SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter24 Jan 2018

Sara Hughes: Beach volleyball's next top role model, part 1

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.

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Road to Paris: Chase Budinger, Miles Evans on Verge of Qualifying; Dutch Race Gets Even Wilder

This episode is brought to you by Aura! Use our link to get a 2-week free trial -- and even a free trial helps the show! This episode of the Road to Paris, where Travis Mewhirter breaks down the Olympic race to the Paris Games, follows the Espinho Elite16. Big congrats, first, to Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth who made a third straight final and took gold, and Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, who made their eighth straight final and also won gold. As far as the Olympic race goes, Mewhirter talks about: The massive role a NORCECA qualifier on April 5 has played for Chase Budinger and Miles Evans The even bigger lead now enjoyed by Budinger and Evans over Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb with just two events to go (and what Crabb and Brunner need to do to get back in the lead) Matthew Immers’ improbable run to a likely Olympic bid as the odd man left out at the beginning of the quad to now ranked No. 9 in the Olympic rankings with Steven van de Velde SHARPIE! For Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, 22-year-old Spaniards who are making history – and then returning to TCU Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader stay alive with a ninth Thank you as always for watching and listening, and thank you, as always, to Producers 1 and 2 for the help! SHOOTS! *** Looking for the cleanest supplements in the business? Momentous has you covered. Use SANDCAST15 for 15 percent off. Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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

27 Maj 202419min

Taylor Crabb, Taylor Sander, and the Bigger Mission of America's Most Popular Team

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features America’s most popular team: Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander. A note: We recorded this interview before their win at AVP Huntington Beach, which, to us, actually makes this all the more interesting. Aside from being two of the best volleyball players on the planet, they’re also refreshingly candid, forthcoming, and well-spoken and introspective. This was an excellent, excellent podcast. We chat about: Taylor Crabb’s off-season in New Zealand playing with Phil Dalhausser Why Taylor Sander and Crabb decided that the Olympic race wasn’t necessarily for them Crabb’s bigger mission, and why he’s chasing far more than individual accomplishments How Crabb and Sander would fix USA Volleyball The Right Siide, Crabb’s new content venture with Troy Field and Sean Rosenthal And much, much more. Such a good episode with the Taylors! SHOOTS! *** Looking for the cleanest supplements in the business? Momentous has you covered. Use SANDCAST15 for 15 percent off. Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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

22 Maj 20241h 17min

Evan Cory is Playing Volleyball His Own Damn Way in 2024

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features Evan Cory, one of the brightest talents on the AVP Tour and within the USA Volleyball system. Cory had an up-and-down 2023 season, one that was still more up than it was down, but his trajectory slowed, so he felt it was a failure. It certainly wasn’t – but he learned from it. Now, coming into 2024, he’s returned to his old style of playing, building a team around him that is custom-fit to him, including a blocker you may have heard of: Alison Cerutti. We talked all about that, as well as: Why the standard Californian path to professional beach volleyball isn’t necessarily for Cory How he and Alison came to be How Joey Keener and his coach on the West Coast (Mewhirter) have helped Cory return to his core identity as a player and what this off-season looked like His early success on the NORCECA circuit this year with Wyatt Harrison And, of course, the art of trash talk And, as always, a whole lot more. SHOOTS! *** Looking for the cleanest supplements in the business? Momentous has you covered. Use SANDCAST15 for 15 percent off. Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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

15 Maj 20241h 27min

Mailbag! Are Tri and Chaim done? New AVP Partnerships? Paris Podium Predictions?

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, is our monthly fan question mailbag episode. The questions were, given where we’re at in the season, not surprising, as we covered: Are Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk dropping out of the Olympic race? Are Chase Budinger and Miles Evans the new favorites to qualify for Paris over Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner? Who are our sleeper picks to win gold at the Paris Olympic Games? Who are the new partnerships for the AVP season? What’s the FIVB going to do about all of those forfeits in Challenge events? And much, much more. Thanks as always for all of your questions! SHOOTS! *** Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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

8 Maj 20241h 10min

Road to Paris: Chase Budinger and Miles Evans have taken the driver's seat

On this episode of the Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the Paris Olympic Games after the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Brasilia Elite16. The main storylines are: Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner retake the lead (again) over Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader with a critical bronze medal Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde’s first Elite16 medal (and finals) couldn’t have come at a better time, and they are now just behind Alex Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen in the Netherlands’ race Chase Budinger and Miles Evans are in the driver’s seat over Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner in the USA race The Grimalts continue picking away at the narrow lead being held by Julian Horl and Alex Horst The insanity continues. SHOOTS! *** Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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

6 Maj 202416min

Abby Van Winkle: The rookie whose volleyball career is only up from here

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features a new guest! Abby Van Winkle joins the podcast fresh off a successful debut on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, in which she and Savvy Simo – who also joins as a host/guest – won a bronze medal at a NORCECA before stunning Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader in the qualifier of the Guadalajara Challenge to make main draw. Van Winkle has been an up and coming talent for a while now, beginning when she was a freshman at UCLA, winning the NCAA Championship. We talk about all of that on the pod, as well as: How Van Winkle found the confidence to think she could beat Verge-Depre and Mader, Olympic bronze medalists The difference she sees between NCAA beach volleyball and AVP and Beach Pro Tour level play What her expectations of being a professional were and how different it is to live the life of a professional beach volleyball player Her goals as a player, and why nursing school can wait a bit longer (maybe a lot longer) And, as always, a whole lot more. SHOOTS! *** Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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

1 Maj 20241h 23min

Road to Paris: The Grimalts just did THAT! Ittlinger-Borger win first gold, Anouk retakes the lead

On this episode of the Road to Paris, Travis Mewhirter breaks down the race to the Paris Olympic Games following the Xiamen Challenge on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. As the Olympic race winds down, it just gets wilder and wilder and wilder, as: Marco Grimalt and Esteban Grimalt won their first medal of the Olympic qualifying period, coming out of the qualifier to win gold Chase Budinger and Miles Evans playing some of their worst volleyball…and also some of their best to take a fourth and cut down Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner’s lead Karla Borger and Sandra Ittlinger winning their first gold as a team, narrowing their deficit to Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader retaking the lead once more over Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner after a silver medal This episode is brought to you by Skyball Apparel! Just some Canadian folks doing good things for the sport and making sweet apparel while they’re at it. Use the code SANDCAST to get 15% off! Thank you as always to producers one and two, Delaney and Austin Mewhirter, for the good vibes. SHOOTS! *** Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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. 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

29 Apr 202420min

Zana Muno: Rediscovering Herself on the Trip of a Lifetime

This episode of SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, features our most popular guest of all-time: Zana Muno. Zana has had the most interesting few years, playing with some of the greatest in the game – Sarah Pavan, Brandie Wilkerson, Kerri Walsh Jennings, to name a few – but has struggled to maintain consistency on the court. Feeling burned out after a last place finish at AVP Chicago a year ago, she applied to a farming program she’d dreamed of attending – and was accepted. This winter, she took a two-month sabbatical from volleyball to learn all things outdoors, from shepherding goats to butchering animals to learning the finer nuances of seeds and agriculture. Now, she’s back on the beach, chatting on the podcast about: Her trip to Italy, and how much she learned about herself in the process Her newfound love and appreciation for beach volleyball, and how much the trip reinforced that love What it was like to play with Kerri Walsh Jennings The impact she wants to have on the game’s younger generations And so much more. Such a fun and open and honest conversation with Zana Muno. SHOOTS! *** Want to get better at beach volleyball? Use our discount code, SANDCAST, and get 10 percent off all Better at Beach products! Get 20 PERCENT off all Wilson products with our code, SANDCAST-20. https://www.wilson.com/en-us/volleyball 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. 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

24 Apr 20241h 7min

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