Beach Solutions: Cohesion and Flexibility with Indoor Leads to Success

Madsand Beach started in 2017 with less than 10 athletes training with Founder Will Buchanan.  At the time, Buchanan was coaching indoor for Madfrog Volleyball Club, one of the top indoor clubs in the region, and recognized the value in offering a beach progam to compliment the indoor training, and keep current Madfrog athletes training at their club year-round.  Club Director and Owner Stefanie Rotunno-Samuels was supportive of the beach program from the beginning, and saw it as another avenue for their club’s athletes to pursue playing at the collegiate level.

TJ joined Madsand not long after and eventually moved into the director role in 2022. In those five years, the beach program grew its participation numbers, and became the largest and most successful beach program in the Dallas area.

Here is how Madsand collaborates with the indoor program to grow its membership:

Cohesion

While many indoor clubs are possessive of their athletes and do not support playing beach and indoor, Madfrog and Madsand strive to compliment the other and work together to give their athletes a great experience. Staples and his wife, KatyBeth, also a Madsand coach, as well as Buchanan, all coach indoor teams for Madfrog at the younger age levels. KatieBeth coaches two younger indoor teams and meets with the Madfrog Director often to discuss the beach and indoor programs. Staples and the staff at Madsand encourage their athletes to continue playing indoor and beach.

About 150 athletes have an annual membership with Madsand. Last year the club field 22 teams at the 18U division. At the 12U division 100% of beach athletes come from indoor. At 14U about 80% are indoor players as well. 16U it is about 60% and less than 10% of the athletes competing in 18U also play indoor.

Year-round Evaluations

The tryout process at Madsand is designed to be as fluid as possible. Since Madsand is a year-round beach club, athletes can join the beach program at any time during the year through an evaluation.  An athlete or parent completes a questionnaire that then becomes the player’s profile on the website.  The questionnaire asks for the athlete’s age, indoor experience and beach experience. It also asks how the athlete heard about Madsand. Through the questionnaire, the Madsand coaches have found that players are mostly hearing about the club from their coaches and other players they know who are already a part of Madsand. Staples will link new players with the current members, put them in…