HERMOSA BEACH, California — Seain Prepare dinner is an fool.
His phrases.
“What’s my model?” he puzzled aloud on SANDCAST: Seaside Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. “An fool who performs seaside volleyball? That’s good.”
Prepare dinner is the one who as soon as competed in a Santa outfit — sleeves reduce off, mullet superb, mustache good — on the AVP Central Florida Professional Sequence in 2022. For nearly a full 12 months, he and Logan Webber may very well be simply recognized.
They have been the staff who performed in shirts snipped on the midriff with tassels dangling to their waists.
In Chicago, throughout an incredible three-set battle with wunderkinds Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, Cody Caldwell over-set a transition ball out of play. Prepare dinner ran across the pole and batted the ball onto Benesh and Partain’s facet of the web and had a laugh-out-loud look and temporary dialog with the ref as to why that ought to be authorized. In the meantime, Caldwell, laying on the bottom, pumped his fist in mock celebration.
They’d lose that match, however Prepare dinner had larger issues on his thoughts, like chasing Benesh across the courtroom on each facet change looking for a excessive 5, one thing he amped up just a few months later within the semifinals of the Laguna Seaside Tour Sequence the place he’d try the unimaginable: To get Invoice Kolinske to acknowledge an opponent’s existence.
“I did chase Invoice across the courtroom in Laguna, as a result of we’re wonderful, it’s a present,” Prepare dinner stated. “Each time he modified sides I’d go a technique. I did it to Andy in Chicago, and he nearly didn’t crack, however I managed to make him crack. [Mike] Placek as nicely. That’s a bit of level for me. However Invoice stays stable. I’ll chase him round. That’s simply a part of the sport.”
All of it — the antics, the humor, the garish and foolish outfits, the “present,” as he calls it — bely one thing it appears he nearly desires to maintain secret: Seain Prepare dinner is likely one of the most gifted defenders within the nation. He’s at present No. 19 within the AVP rankings and ninth amongst defenders. In back-to-back matches on the Manhattan Seaside Open, he lopped off two people who belong on seaside volleyball’s Mount Rushmore, upsetting each Phil Dalhausser and Alison Cerutti. Solely Caldwell, his personal associate, beat him out for Most Improved in 2023.
“Consistency,” he stated of the distinction between 2022 and 2023. “Simply with the ability to do it time and again and once more was the distinction. Once in a while I may do one thing that was fairly candy but when I obtained requested to do it once more, it was loopy fortunate.”
There you may have it: 39 phrases of considerably sincere speak from Prepare dinner by which he acknowledged he may know a factor or two about this sport and tips on how to play it. That’s all you may get. As a result of the following sentence was again to the humor by which he has change into so identified: “Now I can string collectively two fortunate factors. One to 2? That’s huge.”
He desires you to snort. To have interaction. And he’s change into exceptionally good at doing each whereas additionally getting glorious outcomes on the courtroom, one thing you may not really concentrate on if you happen to solely comply with him on Instagram. The place most gamers will throw up highlights, Prepare dinner takes the trail much less traveled, with one blooper after one other. Low-lights solely. The dichotomy between his outcomes and his on-line persona has turned him into one thing of a must-watch participant on the AVP.
“If you happen to’re not fast on protection, you need to be fast of wit,” he stated. Right here a participant may snort, taking a crack at himself like that, however Prepare dinner’s humor is deadpan. You by no means actually know when he’s being critical. This solely makes him funnier.
“I’m a social media man, not a volleyball man,” he stated.
Joking? Not joking? Who is aware of?
“I positively did extra on Instagram than I did on the volleyball courtroom. If I’m going to do volleyball, possibly I have to do different avenues, and social media is one among them, so I’ve tried to get after it.”
The technique has labored out nicely, each on the courtroom and off. His Instagram boasts a hair under 10,000 followers, which isn’t a ton, however it’s about 30 % greater than Benesh, the highest-ranked blocker within the nation who will most probably be competing within the Paris Olympic Video games. On the courtroom, he gained a pair of Tour Sequence occasions — in Waupaca and Laguna Seaside, each with Caldwell — and made the semifinals of the Manhattan Seaside Open. In three of his closing 4 tournaments, his lowest end was a 3rd.
He loves speaking about that third.
Not one of the good elements making the retelling.
He gained’t point out the wins over Evan Cory and Troy Discipline or Billy Allen and Alison or Dalhausser and Avery Drost. Not the truth that he made the semifinals of the largest match on the seaside volleyball calendar. Nor the truth that he practically made as a lot cash in that single match ($6,000) as he did in his whole 2022 season mixed. No, no. That’s what most may do.
However that is Seain Prepare dinner, seaside volleyball fool.
Here’s what he as an alternative chooses to convey up when speaking about his run to a 3rd place end in Manhattan: “We had such an enormous day [on Saturday] after which it’s like half previous 8, I soar within the water, I nearly die. I obtained caught in a wave, each of my legs cramped up, and I am going ‘I’m gonna die pleased, that is cool.’ I used to be caught, and I used to be like ‘Ah, nicely.’ I managed to tug myself house, move out, fell asleep with the restoration legs on. I ate something I may. I get again to the courts, and our warm-up was straight up serve obtain, let’s see what we will do, and we simply obtained decimated.
“I obtained roofed so many occasions. I wanted to pad out Theo [Brunner’s] stats. He’s let me practice with him just a few occasions, figured I’d make him look good. We’re on the finish, in serve obtain, and Theo goes ‘Is it OK if Trevor [Crabb] skyballs?’ Cody and I are like ‘What do you imply?’
“Trevor’s asking.”
“It’s extra disrespectful that you just’re asking us. It’s that dangerous?”
“Trevor’s a pleasant man.”
“This was worse.”
“Skyball, and Cody goes off chasing it. ‘Are we taking part in it it doesn’t matter what anyway?’ We’ve misplaced. It doesn’t matter how good you’re, 20-6 is an enormous deficit. So, yeah.”
So yeah … with that skyball and the forgettable conclusion to that play, he completed third, a career-high in a Professional or Gold Sequence. He’d solely wish to remind you of the egg he laid within the second set of these semifinals.
Internally, although, Prepare dinner is aware of the leaps he has made. He has elevated himself from the highest of the mid-level group of gamers on the AVP to the underside of the upper-tier. Which is why you will discover this self-deprecating 31-year-old father on the seaside at 8 within the morning. No associate. No digital camera. Simply repping out passing and setting with coach Pompilio Mercadante. These are the moments you gained’t see on social media, those which have made him an infinite expertise on the AVP.
“It was a very good 12 months,” he allowed. “It’s going to be powerful to match 12 months to 12 months now. Every thing thus far that I’ve accomplished in my profession has been three 12 months [cycles]. That is the peaking 12 months of the three. Now it’s on the backside of the three years for me. Now with my factors, I’m on the upper finish of 1 group, and the decrease finish of the World Tour group. It reinvigorates my low season. I need to be within the gymnasium. I need to practice.”
He’s. You simply gained’t see it.
All you’ll see is Seain Prepare dinner, seaside volleyball fool.
Simply the way in which he desires it.