Congrats to the USA Men’s Volleyball Team for beating Serbia in the finals of the 2008 World League Championships.  They also managed to take down the number #1 team in the world, Brazil, in three games.  

It’s really interesting living in America and seeing how Volleyball, the number two sport in the world, is not even recognized here.  Let me give you a few stats from the FIVB website:

“The FIVB World League 2008 was available in total to more than 31 TV rightsholders worldwide. The Gold Final match was distributed live via satellite to 25 TV channels for fantastic live and semi-live coverage.“

Last year’s World League finals had over 1.1 billion viewers.  I think it’s great that ESPN-U will be showing the broadcast, it’s just not live.  We will all have to wait until August 13th to see it here in the states.  By then the boys will already be fighting for Olympic Gold in Beijing.

If you’re interested in charting their progress over the course of the olympics, you might want to visit Reid Priddy’s site.  Reid is the starting outside hitter for the Men’s National Team and I also helped develop his website.

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Get ready for the 2008 Surf Festival 6-Man Volleyball Tournament.  This has been a labor of love for the last 8 years or so and it just so happens that it falls on or around my birthday each year.  I’ve had the pleasure of winning this tournament in 2002 as a part of Team Monkey Butt.  

The last couple years I’ve played with the Rockstar and Virtual Tourist Teams and we’ve finished as high as 5th. This year I’m switching gears and playing with my friends from 840. Although we have no chance of winning, it should be ridiculous amounts of fun.  After all, its about the journey not the end result.  Here’s a clip from last year so you have an idea of what’s going to happen next weekend.  

Mates of State is my new favorite band.  This power-couple produces a really fresh sound with fantastic harmonies.  Their new album “Re-Arrange Us” is fantastic.  They also have a killer blog about being musicians and parents.