Eric Beranek: Setback, setback, setback -- then massive breakthrough
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter28 Elo 2019

Eric Beranek: Setback, setback, setback -- then massive breakthrough

You know what they say about plans. Some say that when God hears you making plans, he just laughs. Mike Tyson claims that everybody’s got plan, until they get punched in the face.

Eric Beranek had plans this year. He was going to get a coach. Play the year with one guy. Do it the right way, finally.

Then God chuckled, and Beranek was, proverbially, punched in the face. He began the year well enough, with Curt Toppel. Straight into main draw. But Toppel was, well, “Toppel,” Beranek said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. He said this with a laugh, because Toppel is Toppel. Full-time job. Kids. Just had enough points to make main draw, so why not go out and play?

Beranek knew, though, that Toppel wasn’t his full-time guy. Wasn’t into it like he was. So he turned to Marty Lorenz. That, too, went well enough at first. They made main draw in Austin. Played well, too. Only thing was, Beranek had a cyst on his tailbone. Didn’t tell anyone but shew wee, you should have seen that thing. Went to the hospital right after he got home, and the surgery seemed to go ok, until, an hour later, he was sitting in the bathroom, body rejecting everything, plunging into septic shock.

He spent a few more days in the hospital. Had to skip New York, and then Seattle, though the latter turned out to be a bit serendipitous. When Lorenz called Beranek to tell him he couldn’t play Seattle, Billy Kolinske phoned no more than two minutes later, asked him to play the Pottstown Rumble, a big money grass tournament just south of Philadelphia.

“I still wasn’t quite right,” he said, but he went anyway, and wouldn’t you know it, they made the finals. Won a good bit of cash, too. Maybe this year was looking up. Going to turn around, close on a high.

Somewhere, God laughed.

Maybe he knew Beranek was about to get punched in the face again.

The day before AVP Hermosa, where he was set to partner with Lorenz again, Beranek’s girlfriend broke up with him. Then salt was poured in by Dylan Maarek and Dave Palm, who knocked him out of the final round of the qualifier.

“I didn’t play two AVPs, don’t qualify, girlfriend breaks up with me, ‘I’m like, awesome! We’re back. All time low. Sweet!’” Beranek said, laughing. That’s the things about slamming into the bottom: You bounce.

And he did. He set up a practice with Corey Glave, just the two of them. He told Beranek that the player he once knew only wanted to win. He needed to become the player who expected to win.

“You gotta find that, and you gotta work super hard to get back,” he told him.

“Ok,” Beranek said. “Here we go.”

Here we go meant eighth seed in the AVP Manhattan Beach qualifier. No longer with Lorenz, Beranek was back with Kolinske, his Pottstown partner. Lorenz almost encouraged the move. He had trouble dialing in Beranek’s set in transition. Kolinske, who’s world-class at the art of transition setting, would be a better partner for him.

That’s one plan God didn’t laugh at.

Beranek was finished, for the weekend, at least, getting metaphorically punched in the face. They qualified, and then, after dropping their first match to Ed Ratledge and Rafu Rodriguez, they battled back to win a three-setter over Travis Mewhirter and Raffe Paulis. Their legs were toast. Didn’t matter. They rallied, one more time that day, to beat John Hyden and Theo Brunner. With six matches on their legs, they were moving onto Saturday.

“Holy shit,” Beranek thought. “This tournament just started.”

It would have been funny, for anyone in the stands, to see Beranek’s dad there. He’s made quite the turnaround. He’s his biggest fan now, Mr. Beranek, but a few years ago, to imagine his son competing on a Saturday at the AVP Manhattan Beach Open? No way.

He’s got his own Aerospace manufacturing business. His son was set for life. Didn’t matter if he had dropped out of OCC, dismayed by grades and volleyball. Eric had a job.

“You’re set!” he pleaded with his headstrong kid. His friends weren’t much different. When Beranek told them he wanted to play beach volleyball professionally, “they looked at me like I was crazy,” he said. “They said ‘Ohhh, you want to be an actor too? You probably have a better shot at that.’ That was a funny and weird thing I struggled with.”

So his friends would laugh, and his dad would send his daily offer: Want me to help pay for trade school? Stay in the shop? Want to be a hairdresser?

Nope nope nope.

He may have dropped out of OCC, but he had his own kind of education in mind. He skipped work one day and biked down to the strand to find Holly McPeak. He asked if she knew of any coaching opportunities available, and she said no, but there’s this guy, always dressed in Pepperdine gear. Name’s Marcio Sicoli. He’d be down at 15th street tomorrow morning. Go find him. So he skipped work again, found Sicoli, and for the next four months, became the world’s most dedicated ball shagger. From 8-10, he’d be with Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross, and from 10-12 he’d work with Kolinske and Casey Jennings.

He took the work he saw them doing and applied it to his own game. The results, as they do, lagged at first. Took their time to come in. But a main draw in Seattle of 2018 led to Hermosa, and Manhattan, and Chicago.

And then he made plans for the 2019 season, which is when everything began to dissolve – crystallizing only when Kolinske, in a poetic reunion, needed a partner. Then came Manhattan, qualifying, stunning one team after the next: Hyden and Brunner, Avery Drost and Chase Frishman, Ricardo Santos and Sean Rosenthal, Chaim Schalk and Jeremy Casebeer.

And now they were in the semifinals?

Eric Beranek?

The kid who had to trick his way onto the court at OCC, telling the starter that the coach wanted him in instead, only for the coach to notice, one play in, and yank him again?

That kid?

Oh, yes. He had made the switch Glave wanted. Eric Beranek expected to win.

“It was ‘We need to win. How are we going to win?’” Beranek said. “We were playing good ball. I’m playing good volleyball against these guys. We can beat them.”

He’s able to sit back, relax now. Now that the legs aren’t feeling like jello and the adrenaline has reduced his heart rate to somewhat normal. He didn’t know when his time would come, only that it would.

He simply had to be ready.

“Everyone’s timeline is different,” he said. “Some people will say ‘I’m this age, so I should be doing this at this age because he is,’ but there is a lot of those pressures and I think it’s easy for younger guys, girls, to look up to people, the superstars who come out of college and are placing super high. There’s a lot of that. There are girls my age that are in contention to winning tournaments. I thought ‘Man, when is that going to come? Am I going to be 25? 26?’

“I didn’t really know, and I didn’t put too much pressure on myself to do that. I just said it’s going to come when it’s going to come. Everyone has their own timeline, so I’m just going to keep grinding.”

Keep grinding.

The one plan God doesn’t laugh at.

Jaksot(500)

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

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

Emergency pod! Not really an emergency, but the AVP just announced its 2025 AVP Schedule, and there were a few questions and explanations requested by our listeners, so we pumped out a quick podcast from our home studios here in Tallahassee, Florida, namely answering: If there isn't an event prior to the AVP League then how do people qualify for the AVP League? That, and a discussion on player sentiment, fan disappointment, AVP launching some merch, and more. Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions, we'll do our best to answer in the comments! SHOOTS! *** Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 60-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed  WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

30 Tammi 202514min

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

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

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Ian Capp, the head coach of the MEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL TEAM at Stevenson University in, of all places, northern Maryland. Yes, we put men’s beach volleyball in all caps --  no pun intended – because most people don’t even know men’s beach volleyball exists at the collegiate level. But it does! Sort of. It’s an AVCA sport with a legitimate National Championship, and Capp won Stevenson’s first National Championship this fall, upsetting powerhouse Webber in the finals in Huntsville. We chat all about that, and a whole lot more, including: Why in the world did the Athletics Department at Stevenson University, a small school in northern Maryland, launch a men’s beach volleyball program? How Ian Capp stumbled into the position as the head coach at Stevenson What it meant to win that National Championship this fall How he attempts to recruit young men to play beach volleyball for a DIII program in Maryland And so, so, so much more. What an episode this is! SHOOTS! *** Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 60-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed  WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCASTVB. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

29 Tammi 20251h 29min

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

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

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Melissa Humana-Paredes, who won an Olympic silver medal – Canada’s first on the women’s side – with Brandie Wilkerson in Paris this summer. It has been quite the whirlwind of a fall and winter for Humana-Paredes, who went straight into the inaugural AVP League for the Palm Beach Passion and then competed in the Beach Pro Tour Finals. Having had time to reflect, Humana-Paredes, Bourne and Pod Mama Gabby Bourne chat about: The pursuit of a gold medal at an Olympic Games, and the ever-existential question: Was it all worth it? How different – if at all – Mel’s life would be if she and Wilkerson won gold as opposed to silver The highs and lows of having a life revolving around competition How finding happiness should not be contingent on external achievements. And much, much more. Gabby absolutely shines in her debut as a guest-host (and soon to be mother of two! Such a good episode! SHOOTS! *** Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed  WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

22 Tammi 20251h 21min

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

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

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Marlie Monserez, who is currently in her second year with the upstart indoor volleyball league, the PVF (Professional Volleyball Federation). Monserez was a standout at the University of Florida before transferring to UCLA to play beach volleyball under Stein Metzger. On this episode, we: Explore her unique journey through volleyball, including her transition from indoor to beach volleyball, her decision to join the PVF and Athletes Unlimited, and her experiences at UCLA. How Marlie Monserez navigated the transfer portal, and the wild wild west dynamic of that landscape Why returning to beach volleyball was the best thing she could have done for her indoor career Her first year with the Atlanta Vibe and the PVF, which was successful both as an individual and a team And much, much more. SHOOTS! *** Unlock your peak athleticism with Root and Fruit Nutrition and the Genomic Edge. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches and brokers. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/sandcast to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed  WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

17 Tammi 202559min

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

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

Welcome to SANDCAST Greatest Hits! Given that our podcast, hosted by Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is on its eighth year, and we have accumulated more viewers and listeners every year – 52% of our listeners discovered us in 2024 alone – we wanted to rewind and replay the best of the best from our podcast history. So, throughout 2025, once a month we will be replaying one of our most-listened-to episodes, beginning with our most popular of all-time: Zana Muno. This episode was recorded in January of 2022, and so much has happened since including, of course, Zana Muno retiring from beach volleyball. It makes episodes like this that much more intriguing to listen to, to see where the players were at then vs. where they are now. If you’re a longtime listener, enjoy the replay, and if you’re new, well, enjoy the most popular episode we’ve ever done! SHOOTS! PHOTO: Mark Rigney *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

10 Tammi 20251h 10min

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

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

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is the debut of our FSU Beach Volleyball studios! Fittingly enough, it features one of Florida State's best players in Alexis Durish, a junior who is coming off a NORCECA gold medal and set to continue building on a record of 60-11 in two years in Tallahassee. In this episode, we chat about: The explosion of juniors beach volleyball, even since Durish, just 20, was a junior Why this fall was so different at Florida State, in a good way, even if it did mean “sucking” The learning curve of NCAA beach volleyball players Why California is no longer mandatory for beach volleyball players to pursue a career in the sport And much, much more. SHOOTS! *** WE'VE GOT NEW MERCH! Check it out here!! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST63. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products!  We are FIRED UP to announce that we've signed on for another year with Athletic Greens! Get a FREE year's supply of Vitamin D by purchasing with that link.  If you want to receive our SANDCAST weekly newsletter, the Beach Volleyball Digest, which dishes all the biggest news in beach volleyball in one quick newsletter, head over to our website and subscribe! We'd love to have ya! https://www.sandcastvolleyball.com/

8 Tammi 20251h 1min

The 2024 Beach Pro Tour Player Awards

The 2024 Beach Pro Tour Player Awards

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is the annual Beach Pro Tour Awards Show. As with the 2023 Awards, all of these are 100 percent player voted, with a month-long nomination process, and then a two-week final voting process. Some of the winners might surprise you, some will not. This episode delivers awards in the following categories: Team of the Year Most Valuable Beach Volleyball Player of the Year Best Offensive Player Best Defensive Player Best Server Best Blocker Most Improved Rookie of the Year Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Man of the Year Event of the Year SHOOTS! *** Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st! https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program 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/

1 Tammi 202544min

Tri Bourne, Evan Cory, and The Biggest New Partnership in Beach Volleyball

Tri Bourne, Evan Cory, and The Biggest New Partnership in Beach Volleyball

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter (and Savvy Simo in this case) features the host himself, Bourne, with his NEW PARTNER: Evan Cory. That’s right: Tri Bourne and Evan Cory are partnering up for the 2025 beach volleyball season. They talk about that, of course, as well as: Cory’s recent season with Alison, and all that he learned Why the AVP League is a significant focus for American beach volleyball players this season World Championships in Australia, and that being the Big Goal for Tri Bourne and Evan Cory Winning bringing a sense of relief and validation to all that hard work The importance of celebrating milestones, like Cory’s win in Haikou And so, so much more. GOLD MINE OF AN EPISODE!! *** Use code SANDCAST for 10% off The Genomic Edge Program now through December 31st! https://root-and-fruit-nutrition.mykajabi.com/the-genomic-edge-program 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/

24 Joulu 20241h 11min

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