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Nicole Branagh- From Olympian to Analyst · She’s Smart

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to She's Smart. I'm your host, Maria Robotham.
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Today's episode is an extra special one because I'm catching up with someone
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I've known since we were kids growing up in Orinda, California.
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Nicole Branagh joins me today.
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Nicole is an Olympian and now an ESPN volleyball analyst.
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Nicole is the definition of a powerhouse, from being a three-sport athlete in
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high school to becoming an All-American at the University of Minnesota and then
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shifting gears, literally sand, to become an Olympic beach volleyball player. She's done it all.
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These days, you can catch her breaking down the action courtside for ESPN,
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but in this episode, you'll hear about so much more, what drove her,
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what sustained her, and the community and mindset that shaped her incredible journey.
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We talk about the intensity of Olympic dreams, what it was like to go from indoor
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to beach volleyball, and how she transitioned into life after sports.
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If you love women's sports, if you love personal stories of grit and growth,
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or just want to hang out with us, you're in the right place.
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So get cozy as we connect, learn, and laugh together on She's Smart.
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I almost took my leather jacket on and just sat in it. Oh my gosh,
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wait, wait, I have mine upstairs.
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I will throw mine on every once in a while. And the boys are like,
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you're so like, look at all my letters. Yeah.
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You're so lame, mom. They only knew. If they only knew, they'll know someday.
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Hi, and thank you for joining me on She's Smart.
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So happy to be here. Thank you for asking. I'm super pumped that I get to chat
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with you and all things women's sports and everything that you've been doing and where you started.
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You were a three-sport athlete in high school, track and field,
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basketball, and volleyball.
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Then you went on to play volleyball for the University of Minnesota.
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Several All-American titles, Player of the Year. Oh, you have a Wikipedia page. Did you know this?
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Well, I have kids. And so they think that I'm like a famous person because they can put my name with it.
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And I'm like, okay, guys, take it down a notch.
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Well, I discovered it after the Olympics. I had no clue. Like somebody made
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that page. And I'm like, I don't even know what Wikipedia is. That's amazing.
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So you switched after college to beach volleyball and then competed in the Olympics.
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You have done more in your athletic career than most people do ever.
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And now you're making this progression and being an analyst for ESPN.
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That's so much to unpack, so much to talk about.
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And I want to start with growing up because we grew up in Orenda, California.
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Hey, Orenda, Pete. Look out, nations. It was a pretty exceptional place to grow
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up just from the standpoint of these successful athletes that have exited Miramani High School.
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Do you think that growing up in the area we grew up in had an effect on you as an athlete?
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I was thinking about this the other day after we spoke on the phone,
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and it brought back so many memories.
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Just the community support from the whole town.
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I remember the Jim Stockholm, Mr.
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Simonson, Al Simonson, his daughter, I did play basketball with,
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but she was a couple years older.
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But after their kids were done, they were just, they loved sports and came to the sporting events.
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They were staples. Jim Stockholm didn't know him as well.
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He lived on our street growing up, so he got to the gym.
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To know him when I was in high school, he'd always be at the games.
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And I'm like, who's this guy that's coming to all the games?
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He just loves every sport and would come and cheer us on.
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And I think that's just part of it, that community, that support that you have
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of people wanting to see people do well, support them, cheer them on.
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And Jim ended up coming to Minnesota when I played in college.
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He flew back with my parents for a trip and we had a whole weekend of it.
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We had two games probably that weekend and it's just amazing
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so a big part of it
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is that community feeling because I've grown up and now I have
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kids that's something I really want them to feel as well
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I find myself creating different things parties for them to bring that back
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and have those memories whether it's sports or the fourth of July parade in
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Orinda but that community feel It was incredible and really did help because,
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you know, it's a big deal.
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It is a big deal. I mean, we had, what was his name that announced the basketball games? He was like...
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Oh, Mr. Harwood. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.
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We had a great announcer for the football games. We were not a big town.
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20,000 people won high school.
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And I agree with you. Everyone would go to those football games.
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The basketball games, the bleachers would shake.
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Oh, they were. Yes, they were pounding. They were shaking.
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I remember cheering at those games. It was exciting and fun.
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And the rallies we used to have before games.
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Those were so fun. Oh, one time they asked me, we did a dunk competition at one of the rallies.
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And I don't know if it was Jake Cousin or whoever was in charge of that.
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Yeah, Jake and Armour senior year. Okay, well, it makes sense. Yeah.
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So they asked me if I would do one of the dunks off the springboard.
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I'm like, yeah, that'd be amazing.
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I'd love to do that. I had already agreed to play volleyball in college,
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and they were a little bit nervous.
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I'm like, yeah, I want to do this. How awesome would that be?
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I tried it. Maybe got a little bit of an injury there, but not really.
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So we decided, let's just nip that one in the bud for now. We can't risk.
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Although it was a great idea. Oh, my God. Their rallies were out. Oh, they were so fun.
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I remember some inappropriate moments where I've told the kids about it because Uncle David.
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Uncle David is Grayson's godfather, by the way. I love to tell them stories
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of what went down when we were kids.
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Our kids are still young, right? They haven't gone to that high school yet,
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but our high school doesn't do rallies.
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I'm trying to think. I got to start asking around to parents of older kids and
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see, but those were so much fun.
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Clearly, we're talking about it only a few years later after college.
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20 plus years later. We won't take the exact number out of our age.
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We've done so much in our age.
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Even if my kids ask if I've seen dinosaurs before, it's whatever.
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Peabody Museum, guys. So we had this great community of people around us.
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Do you think that because the community was supportive, we were able to get
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these fantastic coaches that guided us in our pursuit of being amazing?
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Yeah, when you have that support, coaches love to be a part of that because
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that's one of the main things coaches need for their teams or,
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you know, just to make it easier for them to actually do their job of coaching
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instead of like coaching plus organizing the bus, all the things, right?
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So when you have that support to step in and help, which we had so many incredible
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parents doing that, the Booster Club for Marimani, you know, all of that,
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that it makes the job like they're going to do what they're there to do,
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which is coach and not have to kind of take that other stress on.
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So I think that's a big part, too.
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Yeah, I find that out here it's difficult. It's much like Irinda out here.
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And people are, you know, they work really hard.
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They do really well. They want their kids to do really well. but
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lately it's been a lot on the coaches like
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the parents the pressure the parents
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have gone next level on these coaches who are just trying to do their job and
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get their athletes to be better and push harder and there's been a big backlash
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out here and I don't know if it's the same in LA area where you guys are at
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where the coaches are feeling more pressure from the parents involvement than they need.
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I think the way that sports has changed, you said I played three sports in high
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school. That is not as common anymore.
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I have conversations with friends about this and they're like, oh, I can't believe.
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I'm like, but we're the ones that did that, right? The parents are the ones who can say no.
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Do you want your kid to get a scholarship? You think your kid's going to go pro?
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I mean, and some will, but at the end of the day, let's go back to what sports
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is really about and what it does for us, especially young women.
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Confidence, team building, building friendships, relationships.
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All of the stuff that you can work that into just that's life in general,
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you know, how to deal with different personalities on a team,
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certainly not everyone's going to be best friends or get along,
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but working out how to deal with different adversities on a team and how you're able to handle it.
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But yeah, I think that it's definitely different than we grew up.
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And I think I find as a parent now, trying to also check myself,
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it's hard to not get caught up in it.
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So finding that balance for our family and our kids of what does that mean and
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look like, and then be okay with it.
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Because sometimes it's hard to be okay with it when you're like,
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I don't know if this is the right thing, but you want them to have a balance at the end of the day.
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A big reason why I had a long career, I retired at 39, was because I played
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different sports growing up.
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And once I got to college, I specialized in volleyball, but my body was able to develop.
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Different muscles were being used. They weren't getting overused,
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like constantly swinging all the time for volleyball.
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The basketball complemented the volleyball. The volleyball complemented basketball.
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The track and field complemented all of it with the jumping and also fun to be outside in the sun.
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But I think that is a big thing too, looking back on it, why I was able to.
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And people are always shocked. You didn't have any surgeries or anything?
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I'm like, no, I had a bad sprained ankle here and there, but I really was able
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to stay healthy my whole career.
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And I think a big part of it was having that diverse sport background too.
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Absolutely. There are so many studies now, and this is actually one of my questions
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that we're talking about.
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There are so many studies about how this single sport phenomenon is so bad for our kids.
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It is not only the muscle and the wear and tear on certain joints and ligaments, but the burnout.
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Like you take a kid, there's a young, I think she's Easton's age.
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So I think she's 12, 13, amazing gymnast, but she has just been doing gymnastics
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since she was probably six. She just quit.
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Yeah. I mean, she's like, yeah, this is all I've been doing.
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She's like, I don't want to do it anymore.
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She's now a snowboarder, which
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I think is like, hey, she can bring those gymnastic tricks to the hill.
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That's right. It's actually a really good combination of gymnastics.
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Part of helping them when they're off season and stuff actually translates.
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But we don't have three sport athletes anymore.
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It's something that always boggles my mind because everyone we grew up with,
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we all did a different sport every season. Right.
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So you did those three. And then our guy friends did, they did what? Football.
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Football. And then they did soccer. Basketball. They had all these different
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sports they were doing all the time.
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And then when they got older, whether or not they actually played once they
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went to college or did club or just were done.
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When we were growing up, there were specific people that you knew were going
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to go do something and focus on it.
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You knew that everyone else was like, no, there wasn't this need for the kids
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we grew up with to become professionals.
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And I feel right now, there is a lot of pressure for kids to be professional athletes.
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It's like 1% becomes a professional athlete. I happen to have a kid who is really
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fantastic at what he does.
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And he has dreams and goals, but I'm not sitting here being like.
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You don't have to go to school.
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You're just going to snowboard all day. That's never your trajectory,
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nor your life or what's going to happen.
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Because the second you get injured, and you've not been educated,
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what do you do with yourself?
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That's the main thing you can dedicate all that time.
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It doesn't mean if you have a plan B or a backup that you're giving up on that
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dream. It's just being prepared because you can get injured.
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It can be over in a second. You do need to have some sort of other plan because
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I will say when I retired, it's hard.
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Once you're training at that high level for all those years.
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And, you know, you're on the big stage, you're training all day long.
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That's what you're doing. And then all of a sudden you're like,
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wait a minute, my life is changing.
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I have that question in here. We're reading each other's minds. Literally.
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So I want to keep going back to growing up because then I want to ask this question
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of how you get that edge now, because I could imagine there's a need for something
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to keep driving you to get that feeling.
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We graduated in 97 high school. Come on now. What were you thinking?
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We did not have a women's water polo team when we started high school.
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We played water polo with the boys when I was a freshman.
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And then our sophomore year, we were able to get a women's water polo team.
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I think we were one of the first in the state.
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Some Crandallette might have been starting one. There were a couple others that
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had just kind of popped up. And then we all kind of competed within Akalani's, Campolindo.
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We all started making our teams and we actually got to have like an actual league, right?
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Yeah. But we didn't have that as women. But older than us didn't have that opportunity.
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Title IX changed all of that because the rules changed where they wanted equality
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for men and women's sports.
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If there's going to be a men's water polo team, then there gets to be a women's water polo team.
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Right. My question is this visibility now that women are so much more prevalent in sports.
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How has it changed as you went through this process of being a professional
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athlete from high school to college to the Olympics.
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How did it change for you as you were going through that as a female athlete?
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Well, first, I want to say a big thank you to you guys that started that women's
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water polo team, because now my daughter is a huge water polo player.
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And so are two of my nieces. And one is at Akalani's right now,
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and she made varsity water polo as a freshman.
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I've told my daughter this story lately.
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She's into water polo. And I said, I remember back in high school,
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there was a group of girls that wanted to play water polo.
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And Allie Rigel was in a tournament last year coaching. And I told Tegan,
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I think she was one of them. It was.
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Absolutely. Now she's coaching her boys in water polo.
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They wanted to get a women's team. They couldn't. So they did what they could
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by joining the Mets team saying, we're here, guys. We want to play too.
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And pushing that and didn't stop and didn't give up. And then it created the
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team for you guys. And then one thing led to another.
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It just rolled into this, you know, women's water polo.
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And so it was awesome. I was excited to tell her that because I know nothing
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about water polo except I'd probably be in the deep end. and not sure if I could get up.
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I am learning about all the different whistles, so we'll have to keep that up.
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Oh, yeah, and what they're doing underneath.
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Oh, yeah, she told me the other day, and I'm like, okay, well,
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at least you're doing it back to them, I guess. But I think,
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though, that women's sports, too, has grown.
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Title IX, as you mentioned, since that was passed in 1972, 1,000% has it grew
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women's sports, 1,000%. Oh, wow, 1,000%.
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Yep. For girls' high school sports participation, huge deal.
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The more you have on TV visibility that we've seen now, people want to watch
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it and it's growing and then brands get involved. They want to invest.
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And so then it's a trickling effect of growth.
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Softball did a really good job starting years ago and they have their World
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Series, the College World Series.
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That's all over ESPN. They did such a nice job and we tune into that every single season.
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The kids love watching it. It's so much fun. And women's basketball is all growing.
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So it's really fun to see.
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And then you have young girls able to see and have role models like they're able to watch them.
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Instead of having to go to different events, as we know, our lives are very
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busy with all the things, sports of kids or whatever activities and hobbies kids do.
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It's such a good opportunity for them to see role models and people to look up to.
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Did you love that Nike ad that played at the Super Bowl?
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Oh, yes. Got chills. I mean, it's like... It was next level.
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That ad would not have played 10 years ago.
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Now you can be like every badass female athlete is starting to slowly get paid for what they do.
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And I know, I understand that it's based on how much money television comes
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in from them. And I get that the NFL is going to make more money because that's
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how much money they bring in.
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I think we're just at the beginning of this for women to be able to be these...
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Not only these athletes, but these personalities that people look up to,
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these girls get to look up to, we get to look up to, and be like,
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I look up to the athletes from my age that have done what they've done, like you and Heather.
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It's incredible what you're able to do and continue to do as you've gotten older
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and just change what you're doing.
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I think we're just at the beginning. All of us sitting there watching the Super
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Bowl, we're like, hell yeah.
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And then we're kind of looking at all the dads and we're being like,
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do you see that? Can you see that?
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Rewind. Let it get. That's so true. We went to a WNBA game a couple years ago.
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We had a friend that worked for the Sparks, and we got a good friends and family,
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like, get tickets for a cheaper price.
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And I'm like, you know what? I'm pressing yes on the floor seats because,
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you know, we don't, like I said, life's busy. You don't get to as many things as you'd like to.
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And we told our kids, all right, we're going to the Sparks game.
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Our son likes women's sports of course
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but he's like oh women's basketball
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okay and i'm like well you're gonna have a
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great time we're gonna go and experience it and
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after the game he's like can we go back that was so much fun oh my gosh i loved
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it they were awesome and so i'm like i think again exposure right like being
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exposed to it and seeing what it's all about and people learn they grow and
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they become fans and get addicted to things like wanting more and more and more.
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So that's the great thing with the women's sports just kind of get exploding. It's great.
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Yeah. The Olympics. So I have statistics here about the Olympics.
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Usually I've got to have all the statistics, but thank you for doing that.
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The number of women competing at the Olympic Games has increased from 34% of
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the total in Atlanta in 1996 to 48% in Tokyo in 2020.
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And I guess in Paris, they were trying to make it equal, like 50-50,
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but it didn't say whether or not that actually happened.
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So the actual number of women competing in the Olympics, do you think that has
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to do with getting more women involved,
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but women feeling like now they had the opportunity to be able to do it and
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before they just didn't feel like they could even go out for it?
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Yeah, I think that is a big part of it. Like I mentioned about having the role
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models on TV, more young girls maybe have that dream instead of like, that couldn't be me.
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And you see all the different people playing and people relating to different
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athletes, different personalities, different looks, all of that.
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And they're like, that could be me. And so it gives that more confidence.
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Like, I mean, my daughter is like, oh, I want to be a pro water polo player
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one day. Will she? I don't know.
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But I'm like, great. If that helps you drive and work hard and keep doing it,
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then that's going to be me.
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What you want and to build that confidence that you can do it.
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It's been really fun to see through her eyes now too, a different side of it, being a parent.
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So your trajectory when you went
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from playing volleyball in University of Minnesota, and then you switched.
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Instead of playing volleyball, you went to beach volleyball outdoors.
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So what made you do that change?
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Well, after college, I left early and I played on the indoor U.S.
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National team for three or four years. I lived in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.
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And then in the offseason, which was like the fall into the spring,
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we would go overseas and play pro.
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So I played one year. Actually, we had a league in the U.S.,
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the USPB, which was amazing to stay home.
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And then we had we only had four teams. So Rochester, Minnesota,
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I was on that team, The Chill, you know, very cold place, so fitting name.
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And then we had Grand Rapids, St. Louis, and Chicago.
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So I did that for a year, but then I went back to the national team,
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then I went to Japan a year, and Italy for two years to play pro.
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So it was an amazing experience. I was in the North, and it was an incredible experience.
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I mean, again, looking back at things, how things led one to another,
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just never in a million years had those ideas.
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When I was younger, I did have the dream of wanting to be an Olympian.
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I didn't know how that was going to happen. I didn't even think I'd play volleyball
21:02
in college. It was walking through different doors of opportunity and taking a chance.
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And so then after those years, I was going for the Olympics for 04 indoor.
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And I think I realized I have done everything I can to try to make this team.
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It's not looking like it's going to work out.
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But I was happy that I did everything I could, whatever the coach had asked.
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I went to Japan to get better at defense and passing and worked my tail off
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as hard as I could. And I finally had one day where I'm like,
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I feel good about moving on.
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Like, whatever that is, I feel good.
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I've done everything I can that I felt. And I drove back.
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Don't hang up the podcast, my PT cruiser. I love it.
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It's a true story. I had one. I don't always admit it.
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Back home, and I started working for my dad, actually, at our construction company. Really? Yeah.
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I wasn't really sure what my next steps were. So I started making cold calls
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from the blue book, who anyone in construction knows.
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In those days, it was a huge book of all the companies that would want to do
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bids on jobs. So I would just call them up and I'm like, I don't know what to say.
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But then the more I got the hang of it, I'm like, okay, now I know what job,
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like, I understand what we're looking for in this job.
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And so I started to get a little more confidence of like, oh,
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okay, yeah, I can talk about this job and we need this much and that much of
22:30
this and yada, yada, yada.
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And I liked it, but I just didn't feel like something was missing still.
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And I got an AOL instant messenger from a good friend of mine,
22:42
Tyra Turner, who was on the national team with me.
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She had moved to LA and she was like, Nicole, you have to come to LA.
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Tyra, why would I come to LA? I live in Northern California.
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She's like, you have to come here and play beach volleyball,
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Please just give it a try.
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And I'm like, I've never played beach volleyball before. I got to support myself.
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I got to make many. What am I going to do? She convinced me to go down to LA.
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I drove the cruiser there too. Okay. All right. Don't hold it against me.
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I was there for a week, kind of giving it a try, testing it out,
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going to practices with her, going to footwork clinics because it was a new sport.
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Even though the skills were the same, I loved it. I went back home,
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packed up the rest of my stuff, and then I moved down to LA right after that.
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It was kind of crazy, but it was this opportunity that came up.
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And I knew that working with my dad, of course, like that was so much fun.
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But I think I still wasn't done yet with sports.
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And this was, although with volleyball indoor, I think I was a little bit burned
23:46
out as well, like needing a break from that. And I wasn't sure what would be next.
23:51
I could have gone back overseas maybe. be. But that summer I played on the beach
23:56
and acted like, okay, I've never played beach before.
23:58
So I need to start from the bottom, like from ground zero of learning this sport
24:02
and what it takes to do it.
24:05
Like I said, the footwork clinics in the afternoons, we were playing with anyone
24:09
we could play with, like to get touches, to get reps.
24:13
That summer I played on the EVP and every tournament I could,
24:18
even CBVAs that were not like the pro events.
24:20
But I just knew that the more I played, the better.
24:24
Everyone said, just play in tournaments, play in tournaments because you can't
24:27
teach certain things at practice.
24:29
I did that. And then I'm like, okay, beach volleyball, you have to support yourself
24:34
because you only make money with prize money or sponsors.
24:37
And I didn't have sponsors as I was like brand new.
24:40
And let's be honest, I wasn't making that much prize money. I did win one tournament
24:44
with my first partner, Alicia Zamparelli, a CBVA, and I think we won $100 or so.
24:49
Went right over to the shack and bought a pitcher of beer for whoever was there. Yay!
24:55
Here's beer. Yay! Here's beer on me.
25:00
$100. That's amazing. So I got a call from indoor and I actually ended up going
25:05
back over to Italy and playing pro indoor for that season because I'm like,
25:09
if I'm going to try beach, I need to get money and I need to figure out a way to invest in myself.
25:15
Yeah. And when I meet with young players now, that's the big thing I say is
25:20
beach volleyball is an investment in yourself.
25:24
And for me, it was like, how much money am I willing to invest to see if this
25:28
next chapter is going to work out or not? because everyone's different.
25:34
Some people are fine going off and doing whatever forever, but I knew I loved
25:38
volleyball, but it was also my job as well.
25:41
I don't know if a lot of people know that professional athletes in Italy,
25:46
Olympians, basketball, volleyball, swimming, water polo, everyone gets paid.
25:52
And I think what a lot of people don't know is that in the United States,
25:56
our Olympians don't get paid. They actually have to pay to go to the Olympics.
26:01
This was a huge issue for the women's water polo team last year because they
26:07
all have full-time jobs. They're nurses.
26:09
They're teachers working full time. But then they're expected to also be the
26:14
absolute best water polo player so they can play and represent the United States of America.
26:18
But they have to afford to be able to do all of this in training.
26:23
I can't even imagine. I mean, all right.
26:25
Last time I trained was in high school.
26:27
We were swimming three times a week in the morning at 5 a.m.
26:31
I remember you guys. Right?
26:33
5 a.m. workouts, which I still wake up early because of that.
26:37
To this day. My brain doesn't turn off. Thanks, Donnie. So we would do morning
26:41
workouts and then five workouts after school. And then you'd have Saturday practice.
26:45
So just for high school swimming and water polo, that was the life.
26:49
I can't imagine if you're representing the United States of America,
26:52
how much training actually goes into it.
26:54
And then you have to be out of your place of residence, right?
26:59
And you're up in Colorado Springs training at the training center up there at
27:02
altitude and getting used to that and everything else.
27:05
And you're not being paid for it. So we don't have to go into that,
27:10
but I just wanted to make the distinction because I don't think a lot of people know that.
27:15
I agree with you. I think you get a stipend or some sort of payment,
27:18
but it's certainly not enough to be living.
27:21
And that was the tricky balance, too, when I came to the beach.
27:24
It's like, okay, I need to also do some sort of work to make money,
27:30
to be able to go to a tournament, to buy my airplane tickets,
27:32
to pay to get into the tournament because there was an entry fee.
27:37
You want to get a job, but not one that you're on your feet all day.
27:41
So what would most athletes probably do, like coaching or something?
27:44
Well, that's great and all, but after training six to eight hours a day,
27:48
then you've got to go stand on your feet more, but really you need to be resting.
27:54
So, you know, that's another thing. Like you said, going to your coaches,
27:57
you need to be at the highest level.
27:59
But if you're going to have a job where you're on your feet moving around,
28:02
it's not easy to do, but people make it work.
28:05
And I think in those years, fortunately, when I did make it on the beach,
28:11
we were doing quite well, had good sponsors.
28:14
I wasn't having to work in the offseason. I could.
28:18
Do what I needed to do. Because we're training. You're not like the season's
28:21
over and it's not like, oh, we got five months off till the next tournament.
28:25
It's like we took one week off from lifting, maybe a month off from the sand just to refresh.
28:31
And then you go back right after the new year. Season would end the first week
28:36
of November with international tournaments.
28:38
So we would take December off and then after the new year, start back up again
28:42
and getting those sand legs. That this is not fun. I can't imagine.
28:47
I think about running in the sand and how difficult that is.
28:50
I can't imagine leaping in the sand and attempting to get any sort of height
28:55
from that because you are sinking as we're jumping.
29:00
That had to have been an entirely new skill you had to learn.
29:04
You're playing on a floor when you're doing inter-volleyball.
29:07
How long did it take you to figure that out? How that movement felt and where your foot was placed?
29:13
Even with tournaments, when it rained, the sand would get packed. So it was a lot harder.
29:17
Vertical would be higher. So that was a plus.
29:19
Yeah. But back was a bit more sore. Yeah.
29:22
The time, the indoor and the beach, the timing and kind of like with beach volleyball,
29:26
you're more going straight up on your attack and indoor, you might be kind of
29:30
flying more to the ball, taking off and flying to the net.
29:33
You don't really have that luxury on the beach because the sand is all different
29:37
depths down in Manhattan in Hermosa here where we trained is like the deepest sand.
29:42
So any tournament we went to, especially man-made, we would feel like,
29:46
okay, we know our vertical is going to be good.
29:48
The timing though on every beach is different.
29:52
If it's more shallow, it's going to be a lot quicker. You move quicker on defense,
29:56
you get higher on your jump.
29:57
And the deeper the sand is, you think you had a vertical and then you're like,
30:01
what happened to my vertical?
30:03
I'm not getting up as high. and it's a bit slower like moving around. I will say I think.
30:09
Having the mentality coming from indoor and not coming to the beach,
30:13
like just because I did this indoor and let's say it was on the national team
30:17
means that I'm just going to be able to go to the beach and be one of the best on the beach.
30:21
I think that being surrounded by people that like Tyra Turner,
30:26
Desi, there was my teammates indoor, they came to the beach.
30:30
We all kind of knew like, yeah, we don't just come here and it's not going to
30:33
be like, oh, you're just like good. It's like, You got to work hard.
30:36
And like I said, start from the bottom of learning the game and learning the
30:41
footwork, learning the read the game. There's two of you now instead of six.
30:45
You're covering, you know, a big court.
30:48
But it was a lot of fun being able to do every skill on the beach,
30:52
passing, setting, spiking, running all over the place. you know,
30:56
I'm not one to always like to be like dirty.
30:59
So my mom was a little surprised, but she did always say she saw me living in LA for some reason.
31:05
And she's like, but the sand everywhere. I was like, Nicole likes to be clean
31:08
all the time. But I'm like, yeah, I know. It's kind of weird how I just let that go.
31:13
I just love how close your family is. You've always been such a tight knit group.
31:18
Are all of them still in the Bay Area? Are your parents still in the house?
31:21
Parents are still the house we grew up in.
31:25
Yep. I think that my career wouldn't have been what it was without their support and love.
31:32
And just, you know, they were going through it with me.
31:36
Wins, losses, adversities, injury.
31:39
I had a bad ankle sprain during Olympic qualifying. It was literally the start of Olympic qualifying.
31:43
And I'm like, are you kidding me right now? So it was managing how to get through that.
31:48
I don't have family here in LA. So it wasn't like I could say,
31:51
can you bring me a meal while I have my ankle up and ice it for like the rest of the day.
31:55
Their love and support and they were all able to be in Beijing at that Olympics.
31:59
My brother, sister-in-law, my sister and her husband.
32:03
And then Emily Hiscox came, their family. They're very close friends. So it was unbelievable.
32:11
My aunt and uncle and one of my cousins was there. It was an incredible experience.
32:14
And I think fun too, with all the travel that they got to see some places.
32:19
Japan, and then on the beach international tour, some of the stops they came
32:24
to as well. Very fortunate.
32:25
So you're playing beach volleyball. You're learning it. You're getting into
32:29
a groove. at what point were you like, okay, the Olympics is calling my name. This is going to happen.
32:37
Well, I think after that first summer, I fell in love with it.
32:41
And I went back to Italy to play indoor to make money.
32:45
I didn't have as many cannolis because I had those the year before and I gained
32:49
a little bit of weight. I'm like, I don't need all the pizza,
32:51
pasta, cannolis this time.
32:52
We did that last year. We are in a bikini. I knew that I wanted to go back to the beach.
32:59
So I get back. Cut out the cannolis that year. I did extra workouts too. I would swim in the pool.
33:05
I did laps and extra cardio and whatever it was.
33:09
Came back that summer, but I got rookie of the year on the AVP that summer.
33:16
I played with one of my best friends this day, Angie Akers, and we had a fun
33:20
summer together, learned a lot from her.
33:23
And then in that off season, And I was trying to debate, do I go back to indoor again?
33:27
Or do I stay here? And this is the time when I invest because the offseason is crucial.
33:34
Like those months of training and learning the game more, because when I went
33:39
back to play indoor, I wasn't thinking about beach per se, you know,
33:42
so having those three or four months to really learn the game and to have a coach and to improve.
33:48
I got a call. I was doing laundry at my apartment and I was down below.
33:53
I saw my phone ringing and I looked at the phone and I was like, Holly McPeak?
33:58
Holly McPeak is a three-time Olympian, won a bronze in 04.
34:03
And I was running as fast as I could up those stairs to the second level to
34:08
my apartment. I cannot miss this call.
34:10
I must get to service, forget my laundry. I got up there, answered it,
34:15
and she was calling to see if I'd want to be her partner for the next season.
34:20
And so then I was like, okay, I got to go all in on the beach.
34:25
She was one of the top players on the tour, and she was giving me a call to
34:31
play. And of course, I had to say yes.
34:33
That's when I stayed, and I'm like, now I'm going to see if this beach thing
34:36
can work out. Give it the full offseason and never look back.
34:40
Wow. I knew I wanted to go to the Olympics. I didn't make it indoor.
34:44
And so Holly did international travel as well.
34:48
So the AVP of our domestic tour, but the way you qualify for the Olympics was
34:52
on the FIVB, the international tour.
34:55
Okay. And you had to be in the top...
34:58
16 in the world to qualify. There are only two teams that could go from a country.
35:04
We had at least four top teams that were in the top 10 in the world.
35:09
So it was quite a battle. But I had switched teammates after that summer with Holly.
35:15
Elaine Youngs had asked me, and she was actually Holly's partner in Athens when they won bronze.
35:22
And EY was a blocker. Holly was a defender. So I was the primary blocker in that partnership.
35:29
EY was a blocker. And so I'm like, huh, so we're both going to block or am I
35:35
going to be moving to defense?
35:37
What's happening here? So we
35:39
partnered up and everyone thought we were crazy, but we were both taller.
35:44
We both had really good top spin jump serve so we could serve tough.
35:48
So it would get teams into trouble.
35:50
And we ended up making it to Beijing.
35:53
Where were you when you realized you were going to the Olympics?
35:58
We were in Russia. It was down to the wire. The Olympic process is a two-year deal.
36:04
And you have to get in that time, and I'm not really up on it now, how many finishes.
36:10
You needed 12 good finishes. You can play in, let's say, 24 tournaments,
36:13
but they take your top 12 finishes And those are the points that would get you into the top, whatever.
36:21
So we were neck and neck with Jen Kessie and April Ross, who won silver in London.
36:26
April Ross has won bronze, silver, and gold for beach.
36:30
That year, we were back and forth with them. I'm pretty sure it was...
36:35
I thought it was Russia. I'll have to look back now. But I remember we won a
36:40
match to get to the finals.
36:42
It didn't matter if we got gold or silver at that point.
36:45
We had to get to the final game to seal the deal.
36:48
There was still one more tournament in France the next week if we needed to.
36:52
Okay so that tournament the
36:55
other team got ninth i think we knew that going into
36:58
our next game and i'm like it does not matter we cannot
37:01
even think about that we still have to win two more matches like
37:04
be done with this race we went out focused took care of business and i remember
37:09
that final point to go to the finals falling to the sand just tears and your
37:14
body numb it was an unbelievable feeling i got my cell phone after congratulating
37:19
the other team and called my parents like i don't care if this is a $500 phone call.
37:24
I am calling them right now to let them know.
37:27
I have a photo of me with my sarong up to my face because I was covered in sweat and sand.
37:34
And then my phone there, calling my parents to tell them, just tears rolling
37:37
down my eyes. So yeah, that was unbelievable.
37:41
Do you remember their reaction? Screaming. Yeah. I think because those two years are so grueling.
37:48
Yeah. You know, the travel, as I mentioned, I had an ankle injury,
37:51
a pretty bad the sprain to start off Olympic qualifying.
37:54
So that's like a six week recovery, right? The sprain. I play on it.
37:58
I would drive the tournaments with our coach, Liz Masakayan,
38:01
and she would have a huge ice bucket.
38:04
In the passenger seat, we had a tournament in Arizona, and she was like,
38:07
Nicole, you're driving. I'm like, what? I'm driving?
38:10
She's like, you cannot go up in the air. Your ankle will blow up even more.
38:14
So she would drive, and I would have a big ice bucket, and every 20 minutes,
38:18
I'd launch it into the ice and then take it out.
38:22
Talk about a coach and dedication. We were so fortunate.
38:25
Liz Masakine, one of the great legends of the game as well.
38:30
But unbelievable. We had an awesome team. And really, it was an incredible experience.
38:36
I need to know about the Olympic Village. There's all these rumors that it's
38:42
just like, everybody's hooking up with everybody else. That's a big old party.
38:46
Is it really like that? Or is that depending on what season or what sport?
38:50
Yeah, because we stayed in a hotel for the Olympic, for our competition,
38:56
because our beach volleyball is like from the day it starts to the very end.
38:59
So it's one of the longest sports when
39:02
we first got to beijing we stayed in the village to acclimate i wanted to be
39:06
i'm like i want to stay in the village and like see what it's like like you
39:10
know eat all the food and see all the other athletes all these there's so many
39:14
famous big athletes too that you watch on tv like the nba guys or other countries
39:19
or you know so it was kind of like.
39:22
That feeling of a really cool feeling because first of all you're playing for
39:26
usa so you feel like this is my whole team, not just EY and I or Misty and Carrie.
39:32
We were the four that were there, but you're just so proud.
39:35
And this feeling of these are all my teammates now, no matter how famous someone
39:39
was at the end of the day, we're all here competing for USA and having this
39:44
experience, even for the NBA guys who are making millions of dollars,
39:47
their excitement and what it means to them to be there is the same,
39:51
you know, it's like to play for your country and to have that experience.
39:56
So we were there early on, but I think it's pretty spot on. Think about the
40:01
years in training it takes at that level.
40:04
You make it, you do your event, you're done.
40:08
And you're like, oh, just, you can relax. You can have fun.
40:13
You can do whatever you want. So many years of being strict.
40:17
Where was your favorite place you've traveled for playing?
40:21
I loved Switzerland. It was unbelievable. It's one of my favorite places.
40:26
You fly in and then it's like a three-hour car ride through the Swiss Alps to
40:31
this beautiful little village. It's unbelievable.
40:34
Like Sound of Music, that's exactly like what you picture there.
40:38
It's really beautiful. Water fountains throughout the village.
40:42
Oh, yes, let me fill up my water bottle.
40:44
Sometimes the cows would be coming through. And that tournament was so fun because
40:49
if you got on the podium for second or third, you got a medal for international
40:54
and then some of the stops would have like a signature and
40:58
item. Like for that one, it was a cowbell and I have it still.
41:01
Huge leather cowbell with a huge bell on it. Sometimes I get it out and ring
41:06
it for the kids like, time for dinner, kids. Let's go.
41:11
Wow, that's really cool. That was one of those tournaments that as an athlete,
41:17
like for ABP Manhattan Beach, you want to win that. You get your name on a volleyball.
41:21
It's like a walk down the Manhattan Beach Pier.
41:24
The year you won your name. Your next step, you're analyzing volleyball games for ESPN.
41:29
So how did that happen? Like what happened between Olympics and now this run
41:37
with ESPN, which is just so cool.
41:39
Yeah. So that was what I mentioned earlier about your career winding down.
41:44
What's going to be next? Holly McPeak, who was that teammate from 06 I played with,
41:50
the first big chance I got, she was a great mentor to me and she had her career
41:56
there ey and holly are about nine years older than me so they were ahead in
42:00
their careers and had already gone through that.
42:02
Careers coming to an end what do i do what's
42:05
that next step so she actually helped why well
42:09
i did have two kids so i had our daughter and then
42:12
i had no clue if i was going to be able to come back and play i didn't
42:15
know what that looked like i had a great sponsor with
42:18
under armor and i wanted to come back and play again so came
42:20
back played two seasons and
42:24
my other teammate and i jenny crock was a new
42:27
mom as well and our second year we played together we finished
42:30
like number one on the avp which was really
42:33
killing it one of the most proud moments too yeah
42:36
i'm like that's right you can do it you know so i
42:39
started to get in holly had a beach volleyball club
42:43
elite beach volleyball club and she was like hey do you want to come coach a
42:46
couple days in the afternoons and I'm like oh yeah that'd be fun see if I like
42:50
coaching I liked working with kids and helping and giving back so I started
42:54
coaching at that club looking back on all of these different opportunities that
42:59
was one of them then Holly was like hey I'm working.