MADISONVILLE, LA. The Bayou Region is teaming up with Beach Prospects to deliver Region members free access to a new digital platform for discovering opportunities to play beach volleyball in college. Beach Prospects is the leading provider of college beach volleyball educational insights. The initiative will include educating families on making informed college decisions, increasing beach volleyball programming for youth, and creating a scholarship fund to support Bayou Region youth with college aspirations.
Beach volleyball increasingly is becoming a pathway to a college education. The number of college beach volleyball players has increased nearly 80% since the NCAA officially sanctioned the sport in 2016. Today, 138 colleges and universities sponsor women’s beach volleyball, providing more than 2,000 opportunities for student athletes to compete in the sport while earning a college degree. The men’s game is also gaining momentum. With the promise of college opportunity, junior players are coming to the game in record numbers. More juniors compete in beach volleyball now than at any other time in history. Many of those young players are setting their sights on playing at the next level.
“The sport is benefitting from a rapid influx of youth into the game, and we know those families are motivated in part by the allure of college opportunities. We have a responsibility, therefore, not just to sell families participation but to educate them on what opportunities exist and provide them tools to meaningfully assess and compare them,” said Wayne Holly, Founder of Beach Prospects.
Many families do not have the informational resources needed to evaluate every opportunity available in the sport at the next level. Often this results in college decisions made with less than optimal information, or in players not playing at all, because they did not find the right college fit. “The promise of opportunity is illusory if not accompanied by meaningful access to the information needed to discover and evaluate it,” said Wayne Holly.
This collaboration leverages Beach Prospects’ industry leading ability to deliver insights on college beach opportunities with the Bayou Region’s broad reach into a hot bed of college opportunity. For nearly 25 years, the Bayou Region of USA Volleyball has been a leader in promoting the sport of volleyball in the State of Louisiana through increased opportunities for participation and education in the sport. The Bayou Region is home to eight major colleges and universities with beach volleyball programs and Louisiana ranks 11th among states most represented on college beach rosters. As participation meets opportunity in the Region
this initiative will provide families with the educational tools they need to identify and compare their options in college beach volleyball while making more informed decisions to compete.
The Initiative
The “Beach Access” initiative will provide Bayou Region members free access to Beach Prospects’ new platform – College Beach Navigator – for a limited time. Following a trial period, members may continue with the platform at a substantially discounted rate.
In the coming year, the Region will work with Wayne Holly and Beach Prospects to develop additional beach programming within the region to increase participation in the sport and start a scholarship fund to support the collegiate aspirations of youth in the Region. Wayne Holly is a former coach with the U21 & U23 Beach National Teams, previously assisted in the development of the Bayou Region Beach High Performance Program, and head coached the Tulane University beach volleyball program in New Orleans from 2013- 2019. He achieved a CAP Level IIII and BCAP Level II certifications and was a curriculum consultant and developer for USA Volleyball’s former Beach Coaches Accreditation Program (BCAP).
Goals
The goal of this initiative is grounded in educating families about opportunities to compete as beach volleyball student athletes while earning their college degree. That includes helping families discover opportunities they didn’t know existed, assess those opportunities within a larger plan for a college education, and confidently pursue those opportunities through effective communication.
“If we can accomplish those goals together with the Region,” said Wayne Holly, “then beach volleyball will come closer to serving it’s true purpose as a collegiate sport – to grow great players into great people.”
The College Beach Navigator platform will be available to families across the Bayou Region later this month. Members may use the platform to identify opportunities in college beach volleyball across all three divisions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and within the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The platform also includes insights on academics, team performance, rosters, finances, travel trends and selection patterns for each college and team.
ABOUT THE BAYOU REGION
The Bayou Region of USA Volleyball is an independent, non-profit organization established in 2001 whose purpose is the promotion of volleyball competition on a local as well as national level. The Bayou Region encompasses the state of Louisiana with approximately 5,500 members. Members include adult players, junior players, youth players, coaches, referees, scorers and parents.
For more information on the Bayou Region, visit https://www.bayouvolleyball.org/
ABOUT BEACH PROSPECTS
Beach Prospects is the industry leader in providing educational insights and strategic advice on college beach volleyball opportunities. Its mission is to empower beach volleyball athletes and families to make informed choices through the college search process. Beach Prospects advisory delivers strategic advice, insights and consulting to private clients while the company’s digital platform, College Beach Navigator, delivers data based insights and education on college beach volleyball programs directly to users online.
For more information on Beach Prospects, visit https://beachprospects.com/
For more information on the College Beach Navigator, visit https://collegebeachnavigator.com/
Inquiries may be directed to Wayne Holly, 561-251-3646 | wayneholly@beachprospects.com
