The Coaches Group Chat

S2E14: Natty Champs Recap, Long Beach Culture, Too Early Predictions

• Matthew Houlihan, Arielle Houlihan, Chad Gordon • Season 2 • Episode 14

Share episode

Long Beach State secures another national championship with a commanding sweep over UCLA, showcasing their unparalleled team culture and championship mentality. Their "blue collar" approach and ride-or-die brotherhood has created a volleyball program where bench energy is so intense it earned yellow cards during their championship celebration.

• Long Beach's first set domination, hitting nearly .800 against UCLA
• Moni Nikolov's clutch serving, delivering two consecutive aces when UCLA led 20-18 in the second set
• The stark contrast between UCLA's grim timeout huddle and Long Beach's electrified bench
• Long Beach volleyball culture as elite, gritty, and built on intense loyalty
• Post-match championship F-bomb continuing the Long Beach tradition
• Way-too-early predictions for next season's contenders: Hawaii, Stanford, and USC
• High school volleyball update with Open Division Championship preview

Join us for season three as the podcast may be moving to a new home with some exciting changes ahead!


Arielle:

Long Beach volleyball culture is like elite to me and I think that they kind of get a bad rep sometimes because it's like it's this like grittier, it's a little like F you mentality.

Matt:

It's not for everyone.

Arielle:

It's not for everybody and it's like it's kind of like a like. It's very easy to go against the way that they do things, but I truly believe that everybody that hates what they're doing is just jealous that they're not a part of it.

Chad:

Hamhorn.

Matt:

No, guys, we're having some great timing on our episodes right now. Monday night is the night for things to happen.

Arielle:

Great timing is such a strong word when we just randomly don't release an episode for a week.

Chad:

I don't know what you're talking about. They literally moved the championship to Monday for the pod. Are you kidding me?

Matt:

We need the coaches group chat to be on top of this. Seriously, grand Canyon cut their program on a Monday as well, because they needed us to talk about it, to talk about it immediately.

Arielle:

And last week nothing happened, so we were like take it off.

Matt:

Chad go to Poland. Last week Chad went to Poland on a Monday so we said we're gone. But here we are, Don't worry about the logistics.

Chad:

I know you weren't.

Matt:

It wasn't actually a Monday, it's fine.

Chad:

I figured I was in on the joke.

Arielle:

Welcome to the Coaches Group Chat. We're back, we're here, we're back, and it's National Championship Monday.

Matt:

Just finished up watching it. We did a nice. If anyone wants to go watch it, quick plug we did a little live stream of us watching with the video on the Coaches Group Chat Instagram.

Arielle:

So if you're a nerd and one of us is, it was not a seamless experience. It doesn't start when the game started.

Matt:

There were some technical difficulties. It doesn't start when the game started. There were some technical difficulties.

Chad:

It's okay, we're trying to figure things out. There were some gaps where we just like forgot we were live and just no one's really talking.

Arielle:

Matt threw a temper tantrum at the beginning. I did Actually. I was really proud of you. You came back around exactly like what I want my kids to do one day To be fair, Throw a temper tantrum and be like my bad To be fair, Ariel was raining on my parade.

Matt:

I had a whole thing set up. I worked really hard to try and get all this stuff together. I had the crowd with me and she poked holes in the entire thing and immediately I turned it off because I was frustrated.

Arielle:

It's okay, I threw a temper tantrum.

Matt:

I was like you know what I'm done? I'm not live streaming anything, live streaming anything. And then I composed myself and I walked into the garage, got a spin drift and I came back in and I said I'm sorry You're like my bad, I got it. Sometimes, when you have little toddlers, you realize you're like, damn it, I'm being a toddler right now.

Arielle:

It was great, so I walked back in. Hopefully Riley and Hallie do the same thing next time they have a temper tantrum, that's on me, okay. So what's first on the docket today?

Matt:

first on the docket. I mean we're fresh off the championship just finished. We have a long beach state sweep. Looking back, at our predictions on the year winner, winner, winner predicted long beach state and moni as they barely they barely upset irvine in the finals.

Chad:

Guys, it was so close I thought I had it with Heno and Long Beach. Well done.

Arielle:

Technically the committee beat you this year the committee defeats Niff almost every year.

Chad:

I don't think he's gone over in the last decade. Basically, since what?

Arielle:

We're going to need to start doing some politics Irvine needs to hire a political chief of staff.

Chad:

Yeah, now we're cooking, they need to hire a chief of staff. We have a consultant in from DC this week.

Matt:

Yeah.

Chad:

And we'll work through this.

Matt:

We'll get over to our chief of staff slash high school correspondent in a bit, but I think this game is.

Arielle:

People are like what is going on.

Matt:

Don't worry, we can cut over to him. I've got a camera on Long Beach. Let me lay the groundwork. Long Beach came out, set one very eerily similar to the UCLA Hawaii night one or semifinal match, where everything was going UCLA's way.

Arielle:

Yeah, they smacked them around, smacked them around.

Matt:

They hit 800, just below 800.

Arielle:

That's good right. Every time you touch the ball, you pretty much score.

Matt:

You're the stats guy. Can you confirm?

Kyle:

Yeah it's not bad.

Matt:

Yeah, so they smacked him around. Set two UCLA responds and they're up and they have a lead pretty much the whole way. They're up two going into the red zone. They're up 20-18. But Mone steps to the line and Mone ripped two aces in a row and pushed open a lead for Long Beach and they took back set two Leads into set three and more of the same lot of Long Beach, ucla scrapping. There was a time out. All of us on the live chat were kind of like they show the huddle for UCLA like oh things are bleak, over.

Arielle:

Yeah, it is looking.

Matt:

It is looking grim there was some grim status on the UCLA sidelines and then they cut over to the Long Beach sidelines and the bench, which is 40 dudes deep, are just flash they're in the tunnel.

Arielle:

Yeah, they're just sprinting up and down.

Matt:

My boy, nick mccray, messaged me after the game was like you better be giving my, my bench boys, some love, because they made it happen.

Arielle:

Yeah, they did. They did a great job and nick, you are right.

Matt:

The bench, the bench squad for long beach state. They got yellowed. What more do you want from your bench?

Arielle:

What more do you want when you're up to zero in the third and your bench is getting yellow carded Like? Give it to me.

Chad:

They were juiced. Give it to me Red card. What do you mean? What more do I want? Work harder.

Arielle:

Like man that was. There was some pretty good stuff going over there on Long Beach's side sure, vibes, the vibes were high and that was.

Matt:

I mean, that was a lot of what ucla did against hawaii. Vibes were high and you could tell, and ucla had hawaii on their heels and then come back this night, long beach had had ucla on their heels shout out to long beach culture.

Arielle:

Can we just talk about long beach culture for a second? I know this is throwing your docket off, but can we just talk about long beach culture for a second long beach volleyball culture is like elite to me and I think that they kind of get a bad rep sometimes because it's like it's this like grittier, it's a little like f you mentality it's not for everyone it's not for everybody.

Arielle:

It's like. It's kind of like a like. It's very easy to go against the way that they do things, but I truly believe that everybody that hates what they're doing is just jealous that they're not a part of it. Yeah, like it's just a like. I kind of wish I was a part of it. I wish that I wasn't like in a group of people like that that was that loyal, that like ride or die. I don't think there's anybody more ride or die in men's volleyball than Long.

Chad:

Beach, would you agree? I mean, yeah, I, I just, I think like what I like about it is like it's not a shit talking kind of thing. It's kind of just like they're just doing their thing. It's their little band of brothers, but like I didn't see anything tonight that was like hey, I'm talking through the net or anything like that.

Chad:

They just went about their business they're just fighter mentality yeah, and they look, but they were down in the second and they were like no, it, it's cool. I'm just going to go with like crack this thing from the end line. And then you know great, that'll be that, Thanks, yeah.

Matt:

And it's very blue collar, that's what I would say yeah.

Matt:

If you spend time in Long Beach like that is I mean you look how long he's been there talking with Dustin's my best like example from it, just as a close friend who's talked at length about what Long Beach and Long Beach men's volleyball means to him. It is a very much fraternal bond that they've got going on and it's a lot of guys that just bust their ass Like you look at their bench and there's so many, so many athletes that are in that program and don't leave Like they're there and they're there for a reason. They have a little bit of turnover, but for the most part, like the guys that go through the opposite for them is the perfect example. Right, he was a fifth year senior, never played really at all until some injuries that happened in head of him, and he's starting the national championship match getting the final swing in the semifinals sorry, nick McCray. Hashtag Long Beach legend.

Arielle:

Yeah, I don't know. I just have to say there should be a lot of respect on the Long Beach culture's name and people who hate on what they're doing. It's like I just think that you wish you were a part of it.

Matt:

Yeah, I mean, I think the closest would also be UCLA. Ucla has a great alumni-based culture as well Different though Totally different. I'm not saying it's the same in any capacity. What I'm saying from a fraternal bond situation.

Arielle:

I do think that's a theme with these programs, and UCLA is a legendary program. They've won more than anybody. There's definitely something different there, but I just have to hand it to the long beach culture because I think that there's nothing. There isn't anything like it.

Matt:

They earn it, no doubt about it. The one stat and just to put the put the bow on it for the UCLA side there was the stat that I heard them say on the broadcast was Hawks is the third head coach. Yeah.

Arielle:

That's history right. The broadcast was Hawks is the third head coach in UCLA men's volleyball history.

Matt:

What's Nipe? I'm not sure I don't think there's been that many either. You've got a tradition of someone at the head who's been there a long time. That's his alma mater. He played there, he knows it. Sorry, I'm talking about Nipe in the Long Beach situation, obviously for UCLA three people who I'm talking about a knife in the long beach situation, right, obviously for UCLA three people who've all been deeply ingrained in the program that's a big deal as well.

Matt:

The final closing to the national championship. Nikola gets the overpass from NATO, Dickinson on the serve puts away the kill. Yeah, go straight into the post game interview. They pulled him quick from the court. We called it. I was like man, let the guy celebrate for a minute.

Chad:

He had the trophy for seven seconds.

Matt:

They were like all right, give me that back. You got to go over here. They're like ESPN 2 is like. We're on the clock, let's go.

Chad:

We got foosball coming up, we got to get off this thing.

Matt:

This guy is emotional and and they're pulling him into an interview with Kevin Barnett and, sure enough, circa 2009, ammerman drops the. F-bomb on live TV. It was hysterical.

Arielle:

I hope that people understand what we're talking about with the Ammerman one, because that one was hysterical when it happened, if you don't, if you don't look it up.

Matt:

David Hunt had a great. I posted the video on my Instagram and David Hunt commented on it. It was great, he said.

Arielle:

Ammo walked, so Jarrett could run, so Mone could fly. That's so good, because Jarrett dropped that live F-bomb as well. That is such a good highbrow volleyball joke right there.

Matt:

Shout out to Coach's Group Chat a friend of the pod, David Hunt, for that comment. But yeah, if you haven't seen the Ammerman live interview after they won the national championship. He dropped an F-bomb as well, and then he had to issue a public apology afterwards from.

Arielle:

No, apology, nico.

Matt:

Hey, he earned that F-bomb. Yeah, he gets to drop one.

Chad:

Look, when we play on ESPN, they'll have somebody with a seven-second delay, It'll get bleeped. If you're going to put us on the dose, sorry, it's what happens right. If you're going to put us on the dose, sorry, it's what happens right. The 18-year-old gets to say what he wants.

Arielle:

Matt's never getting the call out because they're looking at his Instagram being like okay, we can't.

Matt:

What are we supposed to do here? A bunch of people are like you need to announce something. There's no way they're going to. Let me announce when you're on the.

Arielle:

Ocho, maybe, yeah, you, that was the end of it, great national championship, except for the fact that it wasn't that close.

Chad:

It was a quality hour. It was an hour and a half hour, 20.

Matt:

A proper end to a very exciting year. I mean, there was just, let's be real who?

Arielle:

did you say was going to win?

Matt:

I said from the beginning of the year. I want to say I said UCLA.

Arielle:

You said UCLA with Cooper Robinson as the player of the year.

Matt:

I want to say I said UCLA. You said UCLA with Cooper Robinson as the player of the year. You said Irvine with Probably Hanna. Look at you, Ariel Stradamus.

Arielle:

I never doubted Mooney, never once, except for in the middle of the year, one time I was like wait.

Matt:

Have I messed up. No, I never doubted All right, let's get into our way too early.

Arielle:

Predictions, predictions for next year.

Matt:

For next year. Well, let's start with this First prediction. Does money come back for year two? No, chad.

Arielle:

No, the answer is no, but also based on the way women's volleyball has gone with NIL, maybe somebody can pull some money together.

Matt:

Hey, long Beach, somebody in Long?

Arielle:

Beach, long Beach, get a donor.

Matt:

I don't know what. The highest revenue grossing Someone with oil. Someone's got to have like an oil rig that they're making some bank off.

Arielle:

Yeah, somebody's got an oil, and if they do, please go give it to Greg Canyon instead.

Matt:

Just a quick sidebar. We're getting off of our docket Women's volleyball NIL. What's the highest dollar amount you've heard?

Arielle:

Based off of what I have heard.

Matt:

Yes, give me the rumor mill.

Arielle:

No rumor mill. The highest amount? Yeah, allegedly that just happened with seven 50.

Matt:

What are they making in the pros for women's volleyball overseas Chad? What's the? Give me your best guess at the highest Highest is probably like a mill. Okay, like the top player in the world. Oh yeah, okay, like the top player in the world to mill.

Chad:

Yeah, I mean you'd get some of these, some of these kids, I don't know, probably two, maybe. I mean if you're like Vargas or Carcord or like some of these players On average.

Matt:

Like what is the current NCAA? Like? Top 10 current NCAA women's volleyball players in their first year going overseas what do you think they're going to make?

Arielle:

A hundred thousand.

Matt:

Yeah, probably, probably 100. Never leave college if you're making $750 as a volleyball player.

Arielle:

Never leave. Who knows how long that's going to happen and how that's yeah, but I've heard $750 is the number that someone just went for.

Matt:

Whoever your agent is, I want to talk to him or her because I want some money somehow, someway. That's an incredible poll, for whoever made that happen. Again, I'm unsubstantiated.

Arielle:

That was our Title IX women's volleyball shout-out Women in STEM. Back to the men. Let's get back to our predictions here.

Matt:

Hard pivot NCAA champions for next year. Who do we think?

Arielle:

Predictions for next year? Just predictions. Would you like to go first Champion? Yeah, double a champions for next year. Who do we think? Predictions for next year? Just predictions.

Matt:

Would you like to go first? Uh champion yeah, who do you think is going to win it all next year?

Arielle:

I think he's like answered now so I don't have to edit this at all. No, that's fine.

Chad:

Go ahead, chad I don't believe the question was directed to me. Well, it's coming to you at some point, regardless.

Matt:

Yeah yeah, yeah, but I thought I'd have a couple more seconds, I can go. I'll go first. It's going to depend. No, I have my answer. It's going to depend you assholes.

Arielle:

It's going to depend on two things for me the Euros and the Portal.

Matt:

We'll get to the Portal in a bit.

Arielle:

Okay, but that to me. I don't know if base layer is going to determine. I think that moves and Euros and Portal is going to determine. Like this year, the Euros determined who is going to win, yes, yes. So it's going to be that. So my answer is too early to fluff, okay chad too early to fluff chad.

Matt:

You said you had your pick.

Chad:

What do you got? Yeah, I don't think it's long beach. I don't think it's anybody without the euros.

Arielle:

I they have more euros in euro.

Chad:

There could be more no, that was the last of them. That was that was that, was it there?

Matt:

are no more euros, yeah, yeah what you think moni leaves and condev leaves with him type of a deal.

Arielle:

Yeah, but then there's two more that come in. They know how to recruit.

Matt:

It's like the three-headed dragon you cut off one head and three more appear.

Chad:

Yeah, I don't know that Long Beach is going to bring in somebody better than Nikolov to run that team. I don't know if Niff has magic left-handed Frenchman up his sleeve.

Arielle:

Probably Every year he does. Every year he brings in somebody.

Chad:

Somebody.

Arielle:

Cameron Coste.

Chad:

Yeah, the next, I mean he's not as French. Okay sure he's too Haywarden, haywardian.

Matt:

Haywardian yeah.

Chad:

I think, thinking about it, I think Hawaii loses the least and has the potential to pick up some random like. I mean, I know Charlie announced something Like they're just gonna find some 611 guy to whatever outside hitter from the best team in the world is gonna play middle for them next year or whatever, and you know they were, they were close. They just you know, they'll get a little bit older and they'll play a little bit better on the road. I hope I would lean Hawaii right now, based on what we know today. I like it.

Arielle:

I'll go Long Beach.

Matt:

Going back to back to back to Long Beach. I got faith it is the trend, it is the trend.

Arielle:

Back to back.

Chad:

Back to back is the trend it's going to break this year.

Matt:

I'm with Chad, I'll go to mine as well. I was leaning towards Hawaii as well, but I was in between, on the fence between two, so I'll take the other side. Just for the views, for the clicks You're taking, csun.

Chad:

No, dang it, I'm not taking.

Matt:

CSUN.

Arielle:

I'm taking Stanford.

Chad:

I'm taking USC, that's a good pick, the Trojans.

Matt:

They're young, they return everyone minus Guy Guinness. Hopefully they get West back to fill that spot. That's an all-American roster, all-americans, and I think they can. I mean they already they've proven they can beat Hawaii. Can they stay healthy, like they had a struggle with this past year, a lot of big dudes, long limbs but I think if they can stay healthy and they're in it at the end, man oh man, that's a team that can take it. That's the early one.

Arielle:

I'm going Stanford because I'm a homer. I like it and we're selling out a game next year, that's true. Home crowd advantage, have we told you this ploy.

Matt:

I posted about it. Maybe you saw it. I don't know. We're going to sell out a game.

Arielle:

Yeah, matt and I were sitting at the game one of the games and we were like man, matt was like it'd be so cool. You know how Mr Beast does like, just like pop up, he'll bring 4,000 people to like something.

Matt:

Sure, it's a YouTube channel and it's a group of guys and they will like set this random date and location.

Arielle:

Everybody show up here.

Matt:

It'll be like Sunday League men's soccer. That's your boyfriend. They will pop up and just go bring 4,000 people to this random soccer game of adults.

Arielle:

Between our platforms. I feel like we could just I don't know sell a game out at some point.

Chad:

Burnham only seats like 250. I said it has to be Maples.

Arielle:

Come on now. Let's not get carried away 7,000 plus.

Matt:

That's crazy.

Arielle:

So Venmo's going to activate at it and we're going to do like a whole thing.

Matt:

We're doing a thing. Let it be known. You guys, this is your.

Arielle:

Sponsorship band. We got Abe Wagner playing.

Chad:

I hear tickets are free.

Arielle:

Yeah, it's going to be great.

Matt:

You just no longer. I talked to the senior administrator for stanford men's volleyball when I was at the mpsf tournament and he's my guy, so I'm chatting with him running down. I give him the idea. I'm like, listen, this is what I want to do, ariel and I, we're gonna pick a day, we're gonna pick a game we're gonna, and we're gonna, we're gonna make it volleyball day in the bay.

Matt:

we're gonna blow it out. We're gonna try and sell the whole thing out. He's like should we charge tickets? I, I mean, if we blow it out, you're going to need to probably charge tickets because we got to. Everyone needs to know where they're sitting. But yeah, it was funny. He was like absolutely, let's do it, let's make it happen. He was all about it. Great, so sign me up. It's coming. It's coming, should we? The year was the final way too early to tell player of the year. Prediction for 2026 men's volleyball season.

Arielle:

Well, I don't. You're probably going to say this because you picked USC, but I got Dylan Klein, maybe yeah, it's a great pick.

Chad:

I got someone else in mind but Chad what do you all say with why I'll take, I'll take tread yeah that was going to be mine as well. Hey, take me your bronze medal pick, though. Okay, all right, rowan, who do you like third best?

Arielle:

Rowan's a good pick too, which one?

Chad:

Rowan's a good pick With a W or no W.

Arielle:

Not Rowan David Alvear, even though we love him Missed opportunity.

Chad:

You ready for this If Rowan David Alvear wins? Player of the Year.

Matt:

Jalen Phillips, player of the year, which leads me into the next tragedy of a section which is not making the tournament, which is a fantasy slash nightmare transfer scenario.

Arielle:

So, let me start, so let me start.

Matt:

I am not no college coaches that watch this. This is not. These are not shots across your bowel. Let me just say that right now.

Arielle:

These are also not rumors that we've heard. These are rumors we're starting. These are not. These are not shots across your bow. Let me just say that right now. These are also not rumors that we've heard. These are rumors we're starting.

Matt:

These are not even rumors. We are making this up right now. If you clip this and try and make this into tea, we didn't do anything. Here's what I got.

Arielle:

If you want the NCAA to investigate us, they weren't going to do that.

Chad:

They didn't even know there was a championship event. What are?

Matt:

you talking about? I don't think their Instagram is even posted.

Arielle:

They don't know They'll get to it next year.

Matt:

Nightmare transfer situations Okay here's my nightmare transfer situation. Everyone knows that I am a CSUN super fan yeah. Jalen Phillips, abca Player of the Year. But here's the nightmare slash dream scenario for USC. But here's the nightmare slash dream scenario for USC. Jalen Phillips hits the portal and goes to USC to replace the opposite position at USC for them, a big need. They graduated their senior this past year.

Arielle:

There are 20 coaches out there going. That would suck.

Matt:

Yeah, and man, oh man, that would put my USC pick as a national championship into a very interesting position for sure. But yeah, I mean you look at biggest needs. I think USC fill that opposite position right away. Damn, that would be scary and that would also be a player of the year caliber move. But he could also do it at CSUN. Or the Pepperdine kid. So if Dylan Klein wanted to transfer over to CSUN, that'd be fun also. Or the Pepperdine Kid. So if Dylan Klein wanted to transfer over to CSUN, that'd be fun also.

Arielle:

Or Pepperdine Kid could do it.

Matt:

Harky, yeah, and literally take your pick of a top opposite to USC.

Arielle:

That is a dream for USC, nightmare for other people, moses Wagner, moses Wagner, moses is like over my dead body.

Chad:

Moses is like jaylen phillips to stanford in the middle hitting two balls what are some?

Arielle:

other nightmare situations. Nightmare situations would be uh I got.

Matt:

I got a nightmare situation for you. This is not transfer, but it's Long Beach and all of their foreigners leave.

Arielle:

Oh, I thought you said all their benches getting cut because their bench just killed it at the national championship.

Matt:

But you lose Nikolov, you lose Kandev, the Canadians start leaving, maybe the Canadians start getting tariffed on Canadian imports and they got to get out. Yeah, that's another nightmare scenario for next season. You guys didn't come up with anything when we made this docket on this episode?

Chad:

No, not really, I was going to carry this that's a great one I can carry more. I mean, if it's like a I don't know PVB or something, you know another opposite right? Yeah, could leave Loyola and hey, I want to be on something. He's done now I think he's got one more.

Arielle:

Am I crazy. Yeah, you're crazy. Okay, I could definitely be true, I thought he was out.

Matt:

What am I thinking of? Good Try, though Nightmare transfer scenario. Hawaii picks up big middles. That would be a dream for them, that's the biggest need, never mind yeah. Don't bring any rumors into this there are no rumors.

Arielle:

I'm not bringing rumors in, I'm only starting them, so I will be quiet.

Chad:

Everyone knows Hawaii only puts really talented athletic pin hitters into the middle.

Matt:

Exactly, and, kurt, that's what I mean. So I look at Hawaii's biggest needs. You get two legitimate middle blockers that play the position really well. I think Justin Todd could totally do it. He needs to get better at blocking. He's obviously an offensive weapon but was looking pretty lost against canthorns, pop float routes. You get some good middles up in there for them. That's a big, that's a, that's a big need for them to fill specifically with current graduating. That's one from the UCLA side. They've got pretty much, pretty much everyone coming back there. They need a libero. They need a libero that is true.

Matt:

Hawaii needs a libero.

Arielle:

Yeah, how Hawaii needs a libero Yep, that's true. How about this nightmare?

Matt:

Hit me with a nightmare.

Arielle:

Rowan David Alvear to UCLA.

Matt:

Don't do that to Schweisky, stop it. No, that's not happening. But yeah, you're looking across the board at rosters Like, all right, what's their biggest needs? Do they have someone that fills the role?

Arielle:

Or can you get a Merc to leave Penn State and go to? I'm thinking like literally anybody at Pepperdine leaves and goes and fills to somewhere else in Southern California. That's a nightmare.

Matt:

Yeah, Well, yeah, I mean Hartge Jacob Riley, who transferred from Concordia to Pepperdine.

Arielle:

Maybe Pepperdine's more stable than I.

Matt:

Maybe nobody's leaving Pep I mean we're not trying to encourage. Let's be clear we're not trying to encourage people to transfer we're just riffing off of the idea of what these rosters look like and what guys need yeah, we're actually just doing whatever everybody's in their offices doing anyways yeah, who can we go get? Yeah, honestly, that's, that's a conversation.

Arielle:

Everyone's office except for stanford, princeton and harvard you cannot get transfers we're not allowed to do that, yeah so all right, is it?

Matt:

uh, are you guys ready to bring in the sultan of science slash?

Arielle:

high school correspondent we're gonna make you a chief of staff on your resume, no matter what what's?

Matt:

you're watching a high school game right now.

Arielle:

Wait, didn't we give you another name?

Kyle:

What was the succession guy?

Chad:

Oh, cousin Greg, that's a good one.

Matt:

Hopefully he gets the joke as to why we call you Cousin Greg.

Arielle:

Daniela Karagas, high school correspondent.

Matt:

We're doing a quick and interesting overview of boys high school season in the NorCal area. Kyle does all of our high school rankings. He knows more about high school volleyball than everyone combined.

Arielle:

More than I do.

Matt:

Give us the rundown. We got Open Division Championship coming up tomorrow.

Kyle:

Quarters start tomorrow.

Arielle:

You have to eat the mic though.

Matt:

Get up there.

Kyle:

Quarterfinals start tomorrow. We got St Francis versus Bellarmine in the 3-6.

Arielle:

Give me your picks.

Kyle:

Bellarmine is sick, so I'm going to go St Francis.

Arielle:

If they're healthy. The Bells are sick. The Bells are sick, that's Insider.

Chad:

But this isn't coming out. There's no way. We'll post it after first serve, it'll be fine.

Kyle:

Just wait till like four game plans are done. Just do a big beep right here, it's fine, yeah, we got Santa Cruz Los Gatos, that one's.

Matt:

Oh, what do you got?

Kyle:

I'm going to say Santa Cruz, and three, even though Los Gatos is going to talk as much as they can.

Arielle:

Okay.

Kyle:

Everyone's talking to Santa. Sorry, my bad, it's all appropriate through the night. Other half of the bracket in the four or five we got Harker versus Homestead.

Matt:

Ooh, I like this matchup.

Arielle:

Kaka Homestead won 25 to six in the first set and then got smacked in the next three I've got Harker because Mason sent me a video of Jack serving a ball under the net today, so I think I'm going to go. I love Jack, but I Mason sent me a video of Jack serving a ball under the net today, so I think I'm going to go.

Chad:

I think I'm I love Jack, but I think I'm going to go. You don't?

Arielle:

you don't bet against the Eagles yeah.

Chad:

Chad's, chad's bias. He's an alumni. No Well, that's not even relevant.

Matt:

Yeah, technically Kyle also was a former alumni staff.

Kyle:

Anything less than five Harker is going.

Arielle:

Okay now this is the game that everybody cares about.

Kyle:

We got Valley Christian versus Middy. Why does?

Chad:

anybody care about this?

Kyle:

Because I'm going Valley.

Matt:

She would never wish that upon Greg and Lucy, I would never wish that upon anybody ever. Now you make it seem like you do.

Arielle:

That was really suspicious.

Matt:

Okay, who do you got? You got Middy Valley Christian. We watched this one. They went five when we watched.

Arielle:

They went five and they went four.

Matt:

Okay.

Arielle:

Middie's won two. It's hard to beat a team three times and four times there you go, it's easy to win three times.

Kyle:

I got Middie in a very close five.

Matt:

Ooh, Middie in five.

Kyle:

It should have gone five last time.

Matt:

They're four times to force okay, okay, wow, all right, there you go. That's our open division playoffs. And now we got the first year of high school California State Championships SoCal playing NorCal oh, neat, who you got winning that. Socal Any divisions Can we take any division or is it just one?

Chad:

Is it just one? How many matches?

Kyle:

D1, D2. It's just NorCal.

Chad:

The winner the winner.

Arielle:

So it's MiraCosta Oil or MiraCosta.

Matt:

Whoever wins this?

Arielle:

MiraCosta and whoever wins this Harker.

Matt:

Mason to.

Kyle:

Funga, those eagles all fly by themselves and they just gotta win one and they get into NorCal.

Chad:

It's easy yeah, I hear Middy's about to throw it, so it's no problem okay, you win one, you're into that.

Kyle:

NorCal and you just have to get to the semis and you get in somewhere there you go, people tune in tune into all the NorCal Cousin.

Matt:

Greg, thank you for your service. We appreciate all you've done for us this year, feeding our rankings directing the executives.

Arielle:

Do you have a winner? Who do you think is going to?

Chad:

win. Can we go semis and finals here? Can we just do this real fast?

Kyle:

Harker and Homestead have played each other, and I think Harker's won every time.

Chad:

So we'll go Harker there, they'd be lined up with Middy.

Kyle:

They took a set off Midi at the bell tournament they're the only ones that did that. They're still gonna lose in the semis. Unlikely but fair. So you got midi and I got midi, harker in the semis, and then that's saint francis, saint francis, santa cruz. So I'm going santa cruz, midi finals and then midi in the end, okay you got midi playing mira costa uh, they soft one yeah this is ccs.

Matt:

You gotta get to norco. I don't care you'll see the kids in like a month. Yeah, like early. This is the part of the podcast where ariel puts her microphone down and goes to check if the snacks have arrived from our door.

Arielle:

Dash order oh yeah, I'm done. All right, wait, have they? Oh yeah, you got fruit, frozen fruit, perfect fruit riot. If you want to uh sponsor the podcast for season three, we're looking for a partnership with a sour fruit company we will be in a bigger.

Matt:

Get in the video for a second bobby hop in here yeah, do not change anything about bobby, get in the video. We're celebrating we are celebrating the end. Gremlin bobby has joined us and I just want to say hey, congratulations to all of us. A great season to Kumbaya. I felt like we did a job covering men's volleyball this whole season here's to cheers to Bob too, who's not? Here, shout out to Bob and hobby and hobby. Yeah, and they couldn't be.

Arielle:

Bobby and Hobby and Bob and the friends and Greg and David Hunt and Brad Keller.

Matt:

Shout out I'm Brad Keller.

Chad:

We appreciate you one time, spencer, a couple of times, I let you go tell just like all the friends of the pod.

Arielle:

Thanks for listening and we will be back for season three at our new home. We might be moving.

Matt:

Foreshadowing.

Arielle:

We might be moving.

Matt:

The pod. The couch might be moving. The couch might be moving. It might be something different.

Arielle:

Honestly, that'd be great. Let's put the couch somewhere else and then we'll get a new couch here.

Matt:

Yeah, a new couch for season three. Hey, cheers to you guys. Cheers to you guys. Thank you for all of your efforts.

Arielle:

We drank less this year.