The Volleyball Network

Live Updates, 3/8/10

// March 8th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

On the show today we’ve got the Lambo+Lambo punch! Mike Lambert is going to fill us in on life after volleyball, his injuries, and his family. And Rich Lambourne will discuss an unfortunate event that just happened…We’ll also have Dan’s customary Co-Opetitive Slamdown Trivia! BAM!

A little Geeter hugging Bob Barker (youtube)

What Rich Lambourne Did (youtube)

Geeter is talking AVP and its schedule. He says it’s smart for AVP to scale back to 12 events, loves the Cali events, Chicago, Cinci…But it scares him because it’s tough for most of the players to survive, and the prime of a beach player is late 20s and early 30s. Volleyball has so many players in their prime but without an avenue to play. Reid is concerned that the fewer events isn’t conducive to sponsors paying big dollars for the rights…The one thing that has always botherd Geeter is to see his close friends going 3-2 in an open event and only making $1,200.

RICH LAMBOURNE Interview
Short version of his indoor incident: He flipped the bird to his coach and got fired for it.
Long Version: He came into the Polish team as a libero to help Delecta Bidgosh (spelling) reach their potential and win the indoor league. The coach was a bit of a strong personality…the coach said, “Rich, put the ball in the air.” Rich reacted with the middle finger because…The team was in a losing streak, they subbed out a passer for a stronger passer, Rich asked the new guy to take a different part of the court, he nods, the serve goes to the new guy’s spot, he doesn’t take it, so Rich dove to pass it and he shanked it. So the coach yelled at him, and Rich, unable to respond with language, responded with the bird. He’s disappointed in himself, of course. His agent called him a couple days later that the team wants to fire him, and it boiled down to “either the coach or Rich”. Rich got the ax. Bummer.

Barney saw an article about how hugging makes teams closer and better. Check it outz!

MIKE LAMBERT Interview
He’s in the USA right now, looking for work and to move his family back to SoCal…He blew his achilles out this summer during a tryout with a Greek team, trying to catch up with the pace of the indoor game. It was tough to tell the wife about the new injury to his GOOD leg, after he had rehabbed his knee. He thought he was hit by a baseball bat. He had been on antibiotics while he was playing. Coincidentally, Misty was also on antibotics when she tore her achilles. Woah!

He says it’s time to get a real job. He thinks he can probably still play, crank out a few more years, but no. Now’s the time for a job. Looking in the sports world, sports marketing sales, advertising sales, or that type of profession. Coaching probably isn’t in the cards. If he were still single (not a husband and a father), he may approach the sport differently. It’s hard for him to consider playing at a level that is considerably lower than he’s used to playing.

He has no regrets with his career. He went to 2 Olympics (1996 & 2000), played indoor overseas for many seasons. He wishes he could have had a better Olympic career and committed more, but instead he got to play AVP with Karch Kiraly, so that was a good option. And after that, he got to play and win many tournaments with his childhood friend Stein Metzger.

Co-Opetitive Trivia Slamdown (Tune in to the show for the answers!)
1. Who won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1977, the year Star Wars came out?
2. Who hosted the 2010 Oscars?
3. What TV show stars Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey?
4. (Bonus for specific type of animal) During his Oscar presentation, what type of animal was Ben Stiller dressed as?
5. Give the full title of the movie “Precious”
6. The Big Lebowski won the Oscar for Best Actor. What’s that actor’s name?
7. Who won the Women’s NCAA national championship before Penn State?
8. Mike Lambert has 16 career AVP titles with 4 different partners. Name 3!
9. The 2010 AVP schedule is out and according to Google Maps, which location is the farthest from Los Angeles?
10. Who won the 1999 Men’s NCAA Volleyball National Championship? (from the chatboard, Thanks Ryan Millar!)

Live Updates, 3/1/10

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

On the show today…New AVP Commish Mike Dodd is talking about his new role. Jane Collymore is going to talk about her role with the USA national team and her music career. And Texas women’s head coach Jerritt Elliott will talk about why he opposes the current NCAA sand volleyball proposal.

Barnett said that on a list of most cardiovascularly intense sports…Motocross is #2?? “You’ve gotta shift and maneuver…” And he likes that new Miley Cyrus song. He is also wearing the “Vitruvian Danny” tee from kindagood.com. Bam!

Nebraska assistant coach and former Team USA member Erik Sullivan has called in about last week when Geeter and Mike Sealy accused Erik of almost losing the 2008 Gold Medal when Sully intimidated Reid by telling him to stay in the corner of the court so he didn’t mess anything up. This was when Reid was a young pup and could have led to a discouraged Reid quitting. But, as Erik says, he helped Reid by making him mentally tougher.

JANE COLLYMORE Interview
Jane is quite the musician as Barney discovered by accident while talking to her earlier this year. She grew up playing classical piano and writing songs in high school. She’s recovering from her 2nd hip surgery and hopes to return to the national team in July. Fingers crossed. If she didn’t have the music creative process outside of vb she’d probably be going crazy…She’s content with music being a hobby for now. Listen to the show to hear one of Jane’s songs!

Mike Dodd Interview
Mike says his first order of business is to help AVP CEO Jason Hodell with player representation and issues. There will be sponsor meet-and-greets and he’ll be involved in most of those meetings. Sort of like the “Mayor of the AVP” as he was previously but now it’s official. He will be responsible for reaching out to the grassroots organizations, connecting with them, and have them be a part of the AVP. He will no longer coach his long-time team Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb (who will now be coached by Jeff Alzina). His role with them wasn’t a financial decision but as a way to become more of a part of the AVP. During Rosenthal/Gibb run at the 2009 Manhattan Open, Dodd called a timeout and referenced his own Manhattan Opens that he’d let slip through his fingers…and he expressed his feeling and opinion and told them to take advantage of the opportunity. “You’re legacy won’t be the same without your name on that pier.”

Dodd was 1 of a few candidates for the position, the first candidate was Karch Kiraly, but he was not able to accept. As far as selling the sport and signing sponsors, there is work to be done. AVP did sign with ESPN/ABC which should prove to be a big boon for the sport. There are still settlments to be made regarding player prize money and FIVB events. Mike believes he can be a bridge to a new relationship with FIVB. He’s seen all the big changes in beach vb and he believes that AVP is in tune and that they keep it about the volleyball. There have been many turf wars in vb but it’s been progressing at a snail’s pace because it is not integrating itself within other vb events. Why not?

Mike believes pro VB will get back to drawing the type of sponsor and fan support as it had in the 1990s. We’re moving in the right direction. “Is VB a lifestyle or a performance sport?” Mike believes it’s both. We’ve done great at its highest level, the sport is sexy, and we shouldn’t ignore that beach vb is a great vehicle for marketers but the focus should be on the game.

Jerritt Elliott Interview
Jerritt’s objection to NCAA sand volleyball was the parameters and the lack of dialogue and the hasty and quick pushing of the sport. He grew up on the beach, went to school with Kent Steffes, and is friends with Geeter, so many people were surprised he was opposed. He wants a few things modified. Indoor is growing at a high rate but there’s probably not enough to get even more quality players.

Quality of life…do you hire an additional coach and the indoor coach oversees anything? How do you decide which girls play which sport? There would also need to be too many time-management issues with coaching as well as too many days recruiting on the road. His idea is to use your indoor team in the spring to work on the beach and avoid coaching overload. Players love to get on the beach anyway.

Back to NCAA indoor…Who would be his #1 vb draft pick…? Megan Hodge of PSU or his own Destinee Hooker? He’d pick Hooker. Elliott was very involved in Hooker’s decision to turn pro. It was a good decision to turn pro as a volleyball player, though she could be a great world-class high jumper.

Co-Opetitive Trivia Slamdown! (Tune into our show to get the answers and see who won!)
1. The overtime goal scored in the USA/Canada Gold Medal hockey game was scored on who?
2. Pepperdine is the #1 team in D1 men’s volleyball. Who is the #1 team in D3?
3. What rapper owns a stake in VitaminWater?
4. What’s the name of the current bachelor on the show, The Bachelor?
5. What name was given Tiger Woods’s Gatorade flavor?
6. McIlhenney Company makes what flavorful pepper sauce?
7. How many medals did Lindsey Vonn win in this Olympics?
8. Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow also directed what 1991 surfer bank robbery movie?
9. USA finished first in total medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics with 37. Which country finished with the most gold medals?
10. Who was Mike Dodd’s first partner on the AVP?

Live Updates, 2/22/10

// February 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

The guy in the red asked Reid how it felt to be in a video with Danny Kinda...He had to shuffle-step to communicate the message :)

Dan wants you all to know that he is without a microphone which, for some people, is a very good thing. Reid wants you all to see this photo album of his recent match. It’s in Russian. You’ll notice that Reid, at barely 6′4″ is complaining about playing against 7′1″ avatar hybrids.

Geeter AVP updates…Schedule is coming out any day…Got a Malibu event and 5 or 6 more California events. They’ve paired the events with other cool activities going on at the same time in the same area. AVP is close to a title sponsor, with the right people it will be a great step. No more AVP on NBC, bittersweet for Geeter. But they’re about to sign with ESPN and ABC! Pretty awesome because ESPN is the source for sports fans. AVP on SportsCenter??

Got a brand new Kinda Good song for the break…

KERRI WALSH INTERVIEW She’s pregnant with child #2, 6.5 months into it…She and husband Casey Jennings are loving being parents to almost-1 year old Joey. Even with 2 children, she hopes to come back and compete on the beach in August, if it all works out. She was proud of her comeback last year, especially playing with Holly. She says she wants to win a tournament with her (woah!). And playing with Misty again at the end of the year felt great and reaffirmed how great they can be. Now that Misty is playing with Nicole Branagh…Kerri hopes they do well but she still hopes to get back with Misty regardless of how May/Branagh do. She’ll be envious but proud She talked to Elaine Youngs about playing this year, but EY is set and playing with Rachel (Wacholder) Scott, so that probably won’t happen.

She is very dedicated to helping young players have all the opportunities she had growing up and increase the numbers. AVP vs USAV is a tricky situation but she is hopeful that the beach side will be represented better within the sport. She believes that her role is not to help herself but to help the future great players in the USA.

Lots of athletes get into businesses when they retire…Kerri is considering working with iVillage and model herself after Gabrielle Reece and Heidi Klum. She wants to be a great family and career woman.

She grew up a basketball player and Gatorade has allowed her to be a great fan of football (going to the Super Bowl) and baseball too. She’s a self-proclaimed sports buff!

MIKE SEALY INTERVIEW
Mike is the 2nd head coach EVER of the UCLA women’s volleyball team. His recent interviews felt like a Miss America process…nerve-racking. But UCLA’s felt right. His vision for the program is to be as good as you can possibly be, not necessarily “win a national title”. His goal is to win that national championship. He wants to recruit locally and get his kids to attend a top-25 college. He played 6 years overseas with a different coach in each league, so he learned a LOT of his philosophy from those coaches. He uses his playing experience, sometimes an arrogant older player or low-confidence setter afraid to set in hitting lines…And he now knows how to communicate better with his players.

His coaching staff was already in place when he interviewed, so he felt more comfortable interviewing with a staff already there. And Joy MacKenzie Fuerbringer will help out with the team.

Live Updates, 2/15/10

// February 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Greetings, people. First things first. Here’s all the links from today’s show!

• A Pegasus and a Unicorn…
• USA Men’s Players thoughts on Winter Games
• Russian League superstar David Lee with sleeves!
• The EVP is expanding?
• The NBA is losing 400 million this year…

And we’ve got plenty more coming at’cha today!

Here’s some crazy waves from Mavericks we were talking about…

Just came across our chatboard-friend’s website with lots of vb infowwww. Check out www.middlehitter.com!

Co-Opetitive Slamdown Trivia!1. Who won the 2010 NBA All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk Contest?
Nate Robinson
2. Who was the 2010 NBA All-Star Weekend All-Star Game MVP?
D-Wade
3. Which nation is currently leading the medal count in the Winter Olympics?
USA, 6 medals
4. What type of firearm is used in the Biathlon?
Rifle
5. The lead singer of the band who sang “My Sharona” died yesterday. What band was he in?
The Knack

Casey Patterson on the Line!
Casey was a great all-around player for BYU in college and now plays AVP. He just won the Puerto Rican League with USA teammates Nils Nielsen and Matt McKinney. Los Plataneros won a best-of-7 series.

You’ve got to make it to an AVP event to watch Casey play. his hair is great, he’s long and impactful, AND he bring the BOOoooOOOoOoOMM every time he steps on the court. He’s got a new partner in veteran Kevin Wong. They will be splitting blocking duties (Casey defending 2/3 of the time), jump serve like crazy, and get some good finishes.

He says if he didn’t have a wife and kids he’d be out at the Huntington Pier trying to bounce the ball onto the pier! BOooOOBOOoboooOmmmm HEEEEYYEYYYYEYEYY!

Live Updates, 2/8/10

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

We are a bit weird today. But we got Todd Rogers on. You may know him as Reid’s former AVP partner (for 1 tourney) or as an Olympic Gold Medalist. We’re gonna talk Cal State Northridge, Super Bowl, who knows what else??

Reid played against a team named, “Too Mean” or something like that. It’s a Russian team. David Lee is in Reid’s head. He was the MVP of the all-star game, speaks better Russian than Reid, the fans love him…Reid’s jealous.

Barney loves Dan’s little song he wrote for a contest…Listen to it on our show!! He also loves “Wizard Fight”.

And have you seen this rally???? Insane!
http://www.legavolley.it/Webtv.asp?id=523&idcat=-1&search=

Joy MacKenzie Fuerbinger is the new USAV board member. Fellow board member Reid is excited about her involvement because she is very conneted to juniors development. She runs a very successful juniors program in Southern California and is often seen training her players on the beach.

Friend of the program Brook Billings was supposed to be playing for Iran, but got an offer to play in Dubai. Now he’s trying to get out of his Iran contract, but it’s a bit tricky…Listen to the show to see where that goes…Trust us…

And the AVP announced last week that they have pinned down Rockstar Energy Drink as official energy drink of the AVP! Love it.

TODD ROGERS Interview
Todd is a bit unhappy with the beach vb task force with relation to the USAV…this wasn’t discussed in the meeting 2 weeks ago and now David Schreff is in charge, who arbitrarily in charge of forming the task force. Ryan Morgan’s role as liaison in this…He is representing all the players in this issue. It sounds like Todd is doing the dishes while talking. Haha. Anyway, Todd and Phil have talked about 2012 and another Gold Medal run in London. His family is in complete support of him in that regard. This season, Phil will probably lightly check out other partner options. But Todd is healthy, so…Todd hasn’t even started training with Phil this year, but he will. WOAH! He IS doing the dishes!!

Live Updates, 2/1/10

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

And we’re back! Some good stuff on the show today including USC women’s head coach Mick Haley and his take on NCAA sand volleyball.

But first…Barnett got his motorbike back. ExciteBike!! Reid is on a plane…Dan made it to the show 1 minute before airtime! We’ve got a musician on the women’s national team, www.JaneCollymore.com! Love it.

Do you have an inside scoop on the juniors scene? Let us know, we’ve got some Flip cameras to loan out. TheNetLive@gmail.com

The Coach who blasts a player in the face with a volleyball. WHAT THE HUHHHH????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drq9pXKWm0Q

Kerri Walsh is on Twitter! Woot! Check it at twitter.com/kerrileewalsh XOXO

About this weird volleyball robot…Barnett thinks it’s velcro tennis. Pretty much. And there’s a play where the robot beats the girl. BOOoooOoOOOoMMmMM!!!!

The AVP + USAV board meeting…Lots of AVP players were there to show their support for the beach side and develop a better support system for the beach side of USA Volleyball. There will soon be a managing director who (we think?) will serve as liaison between the beach and indoor sides.

USA player Brook Billings is off to play in Iran, we’ll see if we can get some information on what that’s like.

MICK HALEY INTERVIEW
Mick was passionate about getting sand vb in the NCAA. He’s not as excited about the sand game as much as he’s excited about creating more volleyball opportunities for women. His premise is that they made an error turning down a 13th scholarship last year. he believes that would have made them the biggest sport in college. Now, this could put volleyball at the top of the list. It will get more elite athletes to play, and it will create more touches for players. He is proud of USC’s role in this. He thinks this will help men’s NCAA volleyball. The more women that men see the more they want to play. Colleges must realize that the men’s side can cultivate itself and pay for itself. The attendance is there in SoCal. He doesn’t see it as a doomsday initiative for men. With more opportunities for women it will help expand the game in all aspects. He hopes that the NCAA will realize that popular Olympic sports deserve equal opportunities.

As far as who coaches the sand team, USC will hire a 4th coordinator/coach to help with both sides and manage tugs-of-war with athletes. Some of his recruiting has been geared towards indoor and sand. But many of the best indoor players have made the best sand players. 6-12 athletes will train on the sand. Track & Field (distance running) and Cross Country use the same participants and they have a coordinator for each side. The goal always is to win a national championship in both disciplines.

Training environments…Most people don’t want to train off-campus. Iowa has an indoor facility with 2 softball diamonds. Nebraska has sand courts which are also used by football players as a low-impact exercise environment. Washington DC schools are considering getting together and constructing a sand facility for practice and competition. The initial startup will favor warm-weather schools, but as it unfolds the facilities will catch up.

“What do non-supporting coaches think?” It all comes down to recruiting. He hasn’t heard many worries about athletes tug of wars. Just financial considerations and recruiting. The Big 10 has been resistant to change, as evidenced by their football teams. The Pac 10 vote was 7-4 in favor of sand vb. Big 10 voted 2-8 (I think). But he thinks the Big 10 will come around soon and the SEC could make a turn very soon, just like their indoor teams. There are 6 Pac 10 schools who are making plans to create a sand program. Mick can’t name schools right now, but a lot of schools are waiting to see what the rules are…

The CO-OMPETITIVE TRIVIA SLAMDOWN, won by Barnett…Google the answers!
1. What’s the name of the new Mikasa product endorsed by Phil and Todd?
2. What 5 colors are in the Olympic logo?
3. Name one guy on the New Orleans Saints defense.
4. Which insanely famous host has more followers on Twitter…Oprah Winfrey or Ryan Seacrest?
5. What’s is the name of the new & last movie starring Heath Ledger?
6. What’s the largest storage capacity for the new Apple iPad?
7. The New Orleans Saints cheer, “Who Dat!” is short for what Saints cheer?
8. Re-opening this month, What’s the name of the Michael Jackson movie that ran at Epcot Center and other Disney theme parks from 1986–1998?
9. Who did Federer play in the 2010 Australian Open this weekend?
10. Name one of the nominated songs for Grammy’s “Song of the Year”

Going Live at 10am Pacific

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Be there as Kevin and Dan return to the Home Court with another great show. USC Women’s Head Coach Mick Haley will join TNL to talk about Sand Volleyball, more Trivia and maybe Reid Priddy will show up. Be there Live and call in 347-677-1525 or email TheNetLive@gmail.com

Live updates, 1/20/10

// January 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

We’re coming at you today from the women’s national team practice in Anaheim, CA. The team is warming up and the coaches are s opig out the scene.

Live Updates, 1/11/10

// January 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

AVP star Casey Patterson

Reid wants you to check out volleyball-videos.com for…well…uh…figure it out!

THE FREE RIDE
Did you know that Al Scates was the first men’s collegiate volleyball coach to 900 wins. In his 48th year has a record of 1,185-253. And we’ve got a new women’s indoor professional league! The Women’s National Volleyball Association is coming to the USA. Not much information on this developing league, but we’ll get it to ya! There have been 4 or 5 of these types of leagues in the past.

The AVP schedule is still under construction. Boston, Seattle, and Malibu are all rumored to be event sites, but unless AVP lands a title sponsor they are all uncertain. CEO Jason Hodell talked about the AVP and NCAA sand volleyball with CNNmoney.

VOLLEYBALL ACTION
NAIA school Cal-Baptist takes out THREE top-10 teams this week. #7 Long Beach State, #8 UCLA, and #4 Pepperdine all went down to Adiel Tiedjop, Levi Cabral and company. Read more about it!

Live Updates, 1/4/10, John Speraw Interview!

// January 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Whoops. Barney just spilled a full glass of water on this computer. Dan is cleaning it up. Reid had a volleyball match on Christmas and it’s -40 degrees in Siberia. Barnett got a driving wheel for his Playstation3. Dan got some ornaments. We’ve got UC Irvine men’s head coach John Speraw on the show today!

THE FREERIDE
The Kindle is the biggest holiday online gift of all time! You can even get Lloy Ball’s book! Barney LOVES Avatar, Reid can only see it in Russian, so…And how about a holiday-shopping “man-stroller”? We can play vb all day but when it comes to walking around for 2 hours in a mall…NO WAY. This brings to mind vb bench players STANDING during the match. This is ridiculous!! Baseball has the bull-pin where you can even GRILL lunch, watch the match on TV, make some calls, whatever. Basketball has the cushy chairs (if your young, you might be on the floor), Hockey sits, Football has the option to sit….In 2010, I want to lobby for a “bench in the box”

JOHN SPERAW, Interview
John explains if his title-winning 2009 men’s UC Irvine team was his best ever…He says it was his best DEFENSIVE team. They had 6′9″ setter Ryan Ammerman blocking as good as anyone in the country. He recruits talent with character and now has great support from the school because they see it as a great opportunity for the school to get its name out in the community. He can now afford more quality coaches and a director of operations in addition to an increase in scholarships. He thinks the men’s teams this year are very deep. 14/20 of last year’s all-americans are returning. USC, Stanford, BYU, UCLA, LB State are all great teams with very little turnover. He’s actually not sure if his team should be ranked preseason #2. He would rank them at #8. In October UC Irvine hosted the World VB Challenge that pitted their men’s team against some of the best professional teams in the world. It was a great exhibition and has plans to be an annual event. John thinks that men’s vb can give a lot more schools exposure like UC Irvine has been doing. The NCAA Men’s “tournament” is still at 4 total teams and it’s going to take budgeting on the NCAA level to expand it to 8 teams.

Reid’s and Lloy Ball’s teams faced off this week and in a 5th set Lloy went off and beat Reid He says it was his most devastating loss he’s ever had (woah). He had the opportunity to win the Russian Cup and didn’t get it done. He’s lost matches that cost him $50,000 and still…