BILLY ALLEN RETIREMENT EXTRAVAGANZA - "With A Little Help From My Friends"

0:00Welcome to Billy Allen's celebration party. The show that celebrates over 35 years of Billy's volleyball career. Today's hosts are Billy's boss Andrew Fuller. You are there. Billy, welcome to the show. Guys, thanks for having me. What a surprise. Andrew, do you remember how to podcast? Old Dusty Cobb was off. Yeah, it's probably been a while since we've had Andrew on, but good to be back. I didn't want to miss this one. No, I'll miss all the unforgettable guests, but not this one. The motor learning scientist, he is out. But Billy Allen's that retirement party. We need to trip down memory lane here. Definitely. So Billy, you have decided to retire, call it a career. Most people know that you're a huge Bob Dylan fan and he's been on an endless tour. He's your idol.

1:00He's not wrapping it up. Why are you wrapping it up? He's playing a wrench. What are you doing? Yeah. I mean, his voice is still pristine. My jump isn't what he used to be. Just like your line shot, pristine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I feel like the last five years or so I've been saying, oh, this is probably it. I'm done. And then I somehow do a little bit better than I expected and have points still and enjoy it and still feel like I get side out. But it's been a couple years of putting in the minimum amount of training and just showing up the tournaments. And I chose to coach our boys UAT national team this year and with a couple of big tournaments, world championships and stuff, it kind of stopped me from playing some pro tournaments and it just made more sense at this point to do this coaching route. It's something I can get better at every day where on the beach side, I was just hanging on. So yeah, I just feel like it was time, the state of the ABP.

2:02Once you make enough, you step to step aside. Once you've made the millions. How does it feel to make that decision? It sounds like you've thought about it for a while and now you've decided and you've taken the break. What does it feel like? You know, it was hard for like a week. I was kind of like, I was pretty down because I was like, I guess this is it. It's been like the biggest part of my identity since, I guess, yeah, since I was like my son's age, 10 or so. And I think there was part of me that always was like, just how far can I stretch it? It felt good to show up and be in your 40s and still be beating people that are trying to go at the Olympics and just that competitive part and like just the, yeah, being around a lot of friends through tournaments and fans and it just, yeah, I really enjoyed that experience. It was really hard. And then once it kind of called a quits, it kind of coincided with Manhattan happening and it was really weird to be on the outside.

3:03And I mean, it almost felt like sad that like this thing I had thought was like the most important thing in the world. Now it's kind of like, yeah, and it's just volleyball tournament. And I guess I had the same thing when I stopped, you know, playing college. I stopped following it and something that felt like, again, the most important thing my life, the thing I was chasing all of a sudden was just like, just another little tournament. I think it's good and bad. I think it's easier to let go now. And I think, you know, like before if I'd be missing out, maybe I'd be jealous of who's winning and who's doing that kind of stuff. Now it's just like, oh, I'm just on the different challenges. So after a week, I kind of got over it. Now I'm feeling okay. 40 years of playing in one week here. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. Makes sense. Billy gets a result quickly. Yeah. How old were you when you first played a tournament with your dad? 10. So I grew up, he, my parents played in a volleyball league in Fawbrook and I grew up, you know, being around that and bumping the ball with my parents

4:05and playing on the weekends. And then we played in a grass tournament when I was 10. So about catches age and we won it. And yeah, since then I've been playing nonstop. Really. So Billy, who were you more like as a player? John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Slice alone. Who, okay, let me think about this. Part of the question, Sir Coacher brings out. Yeah. Definitely not Lennon. He was old to radical and I think Bob's kind of reclusive so a little quieter, not as loud. So that's just alone is kind of a self-made man. You know, he wrote his own script, make himself famous, bet on himself. August Lai, I like the idea of like he starts off every movie, not very good. And there's a training montage where he kind of builds up his skills and then by the end he can like barely make it through. And it's that I'll take the best of his to learn. Yeah. Good choice. And a good six man team. Yeah. How's the podcast been helpful or maybe harmful

5:06in your, your plan career? Yeah, we talk about how Coacher brings out has been our biggest learning vehicle for coaching, but I mean, it's still so helpful as a player, especially topic dependent. If we had a sports side guy on mental performance, I was like all in taking ideas, I'm gonna use like this afternoon of practice. I really dove into that stuff. I think as a beach volleyball player, a lot of times you don't have a coach and you are kind of your own coach and general manager. And so it's easy just to show up and play, but I think taking practice ideas definitely applied. I think it definitely helped there. Some of the topics on like recruiting, I didn't really care as much about, I would kind of ignore, but definitely never heard it. No, this was pretty, pretty Stanford. Pretty Stanford. But yeah, no, anything I thought that could be used towards my game, designing practice, mental skills. Is there specific guests that stand out, we're like, oh, I had that made an impact or I took that into my next practice

6:07or episodes that come to mind and I'm putting you on the spot there. I mean, anytime we have Bernie on was great. I remember there was a, who's the guy that is Lucas? Oh yeah, Jayden. Jayden, Lucas Jayden. I remember I'm talking about like I'm having a big voice and a small voice as far as like who's gonna step up. Yeah, like just little things like that. Definitely took with me. My practices, if you looked at it when I started playing to like the end, have definitely been on the same journey as our podcast. And I think if you, they definitely got more representative, more constraint led. I think that's something that's so cool about ecological too, is that if a coach has maybe less voice of practice telling you explicitly what to do. As a player, you can kind of create your own learning environments and create your own constraints. If you're not reliant on just feedback non-stop. And I think the feedback helps and I think there's a lot of stuff there that's important. But it does give you another avenue to kind of, you know, to learn is to kind of give yourself

7:08some own your own challenges and problems. So I think the course of my career, my practices look very different the last year or so than they did at first. And I think that's a direct result of what I've learned on the podcast. Billy, you are known for being very, very humble, at least publicly, you know. I know that's the thing. I know that's what I like. Okay. But looking back, what are some of the things that you're most proud of in your time as a player? Yeah. Perseverance. I didn't, I didn't ever think I was going to play in college at a D1 level. I didn't ever think I was going to play professionally, let alone play for this long and make a career out of it. There are so many players, I don't think it's me, humble, I think there are so many players when I started that were as good if not way better than me, way more athletic. I didn't win in tournament until 2018, 2017, 2017.

8:10I started playing 2004, qualified with Tramley. So that's like, I mean, a lot of people would say that's a long time of failure, but I never looked at it that way. Maybe it's to my discredit, but I didn't think through all those years, like, oh, I should be winning, I should be winning. Oh, it was just like, oh, I got to get better. And I think just a lot of players that I started with quit and stopped playing in that time span and I'm glad I didn't, I'm glad I stuck with it. Sorry, we have a special guest joining us. So I'm gonna cut you off. I gotta cut you off their billy. Yeah, so we've got you off. But yeah, you talked about not winning in tournament, I think you won a tournament with this special guest. Let me do a quick intro. So at 10 years old, John Lennon was drawing cartoons in primary school and was still about five years away if you're getting his first guitar, but at 10, Billy Allen had already played his first beach volleyball tournament. So Grass Tournament with his dad or guest here, Bill Allen.

9:16Bill, thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. Could you give us a favorite Billy Allen story? Well, related to volleyball, it's gotta be the San Francisco tournament against Pretty and Santos in the semi finals. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Where Stafford got injured, they kind of gave away the second game, but it was 22 or 22, 20, I think. They went into the third and Billy started blocking and kind of taken over at the end of that match and it just was really fun to watch. That's was awesome at my dad. I would come back from club tournaments and he'd be like, you know, like when number 17, at 17, 13 did this. He has like such a memory for every moment, right? Yeah, it's all blanks out for me. I remember that it was when there was free scoring. Yep. And yeah, Billy goes to the net

10:17and makes a couple like dive moves, I think I'm read on Ricardo, like two gold medal winning players and that was incredible. Everybody goes down like 1410 and came back, something like that. Yeah. Pretty neat. The freeze was awesome for Billy. I call him wheels. He'll always be wheels in our family. But also the walkaway dig was awesome against the boomers. That was kind of a Billy's mock, mock celebrations under the net. He was infamous for not celebrating, but every once in a while he'd kind of show his colors and celebrate a little bit. I think the walkaway dig was probably the best. There's a great video Billy made with that one. Is the celebration, is that something he was just naturally like when you played with him, or did you tell him just to play seriously as a 10 year old or did you have the influence? If it was just to be opposite of me,

11:19I was an aggressive kind of an A-hole, you know? And he was, I don't know, he was afraid to express himself, I think. And I just kind of think it carried through, you know, where he's just a gentleman on the court. You know, he doesn't cause anybody to get upset at him. Doesn't, he doesn't say anything about a bad call. He just kind of goes on in place, you know? It's got a lot of respect that way. I have so many questions. So like, what was Billy like when he first started playing? Like was he just really fired up on it? And, or did you have to drag him into the sport? No, he had no choice. You know, from he was born, you know, he was on the beach, you know, in a play pen or a swing or something, watching, you know, his mom and me play. So I don't think he could help it. He tried basketball, you know, he's good at a lot of sports, but volleyball, you know, just,

12:20I think all three of my boys just kind of came back to that, you know, volleyball. Yeah, Billy, what do you remember about playing with your dad? Like you said, he was very aggressive. He would grunt when he hits, he'd get in, getting fights. I didn't fight. No, but I think his level of hustle, we would go play like with like a church group. And it's like, you know, seven on five or whatever. And he's diving to the bushes and like making the ball, you know, making the ball better. So that's definitely what I remember. Great jumper. And I think, I mean, while you're on your dad, like the reason I had so much success is that you guys, you know, give me a head start. I felt like, you know, I was playing from a very, very early age, whether it was bumping on the sidelines at your guys' community center events or playing at the beach with you against adults. And then I don't know if you guys know, so my parents started a club, basically just so we could play up in Northern San Diego.

13:24And then we can afford to play. They bought like matching shorts from JC pennies. Well, what was the first, first months club dues? 35 bucks a month to play just to rent the gym or whatever. So I just feel like I got it into it early. I got head start. And that's probably the biggest reason that I had success. Get playing. Yeah. I'm playing and playing at our local beach with you. And I think you were probably a sophomore in high school. And we were playing the Hawaiians Lee and, and I forget the other guys name, but they were serving you because you were weaker. And then about halfway through the game, they figured out that, you know, you had, you had already, you know, surpassed me and they started serving me. What age was that? It was kind of our oldest Billy there. I was down at the Strand in Ocean side. He was probably 16, 15 or 60. I was going through the growth spread from 5, 10, you know, six foot or something.

14:27And he would come into his own. Can you still, you still own him and push up? Right. Probably you still own billion push ups though. Those days are kind of gone too. I think we, we could have an app contest, but I think he'd win that. Yeah. What do you think? Yeah, there were some ability strengths when you watched him through the years or when you played with him. What were some of the strengths you, you noticed? What I noticed for the years was about four things. He was clean, you know, he didn't party. So he's always healthy. He could learn at every level. So he would learn the high school game. And then there were fewer people going into college. He learned the college game. Then the AVP, you know, and they'd finally found his level. And, you know, would be competitive, you know, at that level. It's just kind of learned.

15:27He was a good learner. And he was gifted, you know, you had the ball sport kind of body, you know, he had a really strong core. And he just learned a game right, you know, he didn't learn all my bad habits. You know, he learned from all his coaches. How did you, what was it like being a parent like it? Billy talked about how perseverance is kind of something that he's really proud of. And what did you see on the home front, you know, like if Billy, like how to a rough game or rough practice? Like what was he like when he got home? Like did you notice that perseverance on the home front? He would have to endure my post game talk with Bruce. You know, I try to be supportive, but, you know, try to, but he just, you know, start shaking his head after a while, you know, and pretty soon I stopped having those post game talks because it was really nothing I could add, you know.

16:29He just, he's played well or he didn't, you know, it's all up to him. You know, when he got to that level, there wasn't much that his parents could really teach him, you know. One last question, then we'll let you go. What did you, what did you coach him on the most, you know, when you were his dad is partnered growing up? Like what would you try to instill most in him? Did he get free balls? Were like hits. I think we would, we would go to the gym and practice hitting from all the different corners or sides. And there was no, there was nothing if the set was high enough that he couldn't swing at. I think that helped, but he kept the ball in play. I think that was one of the his strong points. Otherwise you get yelled at, right? Thanks. I don't know if that's true, but I did. Yeah, I did say keep the ball in and he learns that he was definitely made fewer mistakes than his opponents.

17:31Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks so much Bill for for joining us and really cool to hear. I have heard some stories. All right. All right. See you. All right. Wow, what a tree. Yeah, nice little tree. See it's going to get better, Billy. It's really. Figured out zoom. Yeah, let me see. We actually have another treat here. I don't know. These people just keep showing up. Our next guest. All right. Ty, can you hear us? I think I hear you greatly. All right. Let me, let me intro here. So at the age of 22, Ringo Star was recording Love Me Do. At the age of 22, Billy was qualifying for his first EVP with our next guest. Hi, Trambley. Hi. Thanks for joining us. Morning. What's it having me? You're there in her most of beach where you probably slept last night. I'm guessing and my favorite spot.

18:34Can you, thanks for taking the time to step away. Can you share a favorite Billy Allen story? Wow. Everything is we knew this guy Jim. He has a court like a block away from the school and. New or match completely standing. You know, that was important. Yeah, we would play a play San volleyball all afternoon on game days and show up to the games pretty sandy. And how did your coach handle that? There is nothing. He didn't know. Ty had to play. I usually just supported from the bench. This was in college. Yeah. I was trying to think of an appropriate story, but the one that for sure is the first day. Coming with my parents, they're dropping me off to the door. My meeting, my roommates, I've never met before.

19:37And I walk in and then the door closes and there's Billy hiding behind the door with a good size knife. And I just wasn't sure what I was walking into. But that was my best beach partner I ever had right there. Because he knew you were a threat to take the center position or what, why was he holding a knife behind the door? I think he was like cutting apples or something. And accidentally was like, I was coming in. He just happened to have somebody struggling with the key car. Hi, I'm so glad you told that story because I've only heard that from Billy's perspective. And I wasn't really sure what it was like with yours. It was alarming. Got intimidated. And you know, he has quite the temperament. Actually, the funniest story is, you know, I don't know how long Billy had been driving or just got that car. But we are making a last and it was a yellow, but it was kind of like uncertain whether to go quick or not. Because the car was coming, but Billy had a Batman head on the shifter.

20:39And so it would like kind of slip off. But we just had a hard time accelerating before the car came. So I'm glad we made it. But that was kind of wild. Hi, what, uh, what were Billy's strengths as a partner when you got split together or watching him as a competitor as well? Well, when I played with him, I always felt like he was holding my hand. Everything was he literally holding your hand or just Well, I needed it. Everything's just non stressful and easy and you can like, I think you can be the best version of yourself playing Billy. Also, his temperament of not being too high and too low. I struggled at times with like, wow, great kill and you get excited, but they're coming right back to you. So you need to stay consistent. So I just, I think that consistency. And then also the perseverance of things didn't come easy and then just always stayed the course never complains. Staying quiet kept working hard and then good things come. And then you can see the longevity and how it all turned out.

21:42Yeah, did you, did you see that at Northridge? You set over him to for your guys time there. I think how did you see him handle that? I mean, he's obviously a great volleyball player, a great setter, a great beach player. But for him to be, you know, second string for most of his college career, how did he, what sort of teammate was he? How did he take that on? Oh, I can tell you I would have been a diva and quit. He never complained once. He just stayed right there and he could have set for many schools. You know, did the sometimes things are political? Did the knife resurface? Oh, trying to report him to the AD. I was more in trouble. One time we got Billy in trouble because we took some furniture from another dorm. And then the cops came and only Billy was there to answer. And so he got detention with us. Yeah, sorry, Billy. He didn't want to live with us after that. Many other reasons.

22:43Billy, what was it like qualifying with Ty? That was the first time you both qualified, right? What was that experience like, especially all that you guys have been through as indoor players? So Ty and I won a bunch of triple A's in college. We played a bunch of CBAs in one and we, I think it was Ty's idea. I was always hesitant to, you know, to spend money to travel. And I think we signed up for Manhattan. It was a Huntington and we went through the bracket. I think we're the lowest seed ever to qualify at the time. Ty was just somebody that I finally found somebody that loved volleyball as much as me. I think all our indoor teammates were like, oh, they played volleyball, but we were like volleyball players. And we played as much as possible. We always been mad when Nils set his back hurt and couldn't train with us. So it was just awesome being on the court with him. Somebody just is passionate. And if you ever get to hit Ty, Tramley sets, you know, it's a gift. So yeah, that's a good part of it. Unfortunately, I get served. So we qualify in Huntington.

23:44It's kind of surprise, at least to me. And the next tournament in Manhattan, we played again together. And I show up with like full, cooler full of snacks. I'm Braille ready for a whole day and we lost first round. I can't get all back up to the car. And that was the end of the partnership. Now, the heat should have got rid of me. You know, volleyball is very humbling. Yes, it is. Ty, what made Billy successful for so long? Well, he just, I feel like he is always good. Of course, he improved, but it's just getting those, those kind of peach partners. So we're tiny, that there's a lot. And we should deserve those top blockers and the top blockers kind of rule everything. So you got to get one that matters. He, you know, just like yourself, you guys deserve the blockers you got. I think that that's where the success, I can give you guys doll hudder for 100 tournaments.

24:45And I think things would be good. Billy, Billy, just like, I don't think he ages. He's like D aging. He just stays right there. He still could be playing. I wish he was there at NBO. It was kind of sad not having him there. Yeah, that's probably the first one you haven't played in how long, Gully. A long time. Stafford, I miss one. We're traveling internationally, but other than that since, yeah, 2005 or so, 2005 was the first one. And the one that you guys qualified for was for Mosah. Huntington 2004. Yeah. And then we Rosie and Larry and they just smashed us. Oh, here. Let's say hi to Rosie. Rosie. That's Billy. It's Billy Allen and Mayor. Billy Allen was that spike. I saw her second, too. Andrew, Andrew Fuller. Andrew Fuller. They're both balled. Yeah, they're both balled. We're doing Billy's like a retirement thing here. Rosie, you were a first main draw match.

25:48What a, we were tired from playing. Yeah, we're time to allow our match where you buried us. I don't believe he's retired. He's going to get a call. He's going to come out. We're bringing out Billy. Deal. That's a match. Yeah, you were late. Yeah, we're late. Yeah, that was unfortunate. Better if you didn't show up. That's gonna hope stuff. Yeah. Nice. Well, Ty, we got one minute left. Any last memories playing against Billy, playing with Billy? I think my, I think my favorite memory of all of us was kind of good. And winning the, the winners final. And even though we lost it, like there was a time where they played sweet Caroline. In the final that it was just so rad. And then all of us. And you know, we kind of look like an underdog team for sure. That was cool. The six man, that's right. So we had nails and Andrew. Brady. Billy Brady. All of us playing and we had no business getting to where we got.

26:48And we somehow did. That was pretty fun. That was super cool. That was great. Billy any any last thoughts on Ty before we let him go? Ty Ty's the best. Anybody around him just, like just loves volleyball more. He's so passionate. I love spending time with him in Mexico. All those volleyball vacations. It's a chance to get reunion. So looking forward to seeing you on the beach sometime. Yeah, me too. Thank you so much. Love you guys. Thanks. I can enjoy your day. Thank you. Thanks for having me. See you time. You guys really planned this out. This is all random. Yeah, I don't know how these people got the zoom link. Yeah. It's weird. It's just kind of. I guess people got the link somehow and heard about the retirement. Oh, we got it. Wow. There's someone else here. Hopping in. We have Mr. AJ Maholic. Let's go. Andrew's going to introduce you. AJ. Yeah. So when Bob Dylan was 25,

27:51he had made blonde on blonde. Billy Allen made 14 AVP tournament appearances in one season with AJ Maholic. We'll let the listeners decide who had the stronger age 25 year. Wow, there's 14 tournaments back then. That was nice. But also there were 14 AVPs and 1000 CBBAs that you played. The page of AJ Maholic. Thanks, man. Happy to be here. I'm pretty happy to make this list at all actually. But I guess I'm one of the top partners here on your list of people you played with. Oh, yeah. You're one of the first. AJ, let's get right into it. What's a favorite Billy Allen story? Well, first of all, that year that we had all those qualifications, I think Adam Jewel called us the Phil and Todd of the Qualifier. The weirdest like backhanded compliment I've had in my life. But yeah, I had a bunch because we traveled a lot. We did a lot of different stuff, not just volleyball because we created kind of good.

28:54And I think all the really great memories were there, you know, managing the creative genius of Dan Madden. And doing all that cool stuff, traveling to non-voiable events. But I have like weird, funny memories of like, I was pretty into eating healthy. So I like going to Whole Foods and going, it was like, I'm not spending money here. So he would just like get a little thing and put like leaves of spinach in it. He's walking around eating spinach because it's all I could afford to hold. They weigh it and that's the pretty light, you know? Yeah, that's right. He was doing the math. Yeah. He would eat it before they weighed it. He would eat it before they weighed it too. Yeah, let's see. So the other thing that was funny with Billy was, the way I started putting up Billy was, I ran into him in the final of a Midhatton Beach CBBA or something. I think it was me and Kevin. And we're just like, who are these kids? Like, we're just going to crush them.

29:54And like, the game was really hard. And we're like, what the heck? Who are these guys? And then like a few tournaments later, I think, me and Chad, Mauri played Billy and John Mesco. And they'd be this early in the tournament. I think we ended up being in the final. But it's just like, I started recognizing this sort of like relentless sort of steadiness and this kid that just kept trying to win. And like, was deceptively really good at offense. And he wasn't flashy. We're just kind of like what defined Billy early on. Because he would always complain that like, nobody knew who he was. They'd call them AJ's partner. I don't think the whole first year or something. But yeah, so I think those are some of my, uh, my main memories. AJ, you keep referring to Billy as a kid. How much older are you? Yeah, so when I picked him up, he was 25. How old are you now, Billy? 44. 44. So I'm six years older. I just turned 50. I love your six years older, calling him a child.

30:54It feels like you're right. When you're when you're first playing and as you first come into the game, you want that mentor. You want someone who's been through it who knows how to find the deal at Whole Foods or knows how to travel travel and book a flight or like what tournaments we should go to. Billy, how was AJ instrumental in your career? Yeah, I mean, he was, he was professional. And I think a lot of my growth as a player was playing with somebody that like, knew what they were doing and like, um, whether it was going internationally with somebody that had done that before or playing with AJ, it was just like, first, I don't think I traveled outside of California because there's two expensive, um, but AJ's like, oh, these are the tournaments we're signing up for and playing. I'm like, okay, like I'm kind of just thought along. Um, hopefully found somewhere cheap to stay. Um, I think just the way he approached practice, he, he got a coach. She got Alzena out right away. Um, I think it just like did stuff like obviously the way he ate the way he trained. He just did stuff on a like a professional level rather than just rolling up to the beach and playing

31:58like I had before. Awesome. He showed you the ropes. I want to go back to kind of good. I feel like people still know what it is, but if people are listening and didn't catch onto that viral sensation, what, what was kind of good and tell us more about just that experience for you both. Yes, so we, um, so Billy has this fascination with making films and he would pitch all these ideas to me and my roommate, Dan Madden, who ended up being Danny kind of. Um, and we were like, those ideas are all done. I said, for those ones, which was to make a fake volleyball recruiting video and we're like, oh, yeah, we're definitely doing that. And I don't know, like everything just kind of fell into place because Dan basically was the character that Billy invented. And it just kind of blew up and we did a whole bunch of stuff with it. We ran tournaments. We did all these, uh, I don't know. It was like, we were the first influencers on YouTube for volleyball before such a thing even existed. And then we folded it all up before we could have made any money on it.

33:01I, Billy, I mean, you did it a lot longer than I did and, uh, I don't know, maybe you have more thoughts on it. Yeah, I know. I think, uh, it's easy to have ideas. It's hard to like actually execute them. I think everybody's got like, oh, I can write a book. I have a good idea. But just like the synergy of being around AJ and Dan and like, like staying at your edges is a department all the time. It's just like, that's what we were doing. And how crazy was that like, I know you had a job. You're an engineer. But like, it seemed like all day we were just either playing volleyball or goofing around. And I think just having that like that crew, um, whether you said an idea was stupid or not, we just like got stuck. We just did stuff. You need an editor too. It's good to have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was, uh, that was kind of, we kind of had pretty clear roles. Like I was the one who just like operations was like, all right, we're getting a gym. We're going to go do those. Here's the camera and you just being sure it happened. Yeah, I would have stopped at like this telling this funny story and that was it. But anyway, yeah, if anyone wants to go look, I think kind of good.com redirects you to the first

34:04of the videos and you can kind of just go through and see if it's funny or not. I don't know. It was funny then. I've gone back with my, my daughter and she loves them. She thinks they're the best and she'll ask for more. I think everyone actually loves the alphabet song of the volleyball. I just watched that like two weeks ago and I was just dying laughing as I can't believe we made this. Did it's me? I'm just, we weren't going to put it out because you thought it was too stupid. Well, AJ, one more question that we'll, we'll let you go. I know you're, we pulled you away from work. What would you say is made Billy so successful for, for so long in the court? Yeah, so I think I'll go back to that kind of like steadiness thing, but I think, I actually think it's that he's like humble and it's kind of a weird thing to say because you have to have this, this sort of mentality of like I, I think I'm going to win and you just have to think you're going to win to win. Like I just believe that like when I coach it, that's like one of the things I tell my players, like you know, don't be arrogant and overconfident, but like you have to believe that you can make a play that's going to be successful here.

35:05But the other side, because that can get your trouble because you could be arrogant and you know, underestimate opponent or try to do things that are wild, but Billy's just like really steady because of it. And I think the thing that humbleness can give you is like it grounds you in reality and that's like where you can really make powerful decisions. And so I just, that's just the way I think about Billy as a player. He's just like steady, he's like not flashy. People don't even know his name sometimes. But like if a play comes to him, you know, he's just, he's really like a terminator. Like he's just going to execute and take advantage of it. And that's what professionals do. Like professionals don't let you give them a free ball and not make you pay for it. And I think if you play that way for a long time, I mean, this is what coaches look for when they say consistency, we won't consistency over flashiness. Because consistency wins games. The teams that serve in the most and make the fewest errors tend to win most. And not saying that Billy isn't capable of making fantastic plays, or like Dan says, he can't dive. But yeah, I think I think that's the thing that, I think that I kind of admired the most.

36:06And like when I asked him to play, it was because of that. I was like, this kid's just like relentless. Like we're just keep heading and heading and heading and keeping things like, can you just stop? Yeah, yeah, kind of right on that edge of the humbleness, but with real competitiveness, there's competitive fire in there. Yeah, never show we or about him. It was just about playing good volleyball. Yeah, and he always had this sort of like self-deprecating humor about it, you know, that the videos of like walking away from explosions and stuff are hilarious. I'm editing better. Well, AJ, we appreciate you spending the time getting away from work and telling some great stories. So thanks for doing this. Yeah, thanks. I can't wait to hear everyone else's stories, too. Thanks, AJ. All right, AJ, what a guy. Looks like you want to guess who's next, Billy? What do you want to know? Who would you think would come next? Stafford. Brady. Oh my god. Fuller has an introductory for Brady Halverson here. Okay, so at 27,

37:10George Harrison and Paul McCartney were basically finished being the Beatles in the Beatles. At 27, Billy Allen was in the thick of his Brady Halverson era, and he had another 17 years of professional beach volleyball ahead of him still. Let's welcome Brady Halverson. You played 17 years beyond 27? That's crazy. Yeah, it doesn't sound right. It doesn't. I can see the gray in your beard. Let's get into what, give us one of your best stories. Billy Allen's story? Mm-hmm. Sure, too. Sure. They're both you, too. Yeah, all right, they're both sure, too. They're both going to involve hot tubs. One of them's going to be related to volleyball once not. So, Willie and I played kind of early, we were in the qualifiers together. It was kind of our transition from qualifier to full-time professional.

38:16We were kind of our partnership for becoming, I feel like becoming full-time pros. But we also had our ups and downs. We probably broke up four times, maybe. Maybe five? I don't know. There was one time we broke up. We were, Billy is like, hey, can I come over and hang out for a little bit? And I was like, yeah, sure, come on over. So, I got this, I was going to go to the apartment or down the beach at the time. And so, I get this great pool, great hot tub, and it comes over and it be sit down or hanging out. And I'm just like, yeah, just chilling. And he's like, hey, Brady, I want you to know that Matt Furberinger asked me to be his partner. And I'm really considering it. And I'm like, okay, that's awesome, Matt Furberinger is great. And then we kind of just sat there and I was just waiting for him to continue.

39:19And it was just kind of, you know, bubbles were on and we were looking around. And it's just kind of waiting for the next thing. And Billy's like, well, that means I'm not going to play with you though. And I'm like, well, yeah, I think that's how it works. And it just was a, you know, a great breakup story of hot tub. Come over and hang out, get the bubbles. And how much longer did you guys stay in the hot tub after he dropped it? It was an awkward like eight minutes. Finally he's sitting there. He's like, well, see you later. No, that was one of the break. I think I wrote a blog on that one. But the other story I want to tell is in a different hot tub, it was in front of our apartment complex. It was kind of the origination of the creative club. I remember we were all sitting there and

40:20Billy's like, you know, it'd be kind of cool. What if we like, you know, had a group of people? And we just would form these competitions that were artistic. And it's like, maybe we could do like drawing competition, seeing competition, you know, we can actually make a movie. And it was kind of the birthplace of the creative club, which all four of us have been in for the last 20 years. It seems like we're proud members. Proud members of that creative club, I'm sure you've talked about it quite a few times on your podcast, but never once. Never once. Okay. Well, you should share some of the artwork that was been put out in the world. I saw songs, the movies, the cereal boxes. And so, you know, that was important because that kind of established that really

41:21something that was outside of volleyball that we could all do together, that we could all be, you know, connected to. And I thought that was pretty cool that Billy's brainchild that. And it's been amazing. It's been like a big, big part of my life for the last 20 years. Billy brings people together. He's got ideas and he puts them out there and it goes. And it lives beyond that. We still, the nine of us in the creative club or our families are connected. Our kids are connected. We've stayed together. I think because of Billy's silly ideas. I'm glad he brought that up. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing. So I, and then obviously he writes playing books the past, I don't know, four months or so. I've been reading good blood with my son at night. And so we've been reading together before he goes to bed and he's way into all the characters. And he wants to, I don't know if you talk about good blood on this one at all, but,

42:24you know, a lot of his artistic work has been celebrated in our house as well, which is cool. Pretty impressive guy. What would you say going back to the volleyball side? What are some of his strengths as a beach player as a partner? Yeah. So I've always thought that Billy's best skill is his transition side-out game. You know, it was always like, I was always impressed when he could basically side-out, side-out almost every ball in transition, whether it was tight, whether it was off, whether it was, you know, whatever the set was. And he didn't get to really side-out in serve or see much when we were playing together. You know, so we didn't really see that. And obviously people didn't serve, they'd serve me. And, you know, I ruined my body for that for this guy here. Taking every serve, jump-serving, sprinting up the net, max blocking, all that good stuff.

43:30But every time he did get the opportunity to actually transition and hit the ball, I was always, I think that's one of his most impressive skills that I think is transition stacking and side-out. Pretty good, the defender. Brady, you sacrifice so much for Billy. I gave him a lot. And you mentioned how he could just hit such a variety of sets. Did you ever kind of like test that theory and maybe, you know, spray a set a little bit more off? I would have said it. I'd say like 80% of my sets were in the perfect spot, but just for fun, Z's, I would spray a couple sets here and there and just see what I could do with it. And he managed to, yeah, it was pleasing. A lot of people asked it. For Brady, he had to play with me before I was hand-setting. So we had to deal with all kinds of bump-setting powder. That explains the body. Yeah, a few balls. We have about three minutes left.

44:37Do you have any one last story you want to share? I can share one. I want to go the other way. I can really share one about Brady. Yeah. My dad talked about that win in San Francisco, but Brady is part of like one of my most famous memories of all time, which was Santa Barbara at the end of the day on Saturday. Like last court going on, we're playing Phil Dell, Houser and Sean Rosenthal. And Rosie is full body cramping and still somehow siding out. And it's just this long match that went on and on and on. And then finally, we win Brady serves Phil, pulls on an open net and shallow sand, somehow like digs it off as like platter and puts it away. And then it was like the best win I've ever had. We were so excited. We went and I had this barbeque that night. It was like we made it Sunday. We're going to the semi finals. And then Brady wakes up and he can't even stand in the story now.

45:46And we went from like peak to like pretty rough Sunday. But uh, and was it the next day or in the hot tub again or the summer? Yeah, there's always those. And we go through the uh ups and downs Billy's always trying to get not to find a new, you know, no, no, that was a good win. That was fine. That was probably my most memorable one. That was a memorable one. Well, last question. What were some of Billy's strengths? What made him so good for so long? Well, you know, he's, I've always said that Billy's not uh, he's smooth, right? He doesn't really put a lot of like, um, he's, he's fast, he's strong, he jumps high, but it's, it's not the most like, um, I guess fast twitch type action, which I think has preserved his body a bit more than others, because he, he doesn't have to put that stress that um, for some certain parts of his body. So I think that's helped out.

46:48Being smooth, I think has helped him, um, have a long career. I think you nailed it. Um, if you had been less fast twitch, you would have played way longer, right? Way longer. Well, Brady, thank you for taking some time away from work and talking about Billy and telling some great stories. So that's great. That's great. Oh, thanks guys. Thank you, thanks for your time. Thanks. How are we doing, Billy? Good stories. Wow. I thought I was going to be talking to John for like 15 minutes. You didn't know what you're in for, huh? What, uh, what stood out so far? I'm just surprised those guys followed the game after they were done to have any, cool of how I still played. Um, no, it was cool to hear from all those experiences. Um, I, I found the right partners, um, good group of gentlemen. Fuller had a great name for this episode. I don't think we've said it yet. What was the, the name we're going to call this episode? Oh, uh, with a little help from my friends. As you can see, there's a, uh, a Beatles theme running through it. Uh, I believe our next guest

47:52might be running a little late. So we'll, we'll turn the mic back on you. What about, what would you have done differently? What are the things you looking back like? I wish I would have, um, this differently or any regrets. Yeah, I think a lot of times people say no regrets. I wouldn't have changed anything. Um, and I, you know, I definitely would have done so differently if I could do it again, um, whether it's practice a little differently, whether it's, uh, not worry so much about the money side and that'll all work out and just play a little looser. I think there's, you know, always little things you do differently, right? If you could do it again, I look back on some of the advice that some of the older pros gave me when I was younger. And I think that's always stuck with me, whether it's Canyon Seaman, kind of saying something or anybody that took the time out. So I think, uh, I tried to do that a little bit, but I would have taken a little more time to be encouraging of some of the younger players too. Between the ages of 34 and 35, Paul McCartney had already finished the Beatles and he was in his second act with wings. Billy Allen was doing basically the volleyball version. He had already played with Brady Halverson,

48:56AJ Maholic, Trevor Krab, Brad Keenan and others. And then he started his Stafford Slick era. Stafford is Billy's second act that produced some of his biggest hits. Some more, the Beatles didn't make it to age 30 together. Billy Allen and Stafford Slick made it to ninth in the world when Billy was 37. Stafford Slick, welcome. Stafford, I love it. Thanks for taking the time. Will you give us a favorite Billy Allen story? Yeah. Uh, I think one of my favorite off the court Billy Allen stories, if I can be succinct, um, we were in Latvia in the midst of our, um, run in 2019 and we were traveling all over the world. Billy was begrudgingly walking behind me, uh, as I was trying to lead him on and I thought it'd be a good idea to ground ourselves and go for a hike when we got to Latvia. I was looking for like open water, like a lake, uh, and the ocean was right there, but that was too easy. So, uh, we

49:59walked through a neighborhood and I had spotted a lake or a body of water on Google maps. Um, and being from the Midwest, I was like, all right, let's just go, let's go, let's go for a little nature walk. And there were no trails and Billy and I ended up trudging through the woods for about, I don't know, 45 minutes. Maybe, maybe an hour. Wait too long. And I look back at one point and Billy is just pissed and I don't see him get very riled up very often, but he had like, he was like walking through spider webs and pulling mosquitoes off his neck and he ended up with five or six like, welts on his neck by the end of it. And we never got to the lake because I finally turned around. It was just like, you know what? This is not great for Billy. So I was having a great time, but uh, yeah, he, he just, he was willing. He was a willing participant until it got a little dicey. So until he wasn't, I wasn't. I love how he wasn't. And then, and then he was not at all. Like, what was it? I love how a lot of the stories we've heard have been off the court. How,

51:04you know, we, we think so much of being a professional athlete is the stuff that we did, but how the big memories are these things that you do together and these crazy experiences you have. It's cool to hear. Well, just continuing on with that, I think it was super special to share that chapter of my life with Billy because at that time, like, we were both new dads and we had new kiddos that were probably two-ish years old at that point in time. And so we were kind of going through the throws of learning how to be dads, learning how to travel, learning how to be good husbands when we got back home and all those things. So that was just kind of a unique special time for us to be playing sports together and just kind of live and life together. It was really cool. Yeah, it seems like you guys had a connection. You know, sometimes you're with an older partner and you're the young partner kind of watching them or the vice versa, but that you guys were going

52:04through it together that I think you guys made each other better. It seemed like that's what you guys played so well for so long together. Billy, do you have a Stafford memory story that stands out to you? I mean, so many. Like Stafford said, I mean, I had way more dates with Stafford than my wife that year eating out and just spending time together in hotel rooms and stuff. I think Stafford was a great balance for me because he won, like he mentioned, he's pretty adventurous. I might have just stayed in the hotel on foam roll or something on all those trips. Actually, who am I kidding? I have a new foam roll, but I was staying in the hotel. I don't know. I was trying to think about it. I wouldn't have got spider bites. But then I think also on the court, I think he was always pushing us to run different sets and try different things and he was pretty adventurous and yeah, just I think where I might have been on the more half-self-doubtside, Stafford was way more like Gungho aggressive and go for. I think that was a good balance because we're like peanut butter and jelly. What were some of Billy's

53:10strengths as a partner? Strengths of the partner. I think any time I talked to, so after I finished playing, like I was talking with Andy Bonesh, I think played with Billy for a while or not I think. I know, but led in Paul Lottman too and I think one of the things that I said any time I talked to those guys in the midst of it was just like Billy's jumping into a warm pool on the court. You just get in and you're immediately comfortable. You kind of have this, I don't know, everything feels fluid and smooth and crisp and like but very little pressure. Sometimes you jump on the court with a partner and it's like, oh, I got to perform. And there's almost this threat state that you enter versus Billy was just like, man, this feels good. This just feels right. And so I think that as you saw throughout, Billy's multiple decade career, just guys that were readily available to

54:11just jump in. And I think Billy provided for me specifically just a steady, stable foundation for us as a team. So like I would kind of ride the highs and then I would start to dip a little bit when the lows would hit, but Billy would kind of be there to bring us back to baseline. And I think just another description was just Billy's game. It's just timeless. Like it's very clean. It's very crisp. Like there can be modifications and adjustments, but like what he does, none of it tends to be super flashy, but he does it to excellence. And I think that's what was so impressive about his career is that he performed at an excellence the entire of his career and was just stable in that and didn't try to go beyond what he thought he needed to do to be successful. Well said. Could you guys tell a little bit about World Champs 2019,

55:12what that experience was like? I believe it was, it was the first World Champs for both of you. And both of you were 30, I don't know how old you were at that point, 35 maybe. That was 34. Yeah. So yeah. And just yeah, I guess how it went. I mean, you get this opportunity. You could you could easily blow it and just yeah, I guess going through some of the memories from that. I would say like we were lucky to get there. We qualified by going to in Orsaca and half playing in in Orsaca. And then like we were surprised to get the bid to go. Like we ended up getting another American team. And I think we just like we just see the opportunity. This is the first time we had like a full staff as far as mental skills coach that we saw all the time. We had John traveling with us, sleeping on a camping mat. We'd practice in between matches. We scouted. We kind of just did everything we could to be as good as possible. I thought we just

56:13got the most out of the trip and try to be as prepared as possible. And that didn't mean it was easy. And there was times where we know the nerds were there and talked about wanting to get stabbed. But we competed and we did way better than expected. Yeah, beat number two team in the world. Yeah, I think the special I think Billy, I think you had a head on like the special part about the trip was just like the team feel to it. Yeah, my memories of that. I got to coach you guys for that. That trip. And I think the same just your guys is. Willingness to do everything it took to be your best to meet with Peter Haberl every day to put that time in to do. I mean, I remember some of the warm-up sessions. I was just like throttling. I got serving so tough and like nothing felt easy or you didn't want the easy way out with anything. Like you guys are going to put everything you had into the opportunity. Which I think you did with everything. But it was and what was so cool to see it all pay off like to go beat Russia.

57:15And like to play the way you guys played in so many of those matches. It felt that much more fulfilling. It was like, yeah, like you guys earned this thing. Like you went you went all in and you played at such a high level. So that was okay. Yeah, I remember one of those warm-ups in particular was before the Russia match where I left that warm-up more frustrated than I've been with volleyball for a while. And it was funny because yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's great coaching. But again, I think that was like if it were Billy and I doing our own warm-up, we had our own system, we had our own process when you weren't there with us at tournaments. But you pushed us and like created more of that energy that we needed probably to like push us over the edge. We got smoked that first set 2112 and then we came back in one than three. So I think yeah, and just having that collective, having that unifying experience of USA volleyball, all of that kind of came to fruition. And like, I mean, yes, we beat the number two team in the world. But we did that in the playoffs of World Champs on the 4th of July.

58:18Like it was just like this really cool poetic sort of experience. It was rad. And then I choked and threw a ball, slammed onto ball against Nikolai Lupa. So it's against the quarter finals in the third. But we took, I mean, we took how many top teams in the world to three and won a couple of those. Like we took Alisson and Avro to three as well. Like we had a tough pool and we came out second. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cool to be playing our best volleyball on that stage. Totally. Speaking of stage on that trip, we did go to a concert. As soon as we lost, we invented, you know, adventurous came back up again. Yeah. Yeah. Bob Dylan. What did you see, Billy? What did we see? What was the concert like for you? So Bobby D was great. I was a little worried that you guys would be bored because we're good sports. I think I watched you more than I watched Dylan. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was a fun.

59:19Yeah, I mean, what a special, what a special ribbon to tie on to that trip was Bob Dylan concert. Like in Hamburg, Germany, like of all places, what a wild, what a wild experience. That's super cool. Yeah. It all, it all came together. I have a question. You know, it's come up, Billy, that you had some reluctance to travel internationally. And for whatever the reasons were, like whether it's costly, or if there is a belief factor, like, do I belong there? And if you guys can just shed some light on what that was like to like kind of like take that step to going overseas and playing FIVB. Yeah, I think, I mean, for many reasons, I mean, it's, yeah, it's costly. It's really hard. I think when I was first playing, I thought only, you know, feeling taught, go to those things.

1:00:22And I think, I think Stafford, like, won the Olympics. And that was, I was always kind of like, I just want to play good volleyball. We'll see where I end up where Stafford was a little bit more, like, had a clear, clear vision and a mission. And I think he propelled us on that road. Like, this is what we're going to do. So I think I've been really dependent on partners as far as that in a lot of ways. I think for sure, Stafford led that charge. I didn't have my eyes set on that stage as much. I had to lie to Sean Scott and say I did in order to get the funding. In our next guest, Sean Scott. But no, I mean, obviously, like, if you talk about regrets, like, I would have for sure regretted not going to all those trips and not going for it. And it easily could have been like, oh, I was a good AVP player. And that was it. So I really grateful for Stafford and all my partners that pushed me or encouraged me. With a little help from my friends. That's been cool to see observing all this. Just how Billy's brought one aspect to the partnership. And our partners have brought out like the best in you. And you can see the ones that clicked. I mean, I think this was one of the partnerships in your career.

1:01:25That was the most successful for the longest period of time. And you can see why. Like, you guys balance each other in a really productive way. Well, Stafford, we appreciate you taking the time. Any parting words before we let you go? I'm trying to think of a Beatles related. Departure. But, uh, no, well, Johnny, I like that. Just a little help my friends. Like, I think this experience would have been far more challenging. Had it been with someone that I didn't enjoy being around. And Billy, you're just a great man. And to watch you struggle with like, trying to understand what the heck I was doing, and where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there. But to be supportive in the midst of that. Like, I feel like it took us both to a better place than I think either one of us maybe have anticipated. And so, um, and it was just really cool in general to just watch you not only go through

1:02:26volleyball and go through life and being a husband and being a father, but also like writing your book and like finishing that, like on the road and going through that whole process. Man, like you were, you were going through so much at that time and exploring so many things in an adventurous way. So I think you're more adventurous than maybe you lead on. But just, yeah, I appreciate it all that time with you, bud. That was great. Well, thanks, Stafford. Great seeing you. Thanks for the time. We'll see you. Hey, gentlemen. Always pleasure. See you guys. Yep. Stafford's lick. All right. We have another partner showed up. I somehow got this link again. See the pros. It's a promise. It's coming along. Billy Allen. How you been doing, man? Mr. Matt Ross. Are you still playing? Between games, I had to step away from my co-ed women's net height standing volley to Wow. Okay, homage to the one and only Billy Allen and the esteemed privilege that I've been granted to join

1:03:27this Billy Allen retirement call. So Andrew, John, man, thank you for allowing me to join. Let me give a little intro. When Bob Dylan was 30, he got to do the soundtrack for Billy the Kid. When Billy Allen was 30, Matt Prosser had Billy Allen. That's it. That's it, Matt. Wow. He's Andrew. That's a deep Andrew and appreciate that insight. Also, I don't really know how to follow that up. Billy, I was reviewing your BVB info profile page this morning trying to do some homework before this call. And I think it's a typo, but it said your first tournament was in 2004. I mean, that means that you had a 22-year professional beach volleyball career. No typo on that. That's correct. That's legit. No, Joe. I didn't see what place you finished in that first tournament, but that's not important.

1:04:31Right? Less important. He was in the tournament, right? Exactly. Exactly. 2004. It was a long time ago. That is. And that's why we're doing three hours of meeting with all his partners. There's a lot of partners. But we only selected all of his favorites. So could you give us one of your favorite Billy Allen stories? Man, I was, uh, yeah, trying to reflect back on that. Johnny, that's a great question. There's quite a few. Obviously, uh, there's a lot of six minutes in there where Magnum P.I.B. kind of good in the double final. Sorry to bring that up. There was a lot of time. Last time, the first final though. There was a lot of times where Billy beat me, uh, on tour. And so, you know, I kind of still have nightmares about that Billy, because it always seemed like you knew where I was hitting the ball before I did, which made it really tricky to play against you. But I'd have to say the top memory of playing alongside Billy Allen was making the final of the first NVL tournament in Baltimore.

1:05:32And I believe that was in 2012. We got to play on the infield of the Preakness Horse Race Track, which is one of the triple crown events. It was, uh, it was a unique experience, for sure. We, uh, we ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard against Hayden and, uh, some guy named Sean Scott. And, uh, but, you know, it was a very fun experience to, uh, be involved in, uh, you know, its first tournament like that and then you kind of tour platform and in a very unique location too. You know, I think the horse race is going on while we were playing the final, which was, I thought you were going to say you were, you ended up on the wrong side of the track and like, couldn't get across to get into the court. But I stay away from horses. Yeah, Matt, can you give us some, uh, some thoughts on what made Billy so good for so long from your perspective as a teammate and as a competitor? Um, other than knowing where you were hitting.

1:06:33Well, yeah, that's a pretty key point because I mean, I hardly knew where I was hitting most of the time anyway. So he's already two steps ahead of me. But I think it's, it really goes to what makes him a good coach now and Andrew, you know, good job by you hiring him on your coaching staff. Um, but Billy was always like, you know, it's cliche, but like the true professional. He was always there. He was always early. He was always working hard to warm up the right way. You never doubted his diet. I've never seen him drink maybe an ounce of alcohol ever. So he was always in tip top shape. Always had, you know, legs always had great vision on the court. Was never that emotional roller coaster like, you know, other people are John Mayer. But he was always just a real solid teammate, right? I was super analytical. New opponents really well could break down the game really well. Could you see it from a strategy side that, you know,

1:07:35translates into your coaching career now and was another reason why you were able to play so long at such a high level and why so many great players wanted to play with you. I mean, you got to play with Alesson. I remember when you just started playing with him and I was just like, dude, that's amazing. You're playing with an Olympic gold medalist, Brazilian world champion and all these things. Where's the reason? And it's because everyone knows that they're going to get the best version of Billy when he plays every time whether it's practice or match, you know. So, well said, Prost. Billy, what are some memories of playing with Prost? Some of your favorite moments or the things that made you guys a good team? I always feel like I played with Prost when John was busy. You must have had something else going on at the pre-knist. But I was happy to get him when I got him. No, just, I mean, a lead block, one of the first elite blockers that I got to play with and made defense way easier to play behind him.

1:08:38And then I remember, like, first and first in this jumped out is John got married and didn't really have a best man or anything. We're like, I guess should we throw him a bachelor party? Like, how does this work? And then it was like, Prost was shocked to go a verti Reeves and his little lamest party in the world. Like, we weed grass shots. Weed grass shots and vegan dinner. Yeah, he's like, all right. Maybe left after 15 minutes. But a little different than the Long Beach parties. Slightly different than some other bachelor parties I've been to. The Macrossos, the first person to leave that party. What am I doing here? No, but it's been so cool to see Matt just how you stay around the game too with the commentating and just yeah, how invested you are in volleyball. Thanks, Billy. I wish I wish we could have played more tournaments together. We kind of played together in sort of the weird, you know, time frame of professional volleyball domestically. Kind of after the ADP had folded in, you know, 2010.

1:09:42And then those, you know, kind of weird tours. Drown a lot while I open and, you know, pro beach tours, NVLs, but it was always a pleasure. I always enjoyed playing with you. Enjoy following you playing no matter who you were playing with. As long as I wasn't playing against you, which, fortunately, it's been a while since I had to do that. So congratulations on your retirement and best of wishes at the farm with your boss over there. Matt, I have a question before you hop off. In your own coaching, is there anything that you think of like when maybe it's just really hard to get someone to be as steady as Billy? But if someone is kind of like a roller coaster and you're trying to get them to that place of being steady like Billy, is there anything that you think of or how you do that? But, you know, that's for me emotional control, you know, during competition is something that is

1:10:46is kind of learned. And for me, I didn't really learn it until later in life or later in a professional career. And it seemed like like Billy never had that issue or not issue, you know, challenge. It was always really even keeled, which was steady. And John Mayer was a lot the same. Very even, you know, didn't get lost in an air or a lost point just went on to the next one, right? Forget about the past, move forward, focus on the next play, you know, control what you can control. The past, the point that just ended is over and now you just have to move on and make sure the next contact is better than the last one and focus on that. And definitely take that into coaching now, no matter what age the athlete is, whether it's my 12 year old son or, you know, college guys or, you know, even pro guys, you have to be able to have a short memory and move on from a bad play and not get lost in the emotions and just flush it and hit the reset button.

1:11:46Love it. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's a nice fitting tribute. Billy, congratulations on having the shortest memory. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Prost, get back to your game. Thanks for taking a break from your game. Thanks for doing this. Always a pleasure to see you and good luck with long Beach State this year. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for letting me be a part of the Billy Congrats. Can't wait to see you guys sometime soon. I'll hear on the beach, all right? Thanks, Prost. All right, you guys. See you. Billy, I didn't tell you how long this was going to go for it. Yeah, catch keeps coming in. Yeah. There's, there's, there's some more left. Are you okay on time? Sure. Yeah, spring on March. Okay. We'll see if we can. Our next guest should show up any minute. Might be running a second or two late. But yeah, as you're going down memory lane here, as we're going or memories popping up, as you're seeing these partners come through. Yeah, like we're saying, it's just, it's so cool thinking of all these guys off the beach. I'm going to be able to see you guys.

1:12:47Cool thinking of all these guys off the court too. Like, I guess at my dad, my remember point 13 on the second set. But I just remember just the time training together and spending time together off the court. Yeah, a bunch of great guys. As you've seen, we're trying to do it chronologically. There was a couple of time, but it was been going. It's hard because sometimes it's off on and off again, partnership. Yeah, you changed partnerships. And then also we're, we're working with other people's schedules. But there it is. Right on time. Right on time. A minute late, just what we plan for. I had to take $40 of Jolkali, excuse me. Theo only plays for cash now. That's right. It's the only thing that gets me going. That and doubling up on your line shots and retiring you. We have a little opening intro for Theo Bruner here. So Andrew, oh, sweet. Theo, buckle up. Buckles. Around 33, 34 years old Bob Dylan made blood on the tracks. At 34, Billy won his first AVP with Theo Bruner.

1:13:50Apparently, 34 is when late bloomers finally figure some things out. And then after a little bit of time, also to compare, at 44, Bob Dylan released Empire Bralask. And then after about a decade apart, Billy Allen reunited with Theo. And was still playing AVP Huntington Beach. Dylan kept going and Billy somehow kept going too. Theo, welcome. Take it away. Give us an anecdote or a story about playing with Billy. Awesome. Well, you brought up Seattle. I mean, that's probably one of, I mean, it was a little vintage Billy. So, but that's also like, I don't know about Billy, but that's one of my maybe proudest accomplishments as a player is where me and Billy gave me one that we got Billy as first win. I think we were down, we were down something crazy, like 11-4 and the third

1:14:55set against the crabs. They were starting to make their little crab signals. It was going to be their first win. We also had a flight like 30 minutes after the final to Hamburg, Germany. So we had gone to the airport, checked our bags, and then luckily our flight got delayed. So we win the tournament, immediately get in an Uber, barely make our flight, go all the way to Germany. And then we actually qualified against. I think a team that got 15th in the Olympics, like the day after we arrived. But the funny part, we're in the airport in Germany and I'm like, I'm like, oh, where else have you been in Europe, Billy? And he's like, this is my first time in Europe. I'm just like, you're serious. Like, just like super matter of fact, not a care in the world hadn't been to Europe before. Also hadn't worked out before at that point to my understanding. And I remember like, yeah, once you and Stafford started playing, and they're, I forget who I talked to, maybe like Sean or something, they're like, yeah, we're going to get Billy in the in the way room, get him strong. Like, like Billy's kind of like, he's like one of those untouched

1:15:58Amazonian tribes. We're like, I don't know if you want to introduce him to Western medicine, because Billy like, like we'd get out with Rich and Rich would, I mean, Rich's thing, he just down balls, you balls for a long time. Billy would just come out detonating. I was like, how the hell do you do that? But Billy could just get out there, play with no warm up. And just, I mean, I still think he probably hadn't what with minimal training, another couple of years. But that would be a couple of years where I'm doubling up on his line shots at practice and being mean to him, making him question everything. So good. So good. Billy, do you have a memory story of playing with you? Yeah, I mean, that was, that was a huge point in my career. Sean, he was playing with Sean Rosenthal and Sean got hurt. And so I subbed in and we made the rest of the year to play the rest of the year together. And have my first AVP win, first internet, like, trip to Europe. Yeah, did a lot of awesome things. I just remember he also, I feel like one of the best blockers

1:17:05out there. And for sure, one of the best blockers. And he could definitely like turn it on when he needed to. Just talking about that crab game. Anytime we were towards the end of the game, we were never out of it because Theo can, can try a little bit harder and start getting blocks. He picks his pole. It's, it's an art form that it helps me now that I'm playing at age 41. I like physically cannot be jumping all the time. So now I have like a great excuse to save until the end. Wait, one other fun thing about Billy, he was the easiest guy I've ever had to dump. I remember we played that year. It was pretty good. Then I, I think I locked it in with Casey. I was like, oh, shoot, I'm going to have to tell Billy. I was like, Billy, I think I'm going to play with Casey next year. And he's like, oh, yeah, I figured something like that would happen. So I'll get I'm just like, oh, cool. See you buddy. Just Billy's, Billy's like the, I don't know if there's anyone on the planet that doesn't love Billy Allen, including the Bruins that came out and watched

1:18:05this play and Huntington. They didn't say a single thing about me playing volleyball. They're just like, oh, my gosh, like Billy is so good. And he seems like such an awesome guy. I was like, whatever, Billy. That was a fun. It was kind of lame, but kind of fun way to go out. We had a big another vintage Theo comeback win against Paul and came. And that one where I was getting every serve just complaining. I had streamed my calf the day before and turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. And then I got like 10 blocks. And you actually, Billy is the easiest person ever to play with. Non-judgment, like, just you feel that he's cool with whatever's happened on the court and just wants to win and play the game. But that game, you were now that you're a coach, you're like, you're like, hey, why don't you just kind of ball up? And like, they're kind of hidden around just like, be big up there. Ball up, do you thing? And I was like, fine. Like just coming from Billy, that's like, he's been like, what are you doing? Like lock a damn ball. That's Billy's

1:19:09like nice way of saying that. That works. So you're first win was a Theo. And was that your final professional tournament with you? Yeah, I didn't know it at the time, but I was so cool. I just treat. No, it's equal that we just played each other in the finals the week before for us coaches and then get out and play together with our farmers' hands and beat some teams. Yeah, that was that was cool. I didn't actually retire you that day, right, Billy? You're not going to retire. No, so we we had to practice against Theo. It was Theo Kyle friend. I played with Kyle friend against Theo and Wyatt. And we smashed him the first set. Typical Theo, he didn't even try. And then they got us pretty good. And I was like not siding out, which I wasn't used to that much. And then when I called me to play or something asked me to play later that week and I go, no, I'm done. And the way the way it came out was like

1:20:10spoke more than just like for that week. It felt yeah, there felt like there was some gravity to it when he said it forever. That's like really? Well, Theo, you killed it. Those some great stories. We appreciate you walking straight from practice to your car and telling great stories. Given you lots of different lighting schemes the whole time. Yeah, that's right. Billy's going to get it. All right. Well, thanks Theo. Thanks for the time. Thanks for joining. All right. Thanks for doing us for Billy. Love you, buddy. Thanks Theo. See you. All right. Wow. That was that was really, really good. Thankfully, we do have another person available. How they showed up again. Entering the zoom room. There he is. Whoa. Yeah, look good looking guy in a suit. Mr. Ryan. I'm already. Ryan. Ryan. Look at that. Surprise. Good. Surprise. Surprise. We have that. That's a serious headset. You're wearing.

1:21:11I mean, I'm doing I'm doing like real adult job stuff now. So it's it's pretty serious. Yeah, I've got my Raymond James shirt on and everything. Yeah. Ryan, I'm going to do a quick little intro here. Okay. I love it. Billy and Ryan Doherty played 16 tournaments together, which is exactly two Abbey Road medley's worth, which feels appropriate. A bunch of separate saw and stops that somehow turned into one pretty memorable lay career run. There you go. I love it. And that's now it's on to you, Ryan. Yeah. If you'd like to share a story about playing with Billy, sure. Yeah. So two things that I immediately thought of when I heard that Billy was retiring. First was I assumed that Billy had retired years ago. It's a cheap joke. I'm sure you've heard more than once already. Not enough. Not enough. The two things that I thought of almost immediately first was Danny kind of. So I was a little bit late to the Beach volleyball stage.

1:22:15I was a beach baseball guy before that. And when I retired from baseball and was starting to fall in love with the sport of Beach volleyball, the big part of that was watching Danny kind of videos. I was in my studio apartment in South Bend, Indiana, and Notre Dame winter watching Dan Madden say that net is high. How are we supposed to be Brazil and I'm at? At which point I repeated that probably a thousand times in my life. So for me to then get to be a professional volleyball player, mixing it up with everybody in the tour and playing with and against the guy who created all those was just such a fun like full circle moment for me. So always always appreciated you for that one. But I think a probably a better story for our partnership. And I know this is one that you've told before was us playing in Northseca. Do you remember this Billy? So Northseca tournaments can be kind of hit and miss, right? Like I played in one with Todd Rogers in the Cayman Islands where Roger was easily the most famous Beach volleyball player that had ever played there.

1:23:15They put us up in a five-store hotel. They said, yeah, all your all your meals just go down to the restaurant and charge them to the room. Billionized experience was not the same thing. They put us in a hotel room with standing water. Like and you guys might think that I mean that like it was kind of damp in the room. There was puddles in the bathroom. For on the floor of the next to our beds for the four or five days that we were there. So we would play and we would sweat and get sandy and just you know drenched in and then we go back to the hotel room and everything would still be wet constantly. So the toughest part of this was we played in the tournament and then immediately flew to China and we had another tournament. In China, Billy being the upstanding citizen that he is, he wandered the streets looking for a laundromat and just found a place to clean his stuff. Me being less of an upstanding citizen just rolled with it. So all of my stuff, my jerseys and shorts were wet for at least a week and a half

1:24:23and then I put them on and went and played in this Chinese tournament. When we got on the bus with a took the players from the venue to the from the hotel to the venue. Like players were recoiling away. Like it was they would pass me and just like like I think I was the first beach volleyball player in history to weaponize a smell. Like setters were putting their guys five feet off the net just because their attackers didn't want to come near me. Billy did not shake my hand for the entirety of the tournament and that was like it's funny like I've been retired for a couple years now. Like I don't remember a single point we played in China. I don't remember the North Seagate tournament but that always makes me laugh. That's so good. We also I think it was that China trip. You had trouble sleeping sometimes with jet lag and there was a light on in the closet and I think you were trying to use it. Like fix it. But you know like you. So we're playing and like the entire

1:25:26time there's a light where it's kind of like a refrigerator. If you open the door the light goes on and the closet was closed the light stayed on the whole time because the sensor was a little off and me being sure. All right I'll try to fix this. I tried to move the sensor and took an electric shock through my right arm that had me like buzzing around the room like okay you're okay you're alive it's all right your heart's pumping pretty good but it's fine like just keep moving like to where Billy comes back up he's like what's going on and I was like I just got electrocuted but I think it's okay. I'm either going to die or we're going to play the best we've ever played. And you know again just rolled with it. Two things one it's good that that didn't happen in the standing water. Yeah. And yeah. So Billy's the the second most famous speech volleyball player to go to Craig came in. So I don't think that was came in islands. Oh yeah. It was a great one. It was a nice one. Yeah. Well Rodgie and I were treated like royalty and had nothing to do with me and then me and Billy were not treated like royalty. Like we were like

1:26:28like guys there's puddles in our room and they're like yeah they're sure are. Okay. We're using Sharpies to mark our jerseys number. Ryan what are what were some of the strengths that Billy had as a partner on or off the court. So I was thinking about that one as well. I think one of the main things for Billy was super versatile. Right. Like I think about like my game like I was very good at some things and then very mediocre and a lot of things. So if you were going to kind of game playing against me there was a lot of kind of areas where you would naturally just go like we're going to try to attack these with weaknesses. Billy was just he could do everything well which game-planning against him really challenging. I mean I played with him for a few terms I played against him probably a lot more and there was never a clear cut. This is how we should attack this guy because you know you could do a little bit everything. I thought that was always a real strength and I always appreciated his ability to be even keeled right. Like Billy I don't know

1:27:29if you remember this like the Huntington tournament where we played in the finals and it was during the freeze. Do you remember that weird like AVP's just like let's just change the entire dynamics of scoring a point for the last game or last point of the game like we'll do a V-Tball they will tournament and then like the last point will just play dodgeball like that'd be fun. So they made it to that you had to be serving and it could not touch the net the serve couldn't touch the net. We're up 14 13 I serve Theo he passes it into the ref stands and they go nope the ball barely tick the net so you guys don't win this tournament and we end up not holding it out lose don't come back from it and like that kind of a loss could absolutely derail a lot of players like for weeks months on end of like we were there we had the tournament and it was taken from us but Billy and I were able to just kind of like all right you know tough break let's get ready for the next one which again you know shows to the longevity of his career. Yeah maybe that answers the last question is that why he was successful for so long is that his consistency?

1:28:33Yeah I mean consistency obviously a really good athlete like he would weirdly like come back from like Montana or Idaho after like five months in the wilderness and then just like stroll down to the beach pepper for five minutes and fuck side out for like an hour and a half against people who'd been training for months whereas like me if I didn't have like a full like month prep time to get myself ready to move into sand and Billy just no no it's fine don't need to lift don't need to train we could just kind of run out there and play like already remarkable. I think that's the thing I was always most like it's jealous of Billy where I felt the same way where I had to get lots of practice in and feel like crisp with everything and then maybe I could go win a couple matches where Billy just it just felt like he always had it like that line shot was always smooth he always had great control of his platform I mean he always saw the game well maybe just all those years playing with your dad. I do remember playing with Ryan Ryan like never got bored with like the boring stuff like we would come like some people you really need to spice

1:29:36up practice and I think Ryan would call him fake fundamentals like do what kinds of like weird circus stuff but he would just he was fine serving and passing and just doing kind of the the bread and butter all day long which I appreciated. Yeah I mean there's a lot of serving passing in Beach volleyball so I thought that that was the thing that we should do a lot of if I'm being perfectly honest. Yeah that was I mean something I was so impressed with Ryan through your career you're just such as self-made I think with everything you've done you're self-made you're like an auto-died act you just like when there's something you're excited about you go all in and you'll read books about it you'll go out on your own and serve and pass and you'll just find a way to become great at it which I think yeah it was really impressive to see through the years. Well thank you very much and a fun John Mayer story so trophy behind me we mean John won a tournament in Seattle where they handed us this really cool ship trophy and John Mayer had given it away by the end of the ceremony like he literally just got it from somebody and then handed it to whoever was standing next to him because it meant zero to him which is fantastic. It's hard to fit in your carry on.

1:30:41I'm glad you still have it it looks good hopefully it helps you make some deals. Yeah yeah the the finance pros they love this stuff. They love it. Yeah well Ryan yeah I know him up on time Billy congrats on a great run the game was better for having you and really look it forward all the stuff you do next especially if you put out another book in the Good Blood series I've liked one of red so far. Cool thanks Ryan. Great senior guys. There he goes. The house is great. Ryan was on it. He's so good. So good. Everyone next is just going to be a complete let down. Well that actually sort of wraps it up the we might have one more joining a few minutes late. Andy Benesch was going to join but he's playing in in Montreal and his mash got pushed back so the Manhattan Beach winner he did say to he sent a message to share just real briefly and he's

1:31:42still he's going to try to join if we don't finish really enough but just basically that he loved playing with you and he learned a ton from from his time with you. We'll see if maybe we get this last person to jump on but before we do we'll just give you some final questions. It's been way better when I just listen. I mean I want to go back just to the beginnings and maybe just the father and son Ty and you know your dad being your first partner. What's the impact he made on your career? Yeah like I said to him I think he just got me started playing and like I said give me a head start. I think everything we did in our lives was around volleyball like all our vacations were volleyball like built a volleyball court in our in our house kind of after I graduated high school. We were volleyball family and that was the biggest piece my identity was volleyball. I think that would that for sure to them. The way that that has been a through line in your life and it shows no signs of stopping.

1:32:44Your son catch is a absolute fanatic about the sport and what impact do you want to have on his his volleyball experience in journey? Yeah I mean if he it's been really cool that he's gotten so into it. He wasn't at first and that was fine like we weren't like gonna give him no choice like what my dad said I didn't have a choice but like being around the college game and just seeing how much fun our teams have and they celebrate like he he didn't care when I was playing AVP he cared like when he saw like the college team play maybe they cheer more so it looks more fun. I just wanted him to have to enjoy it and I want to be there to support him. I'm gonna be his biggest fan. I know it's what I should do is just like hey support you love watching you play a nice job but secretly I do hope that you know he asks me he wants to treat what asked me to get some some touches and I could lead him through some stuff to support him in that way too but that's only when he

1:33:46I'm inviting him if you ever want to get extra touches if you ever want anything I'm here for you but it's not something I'm forcing him to do but secretly I kind of hope that he's like hey show me some constraint drills I can do this afternoon. Yeah yeah. Catch is how old now? Nice 10. He's sat on your 44? You're 44. At what point do people stop serving catch and start serving you do you think? Might be before my dad was a little younger than I am now so might be might be earlier than sophomore year. Yeah. Have you guys you guys haven't done a tournament yet do you have any plans to do one one day? I'm hoping my I'm still triple A in the CBVA so I got to wait to my rating drops a little bit otherwise he's gonna work cut out for him. We're thinking maybe CSI next year could be fun. They have like a parent child event. That would be awesome. Hopefully your dad will be there to watch and coach you guys think that could be a full circle deal. Well I think we'll just wrap it up here and maybe leave the mic for you if there's any

1:34:52final messages you want to share just not that your you know your volleyball career continues but the playing career is the professional playing career is winding down I think you'll continue to play volleyball and hit really good high line shots till you're 87 but yeah any final thoughts as we wrap up. Yeah I mean for anybody is listening this long. Yeah I think I mean we talk about like the things you learn from playing and sports teaches you and I have so many things that come from that and how I approach life so I'm the better for having played and I think our coaches listening your athletes will be like this will shape who they are so much the things that come to mind with that is obviously like embracing challenge and doing hard things and for me doing things that I didn't think I could do and just that idea of you don't have to feel good to play well or to compete. That was one of the things Peter Haberoll stressed early on when I was kind of like how do I feel

1:35:52more confident how do I he's like he gave me the story that I mean I think about all the time is is a your new father if your son is crying in the middle of the night and you have to change diapers do you feel like doing it I'm like no he's like why do you do it oh it's like I'm a dad that's my job and that's kind of like how I approached a lot of volleyball like I don't have to feel great just like I'm a volleyball player so I'm gonna compete I don't I don't want to get up and work out or play early in the morning when it's windy or raining but like I'm a volleyball player so this is what I do and I think that you know extends so much in my life just like this is my job so I'll do it and then on the other side just the idea that like practicing continually small changes and improvements do add up to big things whether it's you know going on practicing all the time leading to a career or you know riding a couple pages every day lead to a novel like just like the accumulation of work does add up and I think that's something I'll take with me too. Well said and congrats on an incredible professional career and looking forward to

1:36:58you having more time to write coach your brains out the second book so that's the most important that now this was awesome I hope yeah I hope you enjoyed here and from some old old friends and and hearing all the help from your friends can we end it with a Beatles lyric then too yeah what do you got? And in the end the love you take is equal the love you make What's that? that would be the outro... no thanks guys it seems a real treat