Karissa Cook and Allie Wheeler: The Snow Dog Desert Queens of Weird

Karissa Cook and Allie Wheeler: The Snow Dog Desert Queens of Weird

Karissa Cook is a self-dubbed “inside cat.” She doesn’t need to go anywhere to have fun. Doesn’t really need to see anybody, aside from her fiancé, Shayne Skov, and her pup. She’s good with that.

So when Katie Spieler, her partner throughout the 2017 and 2018 beach volleyball seasons, asked if she wanted to play in a NORCECA playoff for a one-off event in a pinprick of an island named Martinique, she felt very little compulsion to do so. But she did, because Cook loves Spieler, and she does – though she rarely admits it out loud – love volleyball, event at the end of a year.

She was in.

And so began one of the strangest, world-crossing, successful years of Cook’s life. Her and Spieler would win gold in Martinique, which wasn’t so much a beach tournament as it was “jungle ball,” as she dubbed it on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, seeing as it was played in the middle of a tropical forest, in a grove of cleared out trees.

In reality, it would be one of the most normal events Cook would play over the next calendar year. A month later, Cook and Spieler were chatting again, about a new, slightly absurd invitation to play snow volleyball in Russia in December. They added Allie Wheeler and Emily Hartong to the crew, and thus the “Snow Dogs” were born.

“I feel like this year is still bookended by Moscow because that was the origination of the snow team,” Cook said. “Looking back on these 12 months, I’m like ‘How did we get roped into all these strange, amazing country trips and all these amazing environments?’

“Basically, USA keeps emailing and we keep saying yes. Every time, I’m like ‘I’m done for the year’ and then I get an email saying ‘Do you guys want to…’ and I’ll probably say yeah.”

For Wheeler, there is never a hesitation. Not anymore. She said yes immediately to Moscow, and everything thereafter.

Did she want to play snow volleyball in Austria and Italy, three weeks before the AVP season? Yes. And another in Argentina? Yes. How about a fours tournament at the inaugural World Beach Games in, of all places, Doha, Qatar?

“It’s always just ‘Yes,’” Wheeler said on SANDCAST.

It’s easy to see why, too. Every time she’s said yes, she’s returned home with gold. When she agreed to play a one-star FIVB in Vaudz, Liechtenstein, in August of 2018, as the No. 12 team in the qualifier, they wound up winning the whole thing. Perhaps her decision making is expedited by the fact that her goal is rarely about the winning, though for anybody as competitive as Wheeler, a national champ at USC, winning is always a plus.

“For me, I think about it – in Liechtenstein, me and Lara were down, 13-12, in the third set in the quali, obviously terrible scenario, so we were like ‘Alright, it’s a win win. If you lose you get to travel. If you win you get to play more volleyball,’” Wheeler said. “We ended up winning and then won the whole tournament so it was pretty cool.”

Everything about this year has been cool for the two. Cook has won events in a forest (Martinique) and in snow (Moscow). She won her first AVP, in Austin, and claimed gold at the Pan American Games with Jace Pardon in Lima, Peru. Together, her and Wheeler, adding Geena Urango and Kelly Reeves to the snow team, won the inaugural World Beach Games in Doha.

“This year, I went into it with a lot of uncertainty, but my only two goals were to not get burned out and be really conscious with my limits and not doing too much because I feel like I have to,” Cook said. “And then just to play with really good people. I think getting slightly more points than opponents was cool, but it was just a cherry on top. Winning helps, it definitely makes it more fun, definitely preferable, but I can’t control that.”

So here’s what they can control: The mindset and the team they bring with them. They’re all close friends now, the snow dogs, and the two “desert queens” in Urango and Reeves. Good friends and world champs.

“Well they’re going to pay for us to go to cool places so long as we keep winning,” Cook said. “So let’s do it.”

Jaksot(500)

Madison Fitzpatrick: Volleyball's Next Big Media Star

Madison Fitzpatrick: Volleyball's Next Big Media Star

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Madison Fitzpatrick, a former beach volleyball player for Florida State and now one of the rising presences in volleyball media, both indoor and on the beach. In this AWESOME conversation, Madison and Travis reflect on their similar journeys from being a competitive player to a coach and sports broadcasters. The similarities in both personality and career arc are a bit eerie, to be honest, which is why we are bringing Madison on as the host of a new show covering NCAA Beach Volleyball: SANDCAST U With Madison Fitzpatrick. Yep, that starts up in just a few weeks, and will be similar to the Road to Paris. Also on this episode, we chat about: How a brief job in Arkansas, where Madison cried every day, multiple times per day, was such a formative year The challenges of navigating social media, and the importance of preparation and embracing failure in broadcasting. The challenges in the transition from being a player to a commentator, and the emotional journey of letting go of a playing career The critical role curiosity plays in broadcasting, and why Madison is going to be so good for so long And so much more. This was a super fun one, as Travis and Madison basically just nerded out on media and beach volleyball and could – and will – go on for hours and hours and hours. 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/

5 Helmi 20251h 13min

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

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