his ceiling is only getting higher. Whether he gets pulled up by a bigger blocker or must begin again in the qualifiers remains to be seen, but he'll be a regular in the main draw this year.  Dave Palm Palm alas made his AVP breakthrough last season, a much anticipated one after winning five NVL events and making an additional seven finals in four seasons. He and Dylan Maarek, who’s also having a terrific off-season, qualified in Hermosa Beach, stunning Chaim Schalk and Jeremy Casebeer in the second round on stadium court. He’s already straight into AVP Huntington Beach after winning Big Shots in Atlantic City this past fall with JM Plummer, another notable to watch this season, so he’ll have a big stage at the beginning of the season. Steve Roschitz/Pete Connole Connole had only won two AVP qualifier matches prior to last season. Then came New York, when, as the 20 seed in the qualifier, Roschitz and Connole engineered upsets over Andy Benesh and Adam Roberts, Maddison and Riley McKibbin, and Kyle Radde and Brad Connors. So quick was their improvement that by the end of the season, it’s possible that none of those wins could be labeled as an upset. They were straight into Manhattan and qualified again in Chicago, making more main draws than Connole had previously won qualifier matches. Other notables: DR Vander Meer John Schwengel Tim Brewster Branden Clemens Kevin Villela JM Plummer Ben Vaught Logan Webber Chris Austin Earl Schultz Jake Urrutia Silila Tucker Kacey Losik   Women’s stocks to buy Kelly Reeves/Terese Cannon I’m big on this team this year, in large part because I think a breakout has been due for Kelly Reeves for a few years and it seems the pieces are coming in place for it. In just four events together as partners, the two have already logged a third at the Manhattan Beach Open, where their only losses were to Alix Klineman and April Ross and Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan; a ninth in Hawai’i; and a silver medal at the Siem Reap two-star. That is a heck of a start to a partnership that has upside, youth, hunger, and a strong all-around skill set. Corinne Quiggle/Falyn Fonoimoana Putting too much weight in early results can be a dangerous thing to do sometimes. The honeymoon phase is a real thing. But sometimes they can also be promising indicators, and the two NORCECAs that Quiggle and Fonoimoana have played were won in nearly flawless fashion, with just a single set dropped, and that includes the qualifiers they needed to play as well. Heading into 2020, they’ll both benefit from a full season as professionals under their belt and an entire off-season of training together. Geena Urango/Emily Hartong If I had any money to bet – I don’t, because weddings are expensive – and there was someone to take my bet on a team this season this would be the one. Partly because a tumultuous year would have driven the price of the Urango-Hartong stock way down, and therefore the value has the potential to jump quite high, but also because this is just a legitimately really good team that can do loads of great things. Urango’s been in multiple finals. She knows how to get it done. Hartong was still adjusting to the beach (and snow, and four-on-four) last year, and she still more than doubled her prize money from 2018. I don’t think they’re ready to win an AVP just yet, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them making a push to a Sunday here and there. Traci Callahan Want to know why I believe in Traci Callahan? Because Mykel Jenkins, Tri Bourne’s trainer, believes in Callahan, and he hardly believes in anybody. When he compliments someone, it’s a very real, genuine compliment, and he was enamored with Callahan’s work ethic. She spent her off-season working with Evie Matthews, and was rewarded with a fifth at the Siem Reap two-star with Crissy Jones, where they beat eventual gold medalists Sara Hughes and Lauren Fendrick. This is just the start for Callahan.  Crissy Jones Speaking of Jones, she’s an easy one to peg for this list. Currently a graduate student at her alma mater, Cal Poly, Jones was one of the most delightful stories of the season in 2019, making one heck of an end-of-year push with Zana Muno (she’d be on here too, but I don’t know if they’re playing together, and Muno's stock is already awfully high). A third in Hermosa Beach was followed by three consecutive top-10 finishes, all of which preceded the aforementioned fifth place in Cambodia.   Other notables: Delaney Mewhirter/Katie Spieler Megan Rice Katie Hogan Mackenzie Ponnet Zana Muno Molly Turner Carly Wopat Tory Paranagua Jess Gaffney Macy Jerger Bre Moreland

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.      

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.”

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

Conversation questions and thoughts;These are for reflection in advance and used for guidance only. The conversation takes on its own energy.The first two are asked of all guests.1) What does wellness mean to you?2) What do you do to support wellness in your life, especially given your training and expertise. So delighted to have you join us today. Where to begin. You and I have a connection from way back. Your granddaughter and my eldest daughter went to the same pre- school in Boston/ Paige Academy an African centered learning community. Now here we are talking together on the radio in the Virgin Islands. Amazing! You have such an extraordinary life story of teaching , creative expression, travel and the arts. It’s Black History month so let’s start with your name. Share with the listening audience audience how you received the name Oyoko and its impact on your life.You taught elementary school for 31 years in St Croix. Talk about the role of culture, education,creativity and expression in the life of children and adults for intellectual/ emotional and social growth and development.You have published several books and have contributed poetry to many publications over the years. Your recent collaboration with Danica David “Creative Callaloo” is a stunning book of Caribbean expression. Please read a poem for us that captures the essence of Caribbean artistic expression.How do you write your poems? Talk about the power of words and how they can heal and reveal.February in addition to Black History Month is also a time of love be it romantic, self focused, platonic, familial or communal. Can you share a love poem with us and how it came to be?You have been focused on enhancing the lives of children and families through the Children’s Museum on St Croix. We had Sara Hughes, Executive Director of the VI Children’s Museum on the show last week and she shared the 5 year journey of bringing the museum into existence. Tell us about the Children’s Museum of St Croix and it’s journey.How can someone get involved with supporting the Museum?You have an infectious joy for living. There are many retirees and those nearing retirement that listen to the show. What gems of wisdom would you offer to them to deepen their life and living well especially as we continue down this recovery journey?Read us another poem that is one of your personal favorites and why?Do you have regular poetry readings or offer workshops or support for those aspiring or veteran poets?How can someone contact you?Closing thoughts or words of encouragement to the audience. What’s the take away for those who are listening.

Rising volleyball star Sara Hughes still has her grandmother doing her taxes but that hasn’t stopped brands such as Nike from wanting a piece of her – both on the beach and on Instagram, ahead of the 2020 Olympics. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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.

Fabulous musician and music video director Sara Hughes joins the co-ghosts to discuss Blink-182, lingerie and cows. 

Fabulous musician and music video director Sara Hughes joins the co-ghosts to discuss Blink-182, lingerie and cows. 

Fabulous musician and music video director Sara Hughes joins the co-ghosts to discuss Blink-182, lingerie and cows.

Fabulous musician and music video director Sara Hughes joins the co-ghosts to discuss Blink-182, lingerie and cows.

Fabulous musician and music video director Sara Hughes joins the co-ghosts to discuss Blink-182, lingerie and cows.

Fabulous musician and music video director Sara Hughes joins the co-ghosts to discuss Blink-182, lingerie and cows.

Michael Hale, Jonathan Hartzel, Sara Hughes, Ted Lystig & Estelle Russek-Cohen discuss the implications of data transparency for the pharmaceutical industry.

What are we learning? Analysing four artist models - Sara Hughes, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama and Andy Warhol. Understanding and replicating the process involved with the technique of patterns. Linking the theme of dairy with artistic process and iconic visual language.

Poetry slow down, screech! Break, for heart-breaking heart-making heart-shaking news without which “men die miserably every day.” Hello, RadioMonterey.com, this is your host Professor Barbara Mossberg, with producer Sara Hughes, and we’re taking to heart, our heart’s aroused, by William … Continue reading → The post FALLING: APART, DOWN, IN LOVE, FOR first appeared on Dr. Barbara Mossberg » Poetry Slowdown.

  What do Jesus Christ, Hugh Laurie, and George Bush have in common? Right, they all write about camels. The poetry of camels—you asked for it! Never has the Poetry Slow Down, Radiomonterey.com, podcast BarbaraMossberg.com, produced by Sara Hughes, had … Continue reading → The post DUCKS AND CAMELS: POETS’ SECRET IDENTITIES? first appeared on Dr. Barbara Mossberg » Poetry Slowdown.

THE POETRY SLOW DOWN Live on KRXA 540AM Dr. Barbara Mossberg Produced by Hal Ginsberg Podcast Produced by Sara Hughes at BarbaraMossberg.com April 20, 2014 © Barbara Mossberg 2014 NOON-1 PM SUNDAY PST The only news I know Is bulletins all … Continue reading → The post The only news I know Is bulletins all day From Immortality. first appeared on Dr. Barbara Mossberg » Poetry Slowdown.

Welcome to our Poetry Slow Down, KRXA 504AM, Think for Yourself Radio, produced by Sara Hughes, I’m your host Professor Barbara Mossberg, all because of the life of Senator William Fulbright: How is it that in going away, from all … Continue reading → The post Where we get when we go away, or, If traveling is a fool’s paradise (Emerson) book me! On the soonest flight! IN HONOR OF SENATOR FULBRIGHT’s BIRTHDAY AND THE VISION OF THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM: first appeared on Dr. Barbara Mossberg » Poetry Slowdown.