S4E8: Volleyball Antagonists, Mid Season All-Americans, Message to Younger Volleyball Self

We argue about men’s volleyball “antagonists” and end up in a real debate about what turns casual fans on or off, from missed serves to confusing calls and commentary. Then we shift into mid-season player picks, youth club culture, and the hardest part of sports, being a parent or teammate who can let people fail and still feel supported. 

• Hawaii volleyball fans as the internet antagonist 
• David Kniffin as the mysteriously snubbed “bad guy” 
• Missed serves as a barrier to fan growth 
• How commentary shapes what new viewers notice 
• Mid-season All-American style picks and why they matter 
• Youth club results and why the future looks fast 
• Parenting rules at matches, anxiety, and letting kids learn 
• Lessons we’d tell our younger volleyball selves, from gratitude to academics 

So come on down if you are in the Bay Area. Come join us on Saturday!

Transcript

Lively Intro And The Docket

Arielle Houlihan 0:00

Give him some credit and so he's practically on the team.

Matt Houlihan 0:04

Hey, if he has any eligible well, no, I cannot say that. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Our intros are now energetic and full of life, and I'm doing today's intro because Ariel is currently parenting upstairs, and Chad has a strict schedule that he needs to be on since he's leaving for New York City tomorrow. Yeah. Larger than life, some would say. Larger than backstreet back. All right. We've got a uh we got a good one today. It's mainly planned by Daniel. Uh Daniel pretty much planned the entire thing, and he's probably the one person that should have the least amount of brain power since he just spent the entire weekend in a gym. But apparently he's gets all of his creativity in convention centers. It's like a shower. All of his best thoughts come in convention centers.

Chad Gordon 0:56

Classic convention center thoughts.

Picking Men’s Volleyball Antagonists

Matt Houlihan 0:58

Yeah. So let's jump right into the first the first item on the agenda, courtesy of Daniel. We've got volleyball's antagonist. Who? What it is. Why? Where is the antagonist of men's volleyball? And Daniel, since this was uh one of the one of yours, let's go let's go straight over to you. Who's who's your antagonist? All right.

Daniel Rasay 1:23

Bring in the heat. This is because I still go on volley talk a lot, just because you know what? You gotta know the scuttle butt from very reliable sources on the internet. But my antagonists of volleyball are Hawai volleyball fans. So I think it's because they're the antagonist of volley talk. But it's I mean, it's because they care so deeply about their team, right? And they're gonna stick up for their team, they're gonna vouch for their team, they're going to talk smack about the other team. Yeah. When they anybody says anything bad about anything Hawai volleyball, they're gonna for sure put up their dukes and and throw uh mean words at other people. They're gonna get to typing. Yeah. But you know, I I think it's great to have that support from people that will stick with you through thick and thin. I mean it's been good for them the past five, ten years, whatever it may be. But I don't know. They don't have the best reputation in the chat rooms, I guess. And you know even when they travel and somebody says bad things from them from the stands, they go straight into Volley Talk and they talk about the bad things that people were saying, and I like it, but they're the antagonist. Yeah.

Matt Houlihan 2:47

I think that's fair. They are absolutely the antagonist of volley talk. Anytime there's a thread on there, it's like almost guaranteed that it will somehow divulge itself into or merge into some form of a Hawaii volleyball thread. And then the men's side is pretty heavy, you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Not a lot of people. The women's side, there's a lot more, a lot more action. We call that parody. And she's back from parenting.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Okay. Hello.

Matt Houlihan 3:09

We're hearing about the Hawaii volleyball fans as Daniels and Teg.

Arielle Houlihan 3:13

Wow, you guys got through that quickly. How was our intro? Was our intro good?

Matt Houlihan 3:17

It was the best intro. It was so lively. Yes, yeah, we've been cutting you out. It's because you're you're the actually the volleyball. I think I'm gonna change my answer. Ariel is my volleyball intact.

Arielle Houlihan 3:33

Yeah, that's a good one.

Matt Houlihan 3:34

Which honestly, that I feel like is a valid take. That's a definitely a valid take.

Arielle Houlihan 3:37

It's not the worst take you've ever had.

Matt Houlihan 3:39

Yeah, that's a valid take. Ariel is the is the volleyball intact. It's not actually my answer, but for the sake of that joke, I was going with it. Do you want to now that you're near you're here, I don't know the question.

Arielle Houlihan 3:48

I just got let's go to Chad.

Matt Houlihan 3:50

Chad, we're gonna come over to you. What who who, what, when, where, why is your volleyball antagonist? It's not even close.

Chad Gordon 3:55

It's David Niffen. Defend yourself. You defend yourself, okay? He is the nicest person, super smart, clearly puts a great product on the floor, and yet he must have done something to somebody because he has been shafted from the playoffs. Oh, that's so true. For like that is true.

Arielle Houlihan 4:15

That is true.

Chad Gordon 4:16

I I don't understand it. Yeah, I don't know what he did. He hasn't spoken about it publicly, and clearly he's he's a bad guy. Is that why they're not showing any of their games on TV? I think that may that may have something to do with it. Maybe if the committee can't see them play, maybe they will sneak their way in. I don't know. Maybe they'll have to actually look at their record and statistics on paper. I don't I don't know uh what he's done to to piss off somebody, but I mean it it's clear. I love this. Someone's got a problem and he must be a bad guy. I've been duped.

Arielle Houlihan 4:49

I love that take. I think it's great. The the cameras are off now that nobody can see them.

Chad Gordon 4:54

That's great.

Arielle Houlihan 4:54

So now you just have to look at pen and paper to decide if they get in.

Chad Gordon 4:57

Well, we'll see. We'll come back and we'll have an episode and we'll see when they don't make it again. That that wasn't the that wasn't the answer, but I'm I'd be shocked if they could make it.

Matt Houlihan 5:05

But this we are at the midway point, so I appreciate things can change.

Chad Gordon 5:09

I appreciate the retaliatory nature of just like eff it. We're not streaming any of this. You don't get to watch us.

Matt Houlihan 5:17

Ariel, what's your uh volatile antagonist?

Arielle Houlihan 5:21

I have one.

Matt Houlihan 5:24

You need me to go first?

Arielle Houlihan 5:25

No, I just can't. I don't even think it matters if you go first or not because I just can't remember what it is. It's can anybody lopes down. Oh, yeah, it's the damn athletic director at Grand Canyon. Oh, thank you for reminding me, Matt. Is that beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. That girl needs help. My goodness. Uh, the athletic director at Grand Canyon, cutting men's volleyball, and not even just cutting men's volleyball. Sure. You can cut men's volleyball. There's reasons why to cut men's volleyball for athletic departments, no problem. The way in which she did it makes my blood boil. It was absolutely an atrocious act towards the kids on that team, the coaching staff, the people involved in that program, and for them to be like the fifth ranked team in the country the year before to have an incredible year and then to just go about it that way. That girl needs that girl's pretty ruthless on my list.

Matt Houlihan 6:25

Uh I'm going to, I'm gonna, I'm gonna I have a list.

Arielle Houlihan 6:28

I have a list.

Matt Houlihan 6:30

She does. It's in her phone.

Arielle Houlihan 6:31

I have a list.

Matt Houlihan 6:32

It's in her phone. So there's just if you ever see your typing after talking to you, beware. Uh I'm gonna zig while you guys are zagging. Mine is not a person, not a place. It's a more of a state of mind thing than a state of mind. I was about to say state of mind, but it's a thing. My volleyball antagonist is missed serves. It is, in my eyes, the it's the clog of how you get more fans to watch the game. Their number one complaint I hear when I have friends watch or come check things out in volleyball is it feels like there's a lot of missserves there. And they're right, there is a ton of missserves, specifically on the men's side. There is just a very high tolerance for missserves from a statistical perspective because it's what you need to do in order to succeed, and therefore, I think the rules and weights need to be shifted to better accommodate a better playing experience and a better watching experience for men's volleyball to grow. So, not a person, it's a people pleasers answered. Not yet, it's not a spicy take, it's just, but it's it's my perspective of antagonist.

Chad Gordon 7:44

The parents out there that don't understand volleyball will love that take. Yeah, no doubt.

Arielle Houlihan 7:49

Everybody will love that take. We'll be like, oh Matt Hoolihan, there he goes again. Well, it's just a new one.

Chad Gordon 7:54

I'm the people, I'm the people's host over here. All I could think about was like they barely hit the ball in baseball, and we watched that sport. Like that's so true. I mean, unbelievable.

Arielle Houlihan 8:04

Most of pitching is yeah, volleyball is the fastest sport ever with a million points played. Yeah. Like, why are misser is a big deal?

Matt Houlihan 8:12

Uh, because the time between rallies and the length of a rally when not even close to as long as a time as it's like. Well, think about a baseball player. A home a home run is that's exciting. Five seconds long. Sure.

Arielle Houlihan 8:24

And it happens maybe in a game.

Matt Houlihan 8:27

And so in comparison, a ball or a strike is a very small blip of time in comparison to that.

Arielle Houlihan 8:33

So is a misser.

Chad Gordon 8:34

Yeah, but like I don't want to see like them throwing balls. Like, that's like a misserve. Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 8:39

Yeah.

Chad Gordon 8:40

Volleyball is the new big thing.

Matt Houlihan 8:45

I'm gonna say the number one complaint, nice job is misserves. Like, no one wants to watch you miss a serve. The best part of volleyball is the action. So more action.

Chad Gordon 8:54

I I agree. I agree. I just I think there's like a there's a commentary around misserves in the sport, especially on the men's side, that people, you know, you get these older people that are commentating on. They're like, oh man, they're setting too tight, and they're why are they playing so fast? And like, what's a guy jumping going flying through the air? That's not allowed. Like, what we don't need this old timey stuff. Like, what's this different colored jersey over here? Yeah. Um, and I just I think if you're a fan of the men's game, then you don't ask these questions, right? Like people that people that watch understand this, right? People that don't understand that, like statistically, if you just chip it in, you get murdered. Like the math doesn't work out, right? And so I just think it's it's a reshaping of how we need to talk about it. But it can be your antagonist, it's fine.

Matt Houlihan 9:38

I really like that taste. And it's your couch. That's a that's a good that's a good response, it's a good rebuttal. Do you think the misserves limit the casual fan? Do you think a casual fan sees that and goes, meh, I think change channel.

Chad Gordon 9:51

I think the casual fan also has to deal with like how it's being uh explained, yeah, you know, on some telecasts that obviously who knows, I don't think Irvine's missed a serve because we can't watch, so that's probably helping them. But I I think when you have especially when you get people who are often ex-players on the women's side, or they only commentate on the women's side, and that like that's how you can get to talk about the men's game. Well, obviously, like they don't miss a lot of serves in the women's game, right? Like, yeah, though they don't side out of those same, like you know, super high clips. So you have an issue with the commentators, which is valid, and therefore I have an issue with missserves. Correct. Full circle.

Matt Houlihan 10:28

So Chad's real antagonist is commentators. No, never, never it's the play-by-play announcement.

Chad Gordon 10:35

Yeah, sometimes, but that's okay.

Matt Houlihan 10:37

I actually think the misserves treed Rosenthal. Oh my goodness. Oh my god.

Chad Gordon 10:41

Treed Rosenthal is.

Arielle Houlihan 10:51

The judgment calls are worse. The ones that are like uh even uh the back row attack is confusing. Back row attack is confusing for a random fan. It's not that confusing for us because we see it, but that's confusing.

Matt Houlihan 11:04

That's a good easy one to put on a replay of like foot on the line, and you're you can you can easily understand.

Arielle Houlihan 11:09

Well, a misserve is a misserve. It's very cut and dry. They miss their serve, the other team gets a point done. But like the random fan who hasn't watched it before, the double is not as much of a thing anymore. But the other judgment calls that are happening, people are like, wait, what just happened? Even honestly, a net violation. They see that and they're like, Wait, what just happened? Yes, from from the perspective of what you're watching, perspective for me as like there must have been a net.

Matt Houlihan 11:34

I would say that my my explanation of this would be okay, highest level volleyball. Right, you take um we had UCLA versus uh versus Ohio State that went 47-45. There was at the at the end of it, very not not a ton of miss serves in terms of that actual gameplay. It was really good volleyball across the board back and forth. That's what people want to see. Now, juxtapose that against Stanford versus Penn State last year, where it was a four-set match, and each of them missed 30 serves. That is a disgusting match to watch. Yeah, but that's not the norm.

Arielle Houlihan 12:15

But no, that's a that was a ridiculously disgusting match to watch.

Matt Houlihan 12:18

I wouldn't I wouldn't say that's so out of the norm. That that's not out of the norm because that is the strategy, and there is a high volume of missing. You're seeing teams miss seven, eight serves in a set pretty consistently. Whereas if I go and watch a Mac Shin, um a Mac men's basketball game, it's fast paced, it's moving. It's not as good as watching Duke, North Carolina, but it's still entertaining and it's flowing, and you can see everything happening, and you kind of get into the game.

Chad Gordon 12:47

Yeah, the Mac doesn't have more stoppages because it's not Duke.

Matt Houlihan 12:50

Right. Yeah, okay. So when UCLA's playing against USC and it's really high level and they're doing, you know, they're doing great things, yes, that's a great product, and there's still miserves there, but it's it it deprecates pretty quickly from the top of the line for men's volleyball.

Arielle Houlihan 13:07

So well We could move on.

Do Missed Serves Hurt Growth

Mid-Season All-American Picks

Matt Houlihan 13:09

We can move on. Speaking of uh men's volleyball and takes, let's move into our mid-season. We're about we're about halfway through here. Mid season action. Who are our mid-season all-Americans? Let's uh let's flip the let's flip the order over here and let's go down to let's go down to the volleybork. Volley dork, you want to start us off? Who's your who who's your who's your guy? And to be clear for all the viewers, once someone has been selected, no one else can pick someone from that team. So we're gonna spread the love here. So Chad, you get to start first.

Chad Gordon 13:38

Uh I'm gonna pick one, Mr. Cole Hartke of the Pepperdine Waves. Um, is just such a high usage kind of guy. Like, I think so they split with UH right over the weekend, and in those eight sets total, I think he had like a hundred plus attempts. You know, is hitting three something, he's like hitting three sixty something on the year. Like, he's just one of those guys who just takes a lot of cracks at the ball and is being asked to deliver kind of night in and night out, and he's uh he's a big dude. He's a good boy. Yeah, we'll see if he can stay healthy the rest of the year.

Matt Houlihan 14:17

Alright, we'll skip over while she drinks some water, and we're gonna come right on over to Daniel Rasai, because it looks like whenever I need to think about our answer. I can remember again. I know I knew the symbol. I knew the symbol there.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

What was mine?

Chad Gordon 14:31

The Grand Canyon idiot.

Matt Houlihan 14:37

Well, you can think about it while Danel gives his answer. Sean Kelly.

Chad Gordon 14:42

That's a good choice.

Matt Houlihan 14:44

All right, Ariel T.

Arielle Houlihan 14:46

That wasn't mine, was it? No, that was mine. Okay, good. I'm glad.

Daniel Rasay 14:52

Still a good choice. Sean Kelly, I mean, just well-rounded game. He is a well-rounded person. Well-rounded person, too. Like, I mean, that's the thing that I've been loving about watching him play is he has a smile on his face when he's playing, and he's playing with some joy and you know, coming up clutch when we were watching the USC match last week. Um just making big plays when big plays are needed. And I don't know, seems like he's could be a glue guy. I don't know. Usually the guy that brings good vibes is is a good glue guy. And so not just putting points on the scoreboard, but also bringing the intangibles as well.

unknown 15:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

I'm a fan.

Matt Houlihan 15:35

Do you need a nudge on your answer again?

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Yeah, what's my line?

Matt Houlihan 15:38

It was also your uh uh new mid-season newcomer of the year. No, it was my newcomer. Oh, Chad's Chad? Well, no, her mid-season newcomer of the year. Your Chad's original.

Arielle Houlihan 15:48

Oh, my wait. Chad's original.

Matt Houlihan 15:51

Yeah. Chad's newcomer of the year was this wasn't.

Arielle Houlihan 15:56

Did I pick Cameron?

Matt Houlihan 15:57

Yes.

Arielle Houlihan 15:58

Oh, cool. Okay, good.

Matt Houlihan 16:00

So I pick Cameron. Let's lead you into that. Try again too. I want this in.

Arielle Houlihan 16:04

I'm not fake. I want this all in. This all needs to go in. I'm just a I'm just a bot where they feed me my lines and I just spit it out. Um, I have no ball knowledge at all. I'm saying this as a biased, a biased person here, but I think Cameron Costy has done a phenomenal job and has been like on like newcome, like kind of a newcomer of the year for me. Um, yes, I am very biased on this and love the kid, but I really do think that he's playing like really good ball and uh leading really well and uh throwing it around really well.

Matt Houlihan 16:41

So serving great.

Arielle Houlihan 16:43

And obviously serving great.

Matt Houlihan 16:45

Cam is not a we were we were talking with him down when Stanford was playing at Concordia, he came and watched the game. We got to talk with him after, and great little quote from him. He's like, I'm not the best true setter, but like I know how to play. Like I know this game. He was like, I know how to win. I know this game for so long, I know how to win. And that is exactly what he's showing. And he's he's proved it.

Arielle Houlihan 17:07

I was talking to an unnamed uh other player, I will not spill who this was, um, but I was talking about how did Cameron play? And that person said, he was great, he's just he's got he's got a little bit of an ego. And my response to it was who doesn't that is at that level of playing good and like going after it, and like an opponent isn't gonna say he's got a little bit of a like ever most setters in the country you would say that about. And the answer was like, yeah, absolutely, 100%. Like you have to have a little bit of a gamer mentality of like I'm going to go and cut you to win this. Yeah, and like that's that's something I look for in a setter for sure.

Youth Club Weekend And Competition

Matt Houlihan 17:54

So props to props to Cam. Props to Cam. My midseason player of the year. I've been on, I've been on this train for a while. Uh it's my guy Patrick Rodgers, just crushing it out of ball state. He has to Matt Woolahan. He has to leave college at some point. Eight years, that's too many. No, Patrick Rogers can stay. He can stay, and he can play. Because that guy is fun to watch. Uh, yeah, just great season thus far from him. He is he is a high usage guy for ball state, does it all. And yeah, just some of the some of the plays that he makes is just such a good balance of beach volleyball, grass volleyball, and indoor volleyball. Just very patient player, super terminal when he needs to be, runs it really well in the back row. And yeah, he's just kind of he's like a he's just a highlight reel. All right. We had a uh we had a full weekend. Stanford played two matches against St. Francis, but at the same time, the Beta Bay middle school teams headed down south under the tender love and care of one Daniel Rasai.

Arielle Houlihan 19:03

So, Daniel, how's our club doing?

Matt Houlihan 19:05

Bunch of seconds. Yeah, a lot of a lot of silver. But hey, that's the best we finished with that event. Normally we that's the only event we play in in the spring, and so it's like one and done, and yeah, it's kind of a it's always kind of a hectic one. But we had a full day tournament before this time up in NorCal and went down south and made every open division final. It's pretty cool.

Arielle Houlihan 19:25

14 1s, 13 ones, and 12 ones all made it to the final. Matt and I were just like off of a crazy weekend, whatever. We went to his family's house, and Matt goes, We're in the finals of all three, and I was like, sick. And then 20 minutes later, we lost the finals of all three. I was like, damn it. So how did it go, Daniel?

Matt Houlihan 19:42

Well, yeah, I want I want the Daniel perspective of everything because also Daniel was back to dad volleyball dad again this weekend, too. So maybe give us a little bit of the.

Daniel Rasay 19:52

But the club, I think the future of volleyball is bright. I think volleyball is being played at a pretty high level at the young ages, and it's like in college, it's getting more physical and faster, and it's kind of crazy the the things that these young kids can do.

Arielle Houlihan 20:12

In California in California specifically, too.

Daniel Rasay 20:15

I mean at Beta Bay and you know the other the other big clubs as well, and so um it was fun to watch them compete, and you know, for the beta bay teams, they have some coaches that weren't their coaches in the fall, so it's good to for them to get a different perspective from you know a different voice and experience, which I think is great for these young athletes as well. And um yeah, it was fun to watch all of them play.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Awesome.

Daniel Rasay 20:43

Love it.

Parenting At Matches And Letting Kids Fail

Matt Houlihan 20:43

And we had uh we had Eli Rasai on the 11 ones. How was uh how was how was that? We had the whole fam down, Ann was down, we had Kellen down there. Yeah, give us the give us the parent perspective.

Daniel Rasay 20:54

Um I've watched a lot of parents watch their kids play volleyball and have taken a lot of notes in I don't know, just do's and don'ts of it. And um I was actually writing about this today, and when specifically when Eli was playing and he was making mistakes, like I could shout out everything that he needs to do in order to not fail. And as parents, right, we we want to protect our our kids from shame and failure, and that's why we have helicopter parents and snowplow parents. But at one point I had to reflect and be like, is it am I protecting him or am I protecting myself, right? Because I've coached for a long time, and if my kid is not very good, are people gonna look at me and be like, What are you doing? Why isn't your kid any better? And so I had to separate my anxiety from his or potentially his to be able to just sit there and enjoy him playing volleyball and not worry about it. Like sports is a place. Where failure should be somewhat safe and I want him to fail so he learns and grows and I want it to be his thing and not my thing. And it still bubbles up of like I sh I want to say something, but I'm not going to because he'll learn and his coaches are doing a great job of coaching him and they'll teach him the right things. But it's just it's just an interesting perspective. And you know, I wrote on my Instagram some rules of just not complaining about spending long hours in the gym, um, you know, really focusing on the positive things and asking if he wants feedback. Um but and just giving lots of hugs, and my kid loves hugs, and it was great to just hug him as he came off the court and say great job.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

So but that's awesome.

Matt Houlihan 22:49

Good good notes on parenting. I saw that that post go up. Um I think you posted it. Maybe maybe heading to the airport or whatever. Yeah, we were sitting at the airport. Yeah, and I I just started reading and I was like, this is yeah, it's such just such good information, but also just such a good reflection of some of the coolest things that happen in this in this job. Yeah, right. Is is watching kids grow up, parents grow up, have those experiences together. That's every year when we do our 18 teams talks, the parents always will say they are so grateful for the time they spent in the car with their kids. Yeah. Getting just one-on-one time where they get to communicate with them and talk to them, and just some of the best moments that they get are drawn out of competition and what revolves around that, whether it be practices or driving or flying to and from places, and it's just it's a very fulfilling aspect that I got a little I got a little teary eye reading it because I one wasn't there and missed out, felt like I missed out.

Arielle Houlihan 23:48

But he was just crying because he was sad he wasn't there.

Matt Houlihan 23:50

Well, yeah, big piece of FOMO, but also yeah, just just looking looking at it and being like, this is really, really cool. So thank you for sharing it.

Arielle Houlihan 23:57

My uh my entire life has been of the perspective of a coach's kid. And uh we've as running the club as well, uh, and my whole club experience going through, I was a coach's kid, and then when we took over, we had a significant amount of coaches that raised their kids and coached their kids through our club. And I've always found a lot of pride in uh being a place that coaches' kids can be and thrive, um, because I never wanted there to be an anti-coach's kid feel to our club. Um, but I've we've also I've spent my whole life watching different ways that people do this as a coach's, as a coach's kid and as a coach. Um, and it's for us getting about as close to having young players that are our own as possible, with our kids being pretty close in age to your children. It's uh very nice to see you doing it uh close to at the same time as us trying to do this as well, because uh you're doing a great job of it.

Daniel Rasay 25:05

So trying. I definitely have my my demons that don't we all at least you're able to say that.

Arielle Houlihan 25:14

That's the that's the other is like there are a lot of people out there that are unable to say that and think that they know exactly what they're doing with this, which to we all know that nobody does.

Daniel Rasay 25:24

Yeah.

Arielle Houlihan 25:25

I mean I've I've had Jackson's eating drinking out of the toilet.

Daniel Rasay 25:29

Speaking of parenting, I mean there's definitely the bad examples that you see all the time, but I think there's tons of great examples like in Bay to Bay, like great parents, but also having coached the Shojis and Dave being around and Don Shaw being around, like they were also great examples of how you can I've also seen great examples of uh incredible players that I believe the parents didn't do the right thing with them, even though they turned out to be incredible players.

Arielle Houlihan 26:04

And there's it's a list of importance of like what is the most important thing here is raising these kids to be an athlete the most important thing, or is it raising them to be a adult, a fully functioning adult who's kind, who can uh navigate their way in their job that they go into? Like it there's a give and take with it. So what are you giggling about? Jackson has to go out. Jackson's like, okay, parents.

Daniel Rasay 26:31

Yeah, but on the other side of that, like I think that's the great thing about sports as well. It's like as kids start to maybe drift not drift away from their parents, but like their parents are less of an influence, their peers become that influence, and so sports provides that. And that's the other thing that I love about Eli playing is that he has great teammates that he can have a good time with, and they're a good influence on him.

Advice To Our Younger Volleyball Selves

Matt Houlihan 26:55

So I think that segues nicely into the final piece. As you can tell, Daniel, very emotionally intelligent human being. So our docket is very much revolving around some uh some good emotional cues here. Uh just one lesson that you would you would teach or give to your younger volleyball self.

Arielle Houlihan 27:13

Baby Ariel.

Matt Houlihan 27:15

Baby Ariel, baby Chad, uh beardless Chad. I I have this when I was. No, you didn't. Seventh grade? I rem I remember I've got a photo of you in the garage right now watching me play volleyball because you were a dork back then, too.

Chad Gordon 27:30

Yeah, I got out of practice and I was like, Bell's playing St.

Matt Houlihan 27:32

Francis. Yes, going. Yep. Yeah. And you sat front row. And so I have a photo of your bald face.

Arielle Houlihan 27:38

Does anybody have any interest in going to that Bell Save Rences game coming up here?

Matt Houlihan 27:41

No, not really. Is it coming up? When is it?

Arielle Houlihan 27:43

I would love to go to that. I think it's uh in a week.

Chad Gordon 27:47

If I don't have practice, great. Nerds.

Arielle Houlihan 27:51

I think it's in uh on this, it's like the 19th, I think. I've been asked a few times if I'm going to make an appearance.

Matt Houlihan 27:58

So of course.

Arielle Houlihan 28:00

I don't I don't do that without friends.

Matt Houlihan 28:02

Luke and Gabe have been group texting. Yeah, no kidding. Uh Chad, let's hear. What's your uh what would you what would you give to your younger volleyball self?

Arielle Houlihan 28:10

You have to talk to yourself in the mic like you are talking to.

Matt Houlihan 28:13

Can I set a little context too, just so people know while Chad's thinking about this? Chad was a twos player, ones player back and forth. So kind of a cusp in between between he's not always this volleyball goliath that athletic specimen that you see before you in this beautiful.

Chad Gordon 28:30

Well, Chad's the best volleyball player in the large room. That's true. I don't know. That's very true.

Matt Houlihan 28:34

Chad is for sure the best volleyball player players.

Arielle Houlihan 28:36

We know that.

Matt Houlihan 28:37

Currently.

Arielle Houlihan 28:38

What age are we talking?

Matt Houlihan 28:40

Uh whatever you whatever you'd like.

Chad Gordon 28:42

Chad? Man, I don't I don't know. I mean, I I was just that kid who was like the first one in, last one out. Never the best player by any means, but probably like loved it the most. So I don't I don't know. I mean, I would just stick with that advice of just like I I showed up and I put so many hours in. Yeah, maybe I could have like set more balls instead of hitting for Harker or something, I would be a better setter and there's a different trajectory in my career. Um but I don't know. I'm really I'm really happy with how it won, and I just I loved it, so I showed up. It was pretty easy. Good.

Arielle Houlihan 29:12

What was my answer again? Just getting, I didn't. I think that the advice that I would give to my younger self is that volleyball isn't everything. It's not the whole world. And even though I have turned my life into it being a lot of my world, we're on a podcast together at your house. Like, what? Uh even though I have turned a lot of things into volleyball for my life, uh, I think my perspective of the time that I spent that I have spent not in volleyball has influenced my life in volleyball so heavily that uh my perspective on that is uh Matthew. Yeah, but yeah. That's my that volleyball isn't life or death. Because there was some times where I didn't think it was.

Daniel Rasay 30:16

Sure. It was a big part of your identity, especially when I was playing.

Arielle Houlihan 30:19

It was it was uh a grind and I was I really really did think that like the that the world was gonna end if things happened the way or not that I wanted them to. So I think that uh I'm glad that I have that perspective that it's not and I would give that advice.

Matt Houlihan 30:42

I'm gonna let you go last and I'm gonna go next. Um for me great question that Daniel posed, got me got me reflecting a little bit. My advice to myself would be to enjoy the people that you are around, whether it be your teammates or my parents who took me to so many different events. Um for context, I had two players on my club team that we played together for four years, won a bronze the club's first ever open bronze medal together, just had amazing times. Uh, had two two of my friends who passed away. One was uh an overdose and one was a a suicide. And those friends, you know, lose a little bit of touch along the way as we go off into college, and just knowing that life is fragile is something I probably would have given my younger self a lot more of. Um, it would have been pretty good perspective in terms of how I treat friends and relationships and um as it goes for my parents as well, just understanding how much they really did sacrifice for me, and how much you know, seeing it from this perspective of being a parent now, but also being a club director and seeing what really goes on for parents to coordinate three kids' schedules, pay for things, get us to to and from places, and how there were many moments where you know I I I felt like I was grateful, but did not show it when I look back. I'm like, oh, I really could have showed so much more gratitude for what my parents did for me there. Um and so yeah, just showing showing the people around you the love and appreciation that you've you've got for everything that you do with them, that they do for you, and trying to soak that in a little bit, a little bit more would be my uh my advice. Not to not to go uh too uh too emo on uh on all you guys over here.

Arielle Houlihan 32:41

This is the emotional pod. It is the emotional pod.

Matt Houlihan 32:44

Daniel, this is why we brought you on. This and this and conspiracy, sorry.

Daniel Rasay 32:51

All right. I mean, I'm pretty similar to Chad, like I was the same kind of guy, like first in, last out, loved it more than anybody else, and I think I got the most out of my volleyball career, but mine comes from a lot of thought and having coached at Stanford for a long time. My advice to myself would to be a better student so that you have more options if college volleyball is a part of your goal. Um, I'm I mean Hawaii is a pretty stellar academic school, as we all know, but um but you know, the possibility of going to Stanford and looking back, and if that was a thing, I would have been very grateful for that. But I think that was crushed this weekend because even if I did better in school, I saw Kevin Hansen, who is the same age as me and won a gold medal, right?

Chad Gordon 33:50

Yeah, he's pretty he's pretty decent.

Daniel Rasay 33:53

Yeah, I think they wouldn't have recruited me if they had him. And he's a big dude and was a really good setter, and so it wouldn't matter if I did well in school or not.

Matt Houlihan 34:07

So try less in school.

Daniel Rasay 34:08

Yeah, so yeah, less time in school. Yeah, more time in volleyball.

Matt Houlihan 34:12

More time in volleyball, less in school.

Daniel Rasay 34:15

No, but I I think that's the advice that I give a lot of the kids that I work with is open up as many doors as possible with not just volleyball, but with your academics as well.

Wedding Planning And Volleyball Day Invite

Matt Houlihan 34:28

Love it. What a well-rounded podcast that we just put together that Daniel put together and we talked about.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yeah, well done, everybody.

Matt Houlihan 34:35

We've got a big one this week. Chad leaves this week. Uh oh, Chad's wedding what date. But we need the wedding update first before we talk about volleyball day.

Arielle Houlihan 34:43

But the clock is on. Yo.

Chad Gordon 34:47

We haven't done anything really since last week. We had a meeting with the planner, and we just we'd like kind of narrowed down some of the venues that we're gonna go tour while we're in New York. Cool. But other than that, it's it's on uh it's on Jesse to kind of put together like some you know, some bridal stuff for for Lacey and whatever, and it's like, okay, here's an itinerary where Chad you don't have anything planned.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

I'm like, oh so you get to go hang out in New York.

Chad Gordon 35:10

Well, I mean, I'll be on calls with Poland, but yeah. Sure. So I wish I wish there was more. There's just not a lot this uh this week, but next week.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Next week?

Chad Gordon 35:17

The next pod we'll have we'll have more we'll have juicier details, yeah. Lots of updates. Lots of updates.

Arielle Houlihan 35:23

Lovely wow, lovely updates. Can't wait for that. Well, my brother's moving to New York. So I don't know.

Matt Houlihan 35:29

We'll hang out. That's all. Which one fact? Yeah. One of them. One of them. We've got uh volleyball day in the bay this weekend. Yeah, Friday versus BYU. Saturday is the day. That is the day we are aiming to break the attendance record. 2175 is the number we got to beat. I'm expecting them, I'm expecting the Mormons to bring 800.

Chad Gordon 35:48

I think it's to be larger than life because I want it that way.

Matt Houlihan 35:50

Yes. We were winded down. It's almost like you had these planned. Bye bye bye.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Um era, same era.

Matt Houlihan 36:05

So come on down if you are in the Bay Area. Come join us on Saturday. We've got giveaways. Daniel's cooking. There's a live band.

Arielle Houlihan 36:12

I got hair ties, I think.

Matt Houlihan 36:13

3 p.m. the uh the great time. The uh the kickoff barbecue begins. Beach volleyball first serves at 4 p.m. at the beach courts. They've got a taco truck. We've got taco Daniel, aka hot dog Daniel. And hot dogs are like tacos. Sure. Hot dog.

Arielle Houlihan 36:31

We got Abe Wagner on the band.

Matt Houlihan 36:33

We'll debate that in more on Saturday. So we will uh we'll be back.

Arielle Houlihan 36:38

Hopefully after a win on Friday night.

Matt Houlihan 36:42

Yes.

Arielle Houlihan 36:42

Into a win on Saturday.

Matt Houlihan 36:44

Hopefully a 2 0 weekend, knock on wood. The boys are buzzing. We'll see how we perform. Six and no. Just a couple gladiators in the arena going to battle. We're ready.