American Reid Preddy had a glorious indoor volleyball career. With Team USA, he won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games, among many other titles. Domestically, he played in such powerhouses as Zenit Kazan and Lube Civitanova, winning many titles along the way as well.
Since retiring from the indoor game, Priddy decided he would also build an impressive resume in the beach, and started his journey in FIVB’s World Tour. Starting in 2017, Priddy has so far rotated through a few partnerships: Ricardo Santos, Stafford Slick, Troy Field, before finally settling with Jeremy Casebeer. Priddy knows, though, that the road is long and grueling. The FIVB World Tour is tough, and Priddy has it clear to him that in order to reach the best tournaments, he’ll have to show he deserves his place in the sun through his play on the court:
“It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of air miles. It’s been great to get to know these guys and live this life, which is awesome. A lot of indoor players look forward to make this transition once they reach their career finish because it’s great on your body and it’s a very fun game, especially at the international level. I really like playing against these other countries.
The system is not very open and it can take you several years just to qualify. Our country has a limit of teams for each event and there are lots of great teams in front of us in the line and we have to pay our dues. There’s about 40 events over the next two years and I hope to play in at least half of them. But we have to earn the right to be there.
“We’re an athletic and aggressive team. We’ve put together a solid team this year and we didn’t have much practice beforehand, so it has been really fun.”
Who knows, all of this may go even as far as netting Priddy a 5th Olympic appearance.
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