SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter
Episodes
Sinjin Smith, part two: 'You'd compete all day long'
08 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sinjin Smith knows the world is different now. That guys just can’t play volleyball for four hours, jump train for one, take a ride down to South Mi...
Sinjin Smith: Building the sport of beach volleyball from the ground up
02 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On April 10, 1995, Carl Henkel was studying for his law school finals when one of the strangest, most unpredictable and, at that time he would have li...
Joe Houde: How to keep beach volleyball players healthy on the road
25 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Houde had just begun his career with USA Volleyball, and there was a dead man was in the road. “Oh, yeah,” he said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyba...
Mark Burik: Adventuring and the power of ripple effects
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Burik tried it. You will notice that to be a theme of his life: The man just tries everything. In this case, a young Burik was trying his best, a...
Gettin' jazzed with Kelly Reeves
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is a moment before every practice that is so innocuous, so easy to forget that it’s not all that uncommon for teams to go about practicing ...
Mike Dodd: Finding the soul of the game
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Dodd apologized. He’d been getting all wound up, or as wound up as the man, labeled by anyone you ask as one of the nicest guys in the world, c...
The Free Agent Podcast: Who's playing with who in 2020
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week on SANDCAST, Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter break down all of the partner switches happening in United States beach volleyball.
Theo Brunner has undergone his beach volleyball 'rebirth'
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Theo Brunner was in need, he says, of a rebirth. Not quite a religious ceremony, but something to revitalize a beach volleyball career that had, while...
Tim Brewster is getting his own type of education
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
TEL AVIV, Israel – Tim Brewster was thousands of miles from his classrooms at UCLA. His seat in his 300-plus-student lectures was empty again, as it...
Karissa Cook and Allie Wheeler: The Snow Dog Desert Queens of Weird
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 fi...
SANDCAST: Sponcil, Claes figuring it out -- on and off the court -- heading into Olympic year
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was somewhere in the space between the Gstaad Major and the Espinho four-star when the façade came crashing down. How long had it been since Sarah...
Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman: Making LAX your new home
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There was a time – a very brief time in the middle of a jet-setting, globe-trotting season – where Kelley Larsen had the correct count of how many...
SANDCAST-AVERSARY: Two years and a lifetime of lessons from the podcast
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the indelible moments we’ve had on SANDCAST these past two years – and there have been countless many, with massive lifetime milestones fro...
Lee Feinswog and Ed Chan: 'And that's how we became publishing magnates'
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It took a matter of weeks for Lee Feinswog to rebound from being laid off. Not a month had gone by from the moment he received a call from the high...
Creating value with Kevin Barnett and Jeremy Roueche
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Barnett has never been required to do just about anything he does in his current chapter of life. He doesn’t need to be out there on stadium c...
NORCECA adventures with Kyle Friend
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter is with Kyle Friend and was recorded in Bonaire, where Friend and Mewhirter are c...
Trevor Crabb: It's time to rack 'em up, tally 'em up
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It almost seemed as if Trevor Crabb couldn’t believe what was coming out of his own mouth, when he recalled his conversation with Casey Patterson fo...
Delaney Knudsen: If you can't have fun, then why are you doing it?
11 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Good luck in your search. You can travel to every tournament, watch every match, pour over film for hours. Good luck finding a moment on a beach volle...
Reid Priddy is going for "double-black belt status"
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Two years ago, maybe it would have worked. Maybe, when Miles Evans put a ball away, looked directly at Reid Priddy and Trevor Crabb, flexed and yelled...
Eric Beranek: Setback, setback, setback -- then massive breakthrough
28 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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, unti...
Brandie Wilkerson: 'The next thing you know, your goal is the Olympics'
21 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016, Brandie Wilkerson saw everything there was to see, up close and in person. She saw the ceremonies. The athletes, both beach volleyball and ot...
Anna Collier: The Coaching Legend who's now a 'teenager with money'
14 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 fro...
Zana Muno and Crissy Jones: The 47 seed who crashed AVP Hermosa
07 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It almost didn’t happen. The Cinderella run. The upsets over the 16, the four, the eight, the 22. The AVP semifinal that would be host to the highes...
Adam Roberts and Andy Benesh: From qualifier struggles to career finishes
31 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The first notes on the Book of Andy Benesh came a little less than a year ago, about a six-hour drive north of Hermosa Beach. Adam Roberts was there t...
It's a good year to be Chaim Schalk -- American Chaim Schalk
24 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was an otherwise innocuous Monday when the Canadian beach volleyball community reached and unleashed its peak fury which, because it’s Canada, re...
The next chapter of Ryan Doherty's career begins in Hermosa Beach
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The most difficult transition of Ryan Doherty’s new partnership, from John Hyden to Miles Evans, might not be the difference in playing style ...
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan: A team of Canadian firsts
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn’t exactly an audacious start, was it? September 12, 2016. The first match of Melissa Humana-Paredes’ and Sarah Pavan’s partnership: A co...
Tim Bomgren: The humblest grinder on the AVP Tour
03 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was the running joke in the player’s tent of AVP New York: Nobody really wanted to play any of the teams on the bracket. Of the seven teams Tim B...
AVP mid-season awards, World Champs preview
26 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With one, final Jeremy Casebeer – or Uncle Jer Bear, as he was known at Lake Sammamish – swing in Seattle, the AVP officially reached the midpoint...
Remembering Eric Zaun aka Danny Fahrenheit aka Cookie Robinson aka Midnight Verde
19 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve always been one for mythology. I loved reading the tales of Zeus and Poseidon, Hades and Hermes, Athena and even those of the Norse orient, Tho...
Tri Bourne is back on the road again
12 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It seems an idyllic existence, to be a professional beach volleyball player. Travel the world. Explore the planet’s most breathtaking beaches. See e...
Kim DiCello: The art, and love, of being a good teammate
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kim DiCello was never a bad teammate, same as she has never been a bad co-worker, a bad wife, a bad anything, really. But she did have her moments whe...
Chris Geeter McGee: The Art of the introduction
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Geeter McGee isn’t technically involved in the sport of beach volleyball anymore. He’s passed on his metaphorical emceeing torch to Mark Sc...
Corinne Quiggle: Winning medals via tuk-tuks
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was, of all places, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where Corinne Quiggle discovered her ideal method of travel. It isn’t by car. Or Uber. Or ferry. Or tra...
Nicole and Megan McNamara are taking on the world
15 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You could have seen this path a long time ago, had you been paying close enough attention. When Nicole and Megan McNamara, identical twins from Vancou...
AVP Huntington recap: Domestic beach volleyball is thriving
08 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Let it sink in, if just for a second, that in a tournament where a pair of Sunday regular teams – John Hyden and Ryan Doherty, Reid Priddy and Theo ...
Brooke Niles: Florida State's pieces are set for Gulf Shores
01 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was a little more than two months ago that Brooke Niles and the Florida State team suffered their first failure in a season without too many of the...
Mark Schuermann: The voice of the AVP
24 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The voice is feeling good. “Oh, yeah,” Mark Schuermann confirmed on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, and if you’...
Tyler Hildebrand: The most passionate man in beach volleyball
17 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tyler Hildebrand doesn’t really know what you should call him. “Official title is Director of Coaching,” he said of his new role at USA Volleyba...
Leon Abravanel: The unexplored benefits of mental training
10 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was Yogi Berra who best expounded upon the upside of mental performance in athletics: “Sports are 90 percent mental, and the other half is physic...
Tim Hovland is still kicking ass
03 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Big Game Hunters. That’s what they’d call themselves. Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos and Brent Frohoff and Karch Kiraly could have the Rhode I...
Troy Field: More than the guy with the big vertical in a pink hat
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Troy Field had to pause for a second on the set of SANDCAST to catch himself. “Back in the day,” he repeated, laughing. “Back in the day, like, ...
State of the Beach Volleyball Union: Recapping Doha, Exciting AVP News, Partner Switches
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is no shortage of ways in which to describe the absurd depth on the World Tour. You can start with the obvious, the upstart Chileans who many mi...
Emily Day: The LMU Hall of Famer making a run at Tokyo 2020
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe Emily Day should just come on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, every week. The first time she hopped on, she did...
HawaiiCast with Tri Bourne and Taylor and Trevor Crabb
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between brothers is often too complicated for even brothers to fully understand, let alone communicate to the world beyond, especiall...
Sean Rosenthal, and a career not measured by any normal standards
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was almost as if Sean Rosenthal didn’t believe the words that had just come out of his mouth. “Leaving Jake [Gibb] for Phil [Dalhausser],” he...
FloridaCast: Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena are all in for Tokyo 2020
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 B...
Beach Volleyball stocks to buy prior to the 2019 season
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alas, we get our first look. It was supposed to come this past week, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., site of the late Fort Lauderdale Major. But with the pl...
Brooke Sweat: From considering retirement to playing with the GOAT
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s funny, sometimes, the path the universe can choose to take you. One minute, you’re lying on a training table, your torn shoulder being worked...
Chad Beauchamp: Not your everyday physical therapist
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
No matter the country or tournament or prize money on the line, it is never an especially difficult task to identify which is the room of Chad Beaucha...
Rich Lambourne: The humble, self-deprecating, sarcastic gold medalist turned coach
23 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The talk always turned to Taylor. As Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb grew and developed as a new team, climbing the world ranks, piling up wins that once c...
Carly Wopat: Transitioning from indoor's highest level to beach's
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Carly Wopat acknowledges that there are a number of skills that need to be refined, so be smoothed over, to be fully beached from their indoor counter...
SNOWCAST: Emily Hartong and Katie Spieler
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There they stood, the four Americans, bundled in four to five layers of UnderArmour and other form-fitting warm weather gear. Bundled in beanies and g...
Tri Bourne, Trevor Crabb: Making the split-blocking push to Tokyo
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It began as something fun. Nothing much more than, well, why not? Why not put two childhood friends on the same team? Friends who play the same side, ...
Jon Mesko: Thinking deeper and celebrating Festivus
26 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Mesko sincerely hopes you had a merry Christmas. He really does. He’s no Scrooge or Grinch. But there’s another holiday he loves, a “Festivu...
Billy Kolinske and Miles Evans: Climbing the world rankings by going all in
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Kolinske won’t forget looking at the hill, the one with his car parked at the top. Earlier that morning, he had parked there for his first beac...
Molly Turner: Following the perfectly unorthodox path to success
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s difficult to blame Grand Canyon beach volleyball coach Kristen Rohr for forgetting. That when she looked around at her group of players, the on...
Travis Mewhirter releases new beach volleyball book: We Were Kings
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Travis Mewhirter published his book, We Were Kings, on December 5. You can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble! I’ll always remember the first i...
Stafford Slick: Beach volleyball's Viking duck hunter
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As if his path to beach volleyball wasn’t unique enough – raised in Minnesota, little to no volleyball background aside from a little club indoor,...
John Mayer turns focus to full-time coaching
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s fitting that John Mayer would spend much of his retirement podcast talking about everyone except John Mayer. Much of it was spent discussing Tr...
SANDCAST anniversary episode: We made it!
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was funny, what kept happening over the course over the year, a comical little motif that never failed to boggle my mind. People would thank me. Th...
Wilco Nijland, creator the King of the Court series
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You’d have thought he was busy enough, Wilco Nijland. His plate of responsibilities includes only, oh, a 10-stop beach volleyball tour in the Nether...
Evie Matthews, beach coach and right-hand man of John Hyden
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tri Bourne and Evie Matthews are the first to admit it: They were not the thinkers of the trio between those two and John Hyden. Bourne was the up-and...
Jeff Alzina: Architect of beach volleyball powers
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1997, there were six countries with beach volleyball coaches for their national teams. Perhaps one of the most unqualified to do so was one of them...
The view from the Top of the World, with Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sorum
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Mayer stood outside the player’s tent, not looking particularly disappointed despite being knocked out of the Huntington Beach Open less than a...
Refs are people too! With John Rodriguez
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Lucena winked, and only one person in the stadium could have possibly seen it: head ref John Rodriguez. Lucena had always been known for his fier...
The World Tour-cast with Norway, Canada, Latvia, United States
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Martins Plavins requested the mic from Aleksandrs Samoilovs. Had to set some matters straight. “I know,” Plavins said on Saturday night at p1440 S...
Dane Selznick previews p1440 San Jose
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dane Selznick has seen it all. Seen every last one of beach volleyball’s many evolutions. He was there when players competed for little more than pr...
SANDCAST roundtable: 'Play in as many tournaments as you can'
19 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It became a recurring motif, though not exactly a conspicuous one. If you’re a regular listener to SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Tr...
Karissa Cook: Old fart, hood rat, awesomely effective volleyball
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Call it old fart volleyball. Call it hood rat volleyball. Call it dirty or creative or funny or crafty or whimsical or whatever other name you’d lik...
Katie Spieler: 'Go out on the court and be you'
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The beginning of the best year of Katie Spieler’s burgeoning career began at once brutally and spectacularly. The brutal, as it tends to go in sport...
Eric Zaun: The Happy Gilmore of the AVP Tour
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The first thing you must know about Eric Zaun is that you cannot call him Eric Zaun. Don’t laugh. He’s serious. Maybe. Sort of. Well, you never ca...
Jake Gibb isn't finished playing just yet
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There are exactly two indicators in Jake Gibb’s house that there is a professional volleyball living there. One is a panorama of the 1976 Manhattan ...
Tri Bourne is BACK ON THE BEACH
15 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Phil Dalhausser stands, hands on his hips, shaking his head. “That,” he says, “looks so boring.” He’s watching a young man play volleyball b...
Caitlin Ledoux: Just doux you
08 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a wonder how Caitlin Ledoux did it, given that she operates with the same 24 hours a day, the same seven days a week, as the rest of us. There ...
Steve Obradovich: The last true beach volleyball entertainer
01 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rolling with laughter. That’s likely what Steve Obradovich would be doing at the level of trash talk – what little there is, anyway – on today’...
Rafu Rodriguez-Bertran: Winning weird in semi-retirement
25 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rafu Rodriguez-Bertran was not supposed to win an AVP this year. Heck, he wasn’t even sure if he’d play an AVP this year. This past winter, he had...
Suckin' down Lobes and sharing sarcasm with Brian Cook
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In December of 2017, the AVP made a landmark announcement: It would be partnering with Amazon Prime for the upcoming season, and several seasons after...
Emily Day and Betsi Flint: Weekend warriors
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was a look that featured a strange blend of joy and exhaustion, one athletes know all too well. Emily Day and Betsi Flint had just wrapped up their...
Chase Budinger: Dunking over P Diddy to bouncing on the AVP
04 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Oh, God. It was happening again. Chase Budinger had felt this before. He’d felt these nerves, that extra surge – no, surge might not do it justice...
Tri Bourne: I'm not back yet, but the warm up has begun
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I’m not exactly back, BUT things are finally getting interesting for me! I’ve been touching the ball and hitting the gym for a few weeks now and ...
Nicolette Martin: Just keep playing
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s just after 6 a.m. on June 23, and Nicolette Martin leans into her seat at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, a massive cup of coffee in hand, exhauste...
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan, the No. 1 team in the world with an even higher ceiling
20 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The pause, so slight, so innocuous, but present nonetheless, said more than words could. And, to be fair, Melissa Humana-Paredes did put a nice verbal...
Sarah Sponcil, Pac-12 Champ, National Champ, AVP finalist
13 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It may seem difficult to imagine at first, what with a Pac-12 title, an NCAA Championship and an AVP final under her belt in the span of just a few we...
Taylor Crabb just keeps playing -- and just keeps winning
06 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There stood Taylor Crabb, arms raised, trophy in hand, smiling for cameras. A familiar pose that’s becoming quite regular for Crabb. It doesn’t ma...
Patty Dodd: Manhattan Champ, National Champ, and more importantly, Coach
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Patricia Orozco knew Mike Dodd was serious the day he picked her up at UCLA in 1985. She knew he was serious because, after taking her to Marine Stree...
Mailbag No. 2: Who's the best U.S. player not named Phil?
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The mailbag is back! On the second SANDCAST mailbag, Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, alongside Podcast Mama Gabby Bourne, answer a wide variety of ...
Tim Bomgren, from Minnesota to the finals of AVP Austin
23 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One day. That’s it. That’s all Tim Bomgren and Taylor Crabb had for practice prior to AVP Austin. Crabb needed an emergency fill-in after Jake Gib...
Adam Johnson: The Hall of Famer hiding in plain sight
16 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Johnson couldn’t believe it. He’d had some rough losses in his day, narrow losses with a lot on the line. Twice he had been the first team ou...
SANDCAST Mailbag: Tri's secret to jumping high, Travis's journey into volleyball
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You guys asked – literally, you did ask questions, though not specifically for an entire episode of them – and SANDCAST is delivering. This is our...
Adam Roberts: Beach volleyball's talent finder
09 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Lay out? Was that what Adam Roberts’ friends said? He didn’t even know what that meant. So you just walked down by the ocean, put a blanket down, ...
For the Netherlands' Brouwer and Meeuwsen, it's all or nothing
02 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
They’re strategy was, simply, to dream on, because what else could they really do? Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen had no prior experience to ...
For Kelly Reeves and Brittany Howard, it's all gucci vibes
25 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Jose Loiola's legend only continues to grow
18 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
'Weird-athletic, scrappy twig-noodle' Witt sisters prepared for rookie seasons
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Don’t let these Witts fool you, with their Colgate smiles and constant giggles and impossibly amiable personalities. Then again, how could you not b...
Stanford beach volleyball continues to strive for more, with Andrew Fuller
04 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford beach volleyball is, in one aspect at least, no different than any other athletic team in that every member has their role. Like, say, the pl...
LSU coach Russell Brock on building a beach power...without a beach
28 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A common issue being navigated by the vast majority of college beach volleyball coaches: “What tools did they have in their indoor game?” LSU coac...
Maddison McKibbin and the making of the Beard Bros
21 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The McKibbins are not all that different from any other set of siblings, if not a touch more hirsute and athletically inclined. They fight. They argue...
Newcomers highlight first Norceca of the beach volleyball season
19 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Troy Field was, in his own words, “terrified.” “Just so scared to mess up,” he said on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis M...
Brotherly love with Maddison McKibbin
14 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Maddison McKibbin was finished. Finished with volleyball. Finished with being overseas. Finished with not being paid. Finished with the shady ownershi...