Professional Seashore
December 27, 2023
This yr was, in each method, one of the best yr we’ve ever had at SANDCAST. It might have taken us greater than 5 years, however we alas upgraded our mics, to the world-class Shure MV7s. Halfway via 2023, Gabby Bourne put the ultimate touches on our studio, making it appear to be a legitimately skilled endeavor. Our digicam, too, acquired a facelift, upgraded from a blurry Mevo taking pictures in 720 to a wonderful Canon.
Perhaps it’s correlation, perhaps causation, however our numbers, each on audio and YouTube, have exploded.
Our downloads shot up by greater than 50 % year-over-year. We hit month-to-month highs in six consecutive months. Half of the top-10 episodes you’ll see beneath at the moment rank in our top-10 all-time.
The latest podcast progress analysis exhibits that greater than 50% of listeners uncover new podcasts via private suggestions. One of the best ways, by far, for SANDCAST to develop is from our listeners, viewers, and, on this case, readers, sharing it with volleyball followers, so these ideas to associates are vastly appreciated. A large thanks to everybody that’s been sharing and supporting the present over time, via our terrible audio and shoddy digicam work to still-sometimes-suspect audio and comparatively much less shoddy digicam work.
Merry Christmas everybody, joyful New Yr, and revel in our top-10 seashore volleyball podcasts from 2023.
1. Miles Partain
Little shock right here. Previous to Miles Partain approaching SANDCAST, he was principally a thriller, a scintillating 21-year-old who had received an AVP event, trailblazed a brand new model of American seashore volleyball, abruptly left the UCLA indoor staff, but additionally someway prevented the grips of social media. This episode was, so far as I do know, the primary prolonged dialog he’d had in a comparatively public setting. Not solely was it the preferred episode of the yr, it additionally ranks No. 2 all-time.
2. Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander
Love them, hate them — you’re taken with Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, and you understand it. No less than, that’s the way it appears from the amount of downloads, views on YouTube, and the regular stream of feedback, which vary from fanboys to a deep and amusing loathing. They’re probably the most attention-grabbing staff within the nation, one of many best indoor skills shortly slicing his enamel on the seashore with maybe probably the most gifted American participant of this technology. It’s a mix that results in something we do with both Crabb or Sander touchdown into our top-10, be it audio or YouTube.
3. Sarah Pavan
Sarah Pavan is at the moment the best Canadian blocker to ever stay. A World Champion, she has identified success of each kind save for one: An Olympic medal. Till she will get it, she won’t attain the final intangible she seeks: Peace. This was an amazing and susceptible dialog with one of the vital misunderstood gamers on the Seashore Professional Tour.
4. Troy Area
Probably the most entertaining participant on the AVP, Troy Area can also be one of many funniest — and, secretly, well-spoken and a beautiful visitor. Followers love him, and this dialog ranged from critical to hysterical to inspirational and all the best way again once more.
5. Hagen Smith
Just like the participant above him, Hagen Smith is a serial entertainer, one of the vital bodily constructed gamers on the AVP who offers off a stoic demeanor till, in a blink, he’s chopping it up with the gang, rocking bucket hats and ripping large serves. It goes with out saying that being the son of one of many all-time greats in Sinjin Smith makes Hagen an intriguing story, however he’s additionally blazing his personal path on this sport.
6. April Ross
When April Ross received her long-awaited gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics, there was nothing left for her to beat within the seashore volleyball world. However in life? There was one main side that had but to be fulfilled: Turning into mother. She took care of that this yr, giving delivery to her son this fall, and the chat that preceded it on the podcast was all concerning the transition from elite athlete to pregnant coach anticipating motherhood.
7. Zana Muno
Our resident stylish farmer, our 2022 SANDCAST with Zana Muno nonetheless holds our spot because the No. 1 episode of all-time. Our pre-season dialog in 2023 landed at No. 7 for the yr and in addition No. 10 all-time. A proficient defender and great human being, Muno has discovered her method into the hearts of volleyball followers — and rooster farmers — the world over.
8. Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth
This was the episode that proved extra prescient than any we’ve executed. When Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth got here into the studio this previous March, they had been the Lovable Engine That Perhaps Might, perpetually on the cusp of medaling but routinely ending simply off the rostrum. Oh, how a number of months can change issues. Now they’re the No. 2 ranked staff on the earth, winners of the Seashore Professional Tour Finals, and favorites to medal in Paris 2024. We are going to completely be having them on SANDCAST once more in 2024 — perhaps pre- and post-Paris medal.
9. Jake Dietrich
Beard Man, as Jake Dietrich was identified throughout his breakthrough 2022 season with Hagen Smith, alas was formally launched to the volleyball world this yr. Not many individuals actually knew who Jake Dietrich was, other than a number of primary information: He had a spectacular beard, he might hit a volleyball fairly exhausting, and he was displaying a latent skill to compete on the highest ranges of the sport. And but: Who on the earth was this hirsute dude, with a McKibbin beard and a Casey Patterson wingspan and aptitude for leisure? We launched the followers to our most voluble visitor, in our longest episode up to now — and in addition one of the vital standard.
10. Andy Benesh
The rise of Andy Benesh has been an absolute blast to comply with: A doughy 20-something who couldn’t resolve if he needed a traditional working profession or to play seashore volleyball, then a decently in-shape blocker exhibiting potential, then a pup who was picked up by Phil Dalhausser and received a event, then a bodily monster successful three straight Elite16 medals and reviving a dormant USA Volleyball males’s program. We chatted about his great progress, and somewhat somebody named Miles Partain.
