June 8

We're Outdoor Cats

Good afternoon, beach volleyball fans,

Sometime last summer, I expressed on some episode of the pod that I had trouble sitting down and watching the AVP League, with some of that trouble stemming from the fact that so many of the stops were held indoors. Just couldn't get engaged with the most beautiful, stunning, aesthetically-pleasing sport being played in one drab, characterless arena after the next.

A few weeks ago, I lauded the AVP for shifting to mostly outdoor arenas, with seven of the League stops being held either on natural beaches or outdoor sites.

Enter Aspen.

Goodness gracious alive, is Aspen beautiful.

I didn't even need to watch the volleyball; the AVP could have just set up a trail cam and I'd have sat there and looked at those mountains, all lush and green and majestic. Or maybe I'm just looking forward to Gstaad in a little less than a month, the most majestic event of them all.

Regardless: We're outdoor cats, us beach volleyball fans and coaches and players (and readers and listeners and viewers), and it's a wonderful thing to see it played mostly outside again. If the huge TV numbers from Belmar are an indicator, as reported by Larry Hamel over at All Volleyball, they're on the right track.

As for the volleyball itself, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, they of the Palm Beach Passion, stayed hot. Coming off a gold medal at the Ostrava Elite, they rolled past Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft -- more on them shortly -- in three and positively smashed Toni Rodriguez and Molly Shaw by a total of 14 points, in a format in which we're just playing to 15. So yeah, all that travel, albeit less adventurous than mine, didn't seem to impact them much on the court.

Neither did it matter much to Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh of the Miami Mayhem. Another medalist from Ostrava who crossed a billion time zones and whipped up on Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser, who looks like he might finally be showing signs of mortality and age and stuff. Taylor and Benesh closed it with an emphatic three-set victory over James Shaw and Chaim Schalk of the Nitro in which the third set was a highlight reel tour de force of just how good they are.

Otherwise, there was a bunch of 1-1 play, with a few oh-for-the-weekends: Cheng and Kraft lost to Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson but beat Shaw and Rodriguez; and Trevor and Phil recovered to beat Evan Cory and Derek Bradford, who had already beat Shaw and Schalk.

Oh, and guess what? You can actually find the scores on the AVP's website now. Kyle Friend called out the AVP for making it nearly impossible to find the scores of the League, and would you look at that, like magic, a day later, there's a League tab with scores and everything.

Beautiful.

Moving on.

The week in SANDCAST Studios

This week featured our now-annual sitdown with Dr. Gary Green, a specialist on human behavior who has worked with hundreds of college and professional teams in determining how to get the best out of each incoming generation. So, so good.

• ​Audio, video, and notes are in the link here. ​

What keeps happening to Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft?

One of the strangest things in sports at the moment, to me, is Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft, assembling one of the most elite winning percentages on the volleyball planet (79%) while having little results to show for it.

​I did a deep dive, both written and video, on what keeps happening to one of the best teams in the world, who is now on the cusp of slipping into qualifiers.

News Around the Beach

• Volleyball for Dummies is officially out! Since June, I've been working on a book with our good friend Gabby Reece Volleyball for Dummies. You can now pre-order your copy today over at Barnes and Noble! It has been an absolute blast to write, as it covers both indoor and beach, and I for one am fired up about it. I ain't too proud to beg, sweet darlin', for you to pre-order your copy today.
• We've disabled comments on our YouTube Channel. Back in November, I wrote about how I might experiment with doing so, taking a page out of the Jonathan Haidt and Outdoor Boys playbook. We're going to see how it goes. You can still reach out on Instagram and Facebook, where the lovely Kelsey Knudsen and others run the show.
• Alanya Challenge is up next. Tons of Americans are heading out to Turkey, including a potential new pairing in Miles Evans and Wyatt Harrison. Here are the entry lists. ​
• Watch SANDCAST Episodes Early! Become a member of our YouTube Channel and you'll get every piece of content days or weeks before anybody else.
• Coming up on Wednesday we have Tri Bourne and Kyle Friend in studio answering all of your questions for our June mailbag.

Much Love to the sponsors

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Appreciate y'all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.

Have a great week!

SHOOTS!

SANDCAST Team

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See you at the Beach!

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