Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where I'm recovering
Speaker 1: from a Memorial Day weekend reunion.
Speaker 2: With all my Cornell besties.
Speaker 1: Is there anything better that belly laughs with friends who
Speaker 1: have known you since your eyebrows were a disaster, your
Speaker 1: taste in romantic partners was tragic.
Speaker 2: And your liver was built to last.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, May twenty seventh, and on Today show, we're
Speaker 1: skipping the need to know and getting straight to my
Speaker 1: conversation with a beach volleyball legend. Three time Olympic medallist,
Speaker 1: April ross I. Caught up with her a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago to discuss her decision to retire at the end
Speaker 1: of last season, the success of NCAA Beach Volleyball, and
Speaker 1: her new role with USA Volleyball ahead of the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty eight LA Olympics. That conversation's coming up right after this.
Speaker 1: Joining US now she's one of the greatest beach volleyball
Speaker 1: players of all time. A three time Olympic medalist, She's
Speaker 1: got the whole collection, gold, silver, and bronze, A five
Speaker 1: time AVP MVP. She was also a collegiate All American
Speaker 1: and indoor volleyball leading USC to back to back national titles.
Speaker 1: She was recently named the Head of Coaching for Beach
Speaker 1: National Teams, responsible for supporting the professional development of Beach
Speaker 1: national team coaches, enhancing their training, competition preparedness, and the
Speaker 1: performance of American beach volleyball athletes on the international stage.
Speaker 1: Mom to Baby Ross and Pop Rue. We own the
Speaker 1: same reindeer Onesie and we partied in the USA at
Speaker 1: a Miley Cyrus concert together. It's April Ross.
Speaker 2: What's up? April?
Speaker 1: Hi? Yay?
Speaker 2: I made it?
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Technical difficulties, which, honestly, I blame you the least of
Speaker 1: any guest we've ever had, because literally your office is
Speaker 1: the beach. How can you be expected to have to
Speaker 1: work with technology in a four wild place with a roof.
Speaker 3: It's one of the challenges that we face every day.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a hard life.
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to talk about your transition to having
Speaker 1: to be a real person who works more of a
Speaker 1: real job, But I want to first talk about your retirement.
Speaker 1: You officially retired last November at the end of the
Speaker 1: AVP Beach season.
Speaker 2: Was there a.
Speaker 1: Specific moment when you realized it was time? Like, was
Speaker 1: there one day where you were like, that's it, this
Speaker 1: is going to be it.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was the first man I met the first
Speaker 3: match when I came back after having a baby, so
Speaker 3: that was well before my retirement as the first match
Speaker 3: of the season and we get into it and you know,
Speaker 3: my heart rate is through the roof, just because I
Speaker 3: haven't had that adrenaline spike or I haven't been in
Speaker 3: competition for I think like a year and a half
Speaker 3: two years, and it was just so much stress on
Speaker 3: my body and my mind and not enough Why there
Speaker 3: wasn't I already. I just knew right away, like I
Speaker 3: went to why why am I out here? Why am
Speaker 3: I doing this? And it wasn't strong enough for me
Speaker 3: to think, oh, this is so worth it. And I
Speaker 3: kind of knew right then like Okay, this is this
Speaker 3: is gonna be it. I just don't have it in
Speaker 3: me anymore. And it was fun and I'm glad that
Speaker 3: we did that last season. I really wanted to have
Speaker 3: some closure for my career, play with Alex again, get
Speaker 3: on the a VP and you know, come back after
Speaker 3: having a kid. Was that was really important to me.
Speaker 3: And I'm so happy with how Alex and I finished
Speaker 3: the year, but like there was no part of me
Speaker 3: when I got to the end that you know, where
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I'm so sad. It was like
Speaker 3: this has been great and I'm so excited to be done.
Speaker 1: Alex of course, Alex Kleinman, who is the teammate you
Speaker 1: won gold with at the Tokyo Games, were you surprised
Speaker 1: to feel that way? Like did you get ready for
Speaker 1: that tournament thinking like, oh my god, I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to come back after baby, this is going to be amazing,
Speaker 1: and you were like, oh, whoa, this feels different.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I've been so used to being so competitive and
Speaker 3: just wanting to win, and that's driven me for so long.
Speaker 3: I don't think I realized how important just I mean,
Speaker 3: and I can't say that like winning the gold was
Speaker 3: like necessary, you know, but I think that quest for
Speaker 3: gold was really, you know, what drove me for so
Speaker 3: long and how good can I be? And I really
Speaker 3: wanted to go to Tokyo. I was going to be
Speaker 3: thirty eight or thirty nine. I just still felt like
Speaker 3: I had more in me to prove and so that
Speaker 3: was my driving force. And then after getting the gold,
Speaker 3: it was you know kind of like okay, check and
Speaker 3: then yeah, coming back, I just thought that I loved
Speaker 3: winning so much and pushing myself so much that I
Speaker 3: wasn't going to need that. But I you know, it
Speaker 3: was just really obvious that I had nothing personal goal
Speaker 3: wise to work for, you know, in the sport as
Speaker 3: an athlete any longer. And it was just kind of
Speaker 3: this you know, farewell tour, which was really fun. But
Speaker 3: on my break, I realized like, oh, this is what
Speaker 3: real life, This is what regular life is like, you know,
Speaker 3: and I don't have to be crushing my body and
Speaker 3: be dialed in three sixty five like all the time.
Speaker 3: And it's really really nice, you know, And you get
Speaker 3: to you get to that point where you're just working
Speaker 3: so hard all the time you don't even think about it.
Speaker 3: You're like, this is just my day to day, this
Speaker 3: is what it takes. And then you stop and you
Speaker 3: realize you don't have to do that, and it's hard
Speaker 3: to get back there if you don't have a really strong.
Speaker 1: Why Yeah, yeah, I mean all that makes so much sense.
Speaker 1: Were the emotions of that final tournament knowing it was
Speaker 1: your last? Were you able to play freely or was
Speaker 1: it hard not to think about each moment being the
Speaker 1: last like this is my last warm up, this is
Speaker 1: my last first set, this is my last hug and
Speaker 1: butt slap and huddle and all the things.
Speaker 3: It was a little a little bit of both. You know,
Speaker 3: we had a coach with us and we were getting
Speaker 3: kind of tight because we wanted to do well, obviously,
Speaker 3: especially in the Championships, in our last match, and he's like,
Speaker 3: you guys just got to enjoy it. You gotta like
Speaker 3: appreciate being out there with each other, and that kind
Speaker 3: of switched our mindset a little bit, and we really
Speaker 3: did enjoy it well at the same time, you know,
Speaker 3: doing what we could to end on a high note.
Speaker 3: And we hadn't really been satisfied with how we had
Speaker 3: laid kind of the whole season. We weren't, you know,
Speaker 3: obviously as sharp as when we were out there leading
Speaker 3: up to Tokyo, but we did end up beating a
Speaker 3: very good team in our last match together, so that
Speaker 3: was that was awesome to end on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Wasserman and Mizzuno commissioned a varsity jacket
Speaker 1: with patches like commemorating some of your greatest achievements. It
Speaker 1: was actually made by a friend of mine, Emma McKee,
Speaker 1: who is known as the Stitch God. She's based out
Speaker 1: of here in Chicago. She's actually a super slice. She
Speaker 1: listens to every show. So, hi, Emma, and that's who
Speaker 1: they had make it.
Speaker 2: What did that mean to you?
Speaker 1: To have this thing that you can pass on that
Speaker 1: literally visually marks all these amazing achievements that you've had.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 3: I was so shocked when I saw that, because number one,
Speaker 3: I've never had well, I've had Letterman jackets, but like
Speaker 3: I never kept up with them. I didn't get all
Speaker 3: the patches, and so like I've never worn them.
Speaker 1: We didn't do that in school. I was alway that
Speaker 1: we didn't have that at my school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't. We kind of had it, we didn't,
Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't really a big thing. And so
Speaker 3: to get to the end of my career and then
Speaker 3: have this jacket that just had it's like Letterman from
Speaker 3: every single stage in my life, and yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: I almost feel like it'd be too much of a
Speaker 3: flex to wear it anywhere, so I have to figure
Speaker 3: out where I can wear it. But it's amazing and
Speaker 3: I will pass it on, and yeah, I hope that
Speaker 3: it's my family for a long time. It's it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 1: So I mentioned you one gold with Alex Climban in Tokyo.
Speaker 1: It feels like you were pretty intentional about Okay, I
Speaker 1: want to keep playing even though I've achieved the highest,
Speaker 1: you know, the top of the mountain. I want to
Speaker 1: come back after baby. You missed the Paris Games after
Speaker 1: having your son? Was that intentional? Was your family planning
Speaker 1: like if I missed the games, that's fine, or was
Speaker 1: it like an oopsie, we timed this wrong?
Speaker 3: No, I mean it was I didn't know after Tokyo
Speaker 3: if I wanted to start a family or not. And
Speaker 3: you know, one thing led to another, and your you know,
Speaker 3: post Olympics is always like a weird time and you
Speaker 3: reevaluate your life, and after a couple of months it
Speaker 3: was you know, it hit me really hard, like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: I do want to start a family, so this is
Speaker 3: priority number one. I didn't care what happened as far
Speaker 3: as volleyball goes, and so thankfully, gratefully that happened. And
Speaker 3: then you know the next thing is, well, let's you know,
Speaker 3: Alex didn't know she wanted to come back. I had
Speaker 3: to call her and convince her she.
Speaker 2: Timed her baby at the same time, basically, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she always knew that was her plan, so I
Speaker 3: kind of like copied her a little bit. But yeah,
Speaker 3: she was at peace being done, and but I called
Speaker 3: her and I'm like, hey, what if we just, you know,
Speaker 3: have one more season together. We didn't get to play
Speaker 3: a lot after we won gold, and I think it'd
Speaker 3: be really fun. So she jumped on board and it
Speaker 3: was a little you know, she wasn't gonna go for Paris.
Speaker 2: Well, actually she.
Speaker 3: Was a little bit on the fence after we started
Speaker 3: again too, but it was just a wait and see
Speaker 3: type of type of thing. And then once we came
Speaker 3: back and I had that experience on the sand of like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I know this isn't I don't have I don't have
Speaker 3: the drive anymore that of what I know it takes
Speaker 3: to get see Olympics. I just I just let it go.
Speaker 3: I wasn't going to try. It didn't bother me. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I really didn't even think about it that much. I
Speaker 3: was just when it rolled around, I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: so excited to just sit on my couch and watch
Speaker 3: and share all the other teams on and it was great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're about a half year into retirement. One
Speaker 1: of the things you mentioned was like, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: have to beat my body up every day and be
Speaker 1: aware of every little detail. That's the thing that we
Speaker 1: most hear from athletes right after is oh, my gosh,
Speaker 1: I have my own schedule, which is either a blessing
Speaker 1: or a curse. But also like worrying everything you eat,
Speaker 1: every workout, you do, everything you do for fun that
Speaker 1: might injure you. What stands out to the most. What's
Speaker 1: the biggest difference in your life after competition.
Speaker 3: Honestly, the biggest difference is not worrying about how tired
Speaker 3: I am, so like it was always a struggle, not
Speaker 3: a struggle, but you know, a challenge and something I
Speaker 3: focused on how do I recover faster than anyone and
Speaker 3: how do I maintain my energy levels so that I
Speaker 3: can compete at the best I can be? And now
Speaker 3: it's like if I don't get a good night's sleep, eh,
Speaker 3: who cares? You know, Like, I'll have some extra coffee
Speaker 3: and it's totally fine. If you know, I can work
Speaker 3: out five days, six days in a row if I
Speaker 3: need to or want to, and if I'm tired, it
Speaker 3: doesn't matter. And it's taken a lot of like stress
Speaker 3: and anxiety away just on a day to day basis,
Speaker 3: and that's my favorite thing. I'll stay up super late
Speaker 3: and if I get five or six hours of sleep,
Speaker 3: like it's okay. Yeah, but I'm still super dialed in
Speaker 3: focused on my health and and try to, you know,
Speaker 3: do things for my longevity every day. But it's more fun,
Speaker 3: you know, because it's not it's not as necessary or
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not, I don't have to do it
Speaker 3: as much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what is your relationship with training and exercise?
Speaker 1: Because I'm also fascinated by the athletes that are like
Speaker 1: I retired and I sat on my ass for several
Speaker 1: months before I was like, I guess I'm gonna start moving.
Speaker 2: And then they're the ones that are like fit freaks.
Speaker 1: It's just a part of life and always has been
Speaker 1: and always will be to get up and thinking about
Speaker 1: like what am I?
Speaker 2: How am I moving today? Which one are you?
Speaker 3: I'm like the fitness freak type, but I've gone through
Speaker 3: phases and my theory is like after college, there are
Speaker 3: certain points in your career where you like hate working
Speaker 3: out and if you've quit then or like, retire, then
Speaker 3: you're gonna just want to sit on your sit on
Speaker 3: your butt. Uh. I just got to a point where
Speaker 3: it's such a part of my life and I realized
Speaker 3: how beneficial it is for me mentally and physically. I
Speaker 3: just feel so much better when I'm working out a
Speaker 3: couple times a week that I have to do it,
Speaker 3: and I love doing it, and honestly, it's yeah, it's
Speaker 3: just as much for my mental health as my physical health.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, you also live on the beach in a
Speaker 1: beautiful place. Yeah, I've actually, like I have friends who
Speaker 1: live by yous too, So like I've been walking down
Speaker 1: the beach and been like, hey, it's April High, April,
Speaker 1: April's training, April's practicing, like and I'm like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: her life.
Speaker 2: What a dream.
Speaker 1: But now, just to be able to walk out your
Speaker 1: door and just go for a walk or exercise on
Speaker 1: the beach is so cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I do get out and play volleyball for my
Speaker 3: workout though now and again. Yeah, and I still love
Speaker 3: volleyball like I love playing. And what I've learned, I
Speaker 3: mean I kind of already knew this, but there is
Speaker 3: literally no substitute for playing beach volleyball, like you burn
Speaker 3: so many calori reason it's so hard and you don't
Speaker 3: think about it because you're having fun. It's the best
Speaker 3: workout you can do in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you've retired from beach volleyball, but not from
Speaker 1: volleyball itself and not from working.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about your new job.
Speaker 1: Paris Olympics was the first since the two thousand Sydney
Speaker 1: Games without an American on the podium, so you are
Speaker 1: sort of in charge of figuring out how to get
Speaker 1: the Americans back on top.
Speaker 2: Do you think that lack of US success in Paris
Speaker 2: was tough luck? Was it an off year? Is there
Speaker 2: something more at play?
Speaker 3: I think we have the talent to medal. I think
Speaker 3: we had the talent to medal in Paris, and it
Speaker 3: was surprising that we didn't. The unique thing about our
Speaker 3: teams in Paris was that everyone was new, except for
Speaker 3: Kelly Chang. It was her second time, and experience matters
Speaker 3: and counts, and if you don't know what to expect
Speaker 3: when you're going into a games, it can be overwhelming
Speaker 3: and tough to deal with. And you know, I don't
Speaker 3: know how those teams prepared. I obviously wasn't a part
Speaker 3: of it, So that I think was just a little
Speaker 3: bit of the issue. You know, Kerrie and Misty have retired.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of veteran players are not playing anymore,
Speaker 3: and so we had a new crop of athletes going
Speaker 3: in and they gained really valuable experience even though they
Speaker 3: didn't get a medal, And the same athletes on both sides,
Speaker 3: I mean it's only been a year are trending in
Speaker 3: the direction of going again. We also have a lot
Speaker 3: of athletes that are you know, contending for a spot
Speaker 3: to get a spot as well, So there's a good
Speaker 3: crop of athletes looking towards LA as well. And I
Speaker 3: think should those teams go again, they'll have an even
Speaker 3: better shot of meddling. So that experience piece is now
Speaker 3: in there, and if I can add any more from
Speaker 3: my own experience, that's what I'm going to be focused on.
Speaker 3: And just yeah, I think there's some blind spots. You know,
Speaker 3: I've been around the game for a long time, and
Speaker 3: maybe there's some things that I can help these teams
Speaker 3: with that you know, they've had the same set of
Speaker 3: eyes on them for a while, and maybe I can
Speaker 3: identify some performance gaps, but it was a little bit
Speaker 3: a tough luck, I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it definitely feels like there was this old
Speaker 1: guard of like you mentioned Carrie and Misty, you and
Speaker 1: your partners, there were these like long stretches where there
Speaker 1: was dominance from the same couple athletes, and so now
Speaker 1: it's going to be who emerges if someone does that
Speaker 1: can kind of have the dynastic run that you all did.
Speaker 1: Is there any extra pressure with the LA Games on
Speaker 1: the horizon? It feels like there will be a lot
Speaker 1: of attention because it's on home soil.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean the fact that we're in southern California,
Speaker 3: not just the US, but southern California, which is just
Speaker 3: such a hotbed of beach volleyballs where everybody lives and
Speaker 3: everyone plays. There'll be a lot of eyes on us
Speaker 3: and a lot of ex expectations. So I think there
Speaker 3: will be some extra pressure and we've got to you know,
Speaker 3: mitigate that, get on top of that. Starting now. You know,
Speaker 3: it's a lot of mental training and you know, dealing
Speaker 3: with pressure and stress, and we can train that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a big deal for LA twenty eight.
Speaker 1: We have to take a quick break plenty more with
Speaker 1: April right after this. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: players that start out playing indoor, they play in door
Speaker 1: in college, and then they make the switch to beach.
Speaker 1: Then there's players who kind of grew up on the
Speaker 1: beach and get to know the game, go play in
Speaker 1: door and come back. It does feel like, are there
Speaker 1: more opportunities to play beach in college now and kind
Speaker 1: of get on that path from the start. It feels
Speaker 1: like there's more of that in the NCAA level now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the NCAA beach level program is thriving. And as
Speaker 3: much as I love sc and alum and on, they
Speaker 3: won four national titles in a row in beach volleyball
Speaker 3: the last four years. They just finished this past weekend
Speaker 3: at the Championship and TCU beat LMU in the finals,
Speaker 3: and I think that was great for the sport, you know,
Speaker 3: to have some parody and some competition. So I think
Speaker 3: that's just going to encourage it to grow even more.
Speaker 3: And the level of the athletes coming out of college
Speaker 3: is so high now it's crazy. So the pipeline for
Speaker 3: at least on the women's side, for beach volleyball is
Speaker 3: well established and producing some really great athletes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the AVP was always a huge highlight of my weekends.
Speaker 1: When I lived in LA I would just find out
Speaker 1: which beach city they were playing at. I would drive
Speaker 1: down and watch all the games. I still go when
Speaker 1: it comes to Chicago or if I'm out in California
Speaker 1: and it coincides. How's the AVP doing? Is it still
Speaker 1: like the destination? Is there competition or is that still
Speaker 1: the place if you play beach.
Speaker 2: That you're playing when you're not competing internationally?
Speaker 3: ABEP is still our you know, domestic tour. We have
Speaker 3: new ownership as of last year, and they're trying some
Speaker 3: new things. We have the league now, so instead of
Speaker 3: these big traditional events that you and I know and
Speaker 3: you have frequented and you know, we're so fun, they're
Speaker 3: having kind of franchises around the country. So interesting there
Speaker 3: are there's a men's and a women's team for several
Speaker 3: different cities. There's eight different cities and so they come
Speaker 3: together four teams on a weekend and compete against each other.
Speaker 3: So each city plays each other more of a traditional
Speaker 3: league than we call it the league, you know, and
Speaker 3: I think there's promise there. They have a partnership with
Speaker 3: a couple different broadcasters, and it's really exciting. They played
Speaker 3: a fifteen instead of twenty one and it's really fast paced,
Speaker 3: high pressure. The only thing I would like to see
Speaker 3: is for it to grow into including more teams. So
Speaker 3: eight women's teams, eight men's teams doesn't leave a lot
Speaker 3: of room for those athletes coming out of college to
Speaker 3: break into the professional level. There's actually more opportunity international
Speaker 3: right now, so you know, if you're new to the
Speaker 3: pro levels, you're probably going and playing some futures, which
Speaker 3: is like the third tier internationally on the World Tour,
Speaker 3: to try and break into the challenger level and then
Speaker 3: finally into the elite level, which is where you need
Speaker 3: to be if you want to make the Olympics. So
Speaker 3: hopefully ABP continues to grow. I think just still getting
Speaker 3: their footing right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't realize they'd made the switch.
Speaker 1: I've been so focused on the volleyball landscape indoors, and
Speaker 1: before I let you go.
Speaker 2: I want to ask about that. What do you make
Speaker 2: of that?
Speaker 1: The many opportunities for volleyball players now love pro volleyball,
Speaker 1: the PVF athletes unlimited is there any part of you
Speaker 1: that's like, Ooh, I wonder what a happened to me
Speaker 1: if all of those had existed when I was coming
Speaker 1: out of college.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm kind of thinking there's so many opportunities to
Speaker 3: play indoor now, Like what if I just made my
Speaker 3: comeback for the on the innversy House. There's got to
Speaker 3: be a spot for me somewhere. I mean, it's amazing
Speaker 3: and we've said it for so long. Volleyball in the
Speaker 3: United States is such a big sport for the junior
Speaker 3: at the junior level and at the college level, for
Speaker 3: females in general. Like it's it's huge, and we need
Speaker 3: the opportunity to play in the United States professionally because
Speaker 3: everyone goes overseas all the time. And I know, Love
Speaker 3: did really well this year and it was fun to watch,
Speaker 3: and they got some really good talent. It's just it's
Speaker 3: hard when everyone does the same thing at the same time,
Speaker 3: and it creates competition in the marketplace that we don't
Speaker 3: necessarily need. I would love it if there was a
Speaker 3: way for everyone to work together. You know, Kumba yats
Speaker 3: going to happen, but maybe eventually, yeah, maybe eventually, you know,
Speaker 3: I'd love to see it be I'm going to butcher this,
Speaker 3: but like the different conferences they have in different sports,
Speaker 3: you know, like love could be a conference, and.
Speaker 2: Right like National versus American League.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and then they come together in a championship.
Speaker 3: I think that would be really cool. But I'm excited
Speaker 3: for all those girls and for the athletes that get
Speaker 3: to make money and compete in the United States. And
Speaker 3: the level was so high. I had so much fun
Speaker 3: watching it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 1: And it's just I think going to continue to grow
Speaker 1: as there's more publicity in marketing around it for folks
Speaker 1: to get interested. Okay, last question, is vibes a part
Speaker 1: of your vocabulary? My producers always saying vibes? Is that
Speaker 1: something you say or do you stick with the good
Speaker 1: old school volleyball.
Speaker 3: I've never used the term vibes.
Speaker 2: All right, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's kind of growing on me. I think I might
Speaker 1: recommend it with the youngsters. I think the youngsters like
Speaker 1: the vibes.
Speaker 3: I'm sure. I'm sure that's what they use. And now
Speaker 3: it's in my brain. I'll for sure be using that
Speaker 3: just unintentionally. I'll blame it on you. Guys.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, it's always great to catch up with you.
Speaker 1: Congrats on the new gig, and we'll be checking in
Speaker 1: to see how you're doing as we get ready for LA.
Speaker 1: I can't believe twenty twenty eight is on the horizon.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, April.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me. You get to talk to you.
Speaker 2: We have to take another break. S T C, K, A,
Speaker 2: r U and D come on back.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, slices. We love that you're listening, but we
Speaker 1: want you to get in the game every day too.
Speaker 1: So here's our good game play of the day. Watch
Speaker 1: the script spelling be Is it a sporting event?
Speaker 2: No? But does it feel like a sporting event? Absolutely.
Speaker 1: It's a parade of super cute and precocious middle schoolers
Speaker 1: wowing us with their ability to do things that we
Speaker 1: absolutely cannot, like spell the word absail or simatricus, and
Speaker 1: the moments of sportsmanship.
Speaker 2: They will warm your heart.
Speaker 1: I promise you could stream the preliminaries today, with semi
Speaker 1: finals airing tomorrow night and finals on Thursday, both on Ion.
Speaker 1: We'll link to the broadcast schedule in our show notes. Also, slices,
Speaker 1: tell us what word you went out on as a kid.
Speaker 2: Do you remember, because we do.
Speaker 1: Alex's was argument and mine was aerieal I spelled the
Speaker 1: end like the goddamn Mermaid, and I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2: I'm still pissed. PS.
Speaker 1: By the way, I was looking up scripts and here's
Speaker 1: a script's fun fact. So in nineteen thirty, the winning
Speaker 1: word at the Bee was fracas. In nineteen forty, therapy
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, croissant, nineteen eighty four, luge. Those are the days, y'all.
Speaker 1: I would have been winning that thing. Unfortunately, things took
Speaker 1: a turn around nineteen eighty seven with STAPHOLOCOXAI, and I've
Speaker 1: been in awe of these smart little Bee winners ever since.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you, so hit us up
Speaker 1: on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com, or leave
Speaker 1: us a voicemail at eight seven two two four fifty seventy,
Speaker 1: and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review seriously to
Speaker 1: it right now, I'm looking at you, yep, yep, No,
Speaker 1: don't turn around, I'm you. I'm looking directly at you.
Speaker 1: You have never left us a review yet, Please just go.
Speaker 1: It's real easy. Watch a Hello, Sunshine, docuseries about the
Speaker 1: women of F one, rating two hundred thirty three out
Speaker 1: of two hundred thirty three miles per hour. Speeding toward
Speaker 1: more equity and racing review.
Speaker 2: Netflix's newest sports series, F one.
Speaker 1: The Academy is all about the women who were heating
Speaker 1: up the track in the twenty twenty four F one Academy,
Speaker 1: a training ground for up and coming female drivers. Executive
Speaker 1: produced by Hello Sunshine, which was founded by Reese Witherspoon
Speaker 1: and is run by Badass CEO Sarah Harden. The doc
Speaker 1: is centered around Susie Wolfe, a former pro driver who
Speaker 1: is now the managing director of F one Academy. After
Speaker 1: seeing what Netflix's Drive to Survive has done to drive
Speaker 1: interest in one racing, I am pumped to see what
Speaker 1: the Academy can do to tell the stories of these
Speaker 1: badass women. Pedal to the Medal, y'all. More docs about
Speaker 1: women's sports. More coverage of women's sports, more storytelling about
Speaker 1: women athletes. We love to see it. Now it's your turn,
Speaker 1: rate and review. Thanks for listening, y'all, See you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Good game April, Good game USA Volleyball for landing a
Speaker 1: good one. You get in a bathing suit Weggie when
Speaker 1: You're trying to jump up and crush a spike. Good
Speaker 1: Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production
Speaker 1: in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You could
Speaker 1: find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our
Speaker 1: producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers
Speaker 1: are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Speaker 1: Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm
Speaker 1: Your host Sarah Spain