150: Casey Jennings May Be One Of The Best Beach Volleyball Players In The World, But More Importantly He Has The Ability To Be Present, Which In Return Makes Him A Gold Medalist In Marriage And Fatherhood

Who Are You: The Life Lessons of Sports

As the well-known Indian-American author and physician Deepak Chopra so eloquently writes, “There will never be a time when you life is not this moment.” Casey Jennings, professional Beach Volleyball Player and 2016 Olympic hopeful, lives by this mantra.

Casey Jennings is the youngest of 5 brothers. As any younger sibling knows, being born on the bottom branch of the family tree only means you figure out a way to climb to the top. And climb to the top, Casey has.

Casey has a remarkable gift. His gift is the ability to bottle and harness the wonderful teammates, coaches and overall experiences from his past that enable him to maintain present-day perspective, and therefore, success. To Casey, the scoreboard is important, but his family, teammates and continuous journey to simply learn have been his most valuable award. No athletic medal can serve as a substitute for mastering your craft and understanding your drive. As you will hear, Casey has an entire trophy case full of gold medals representing life’s most important events: being a great husband, father, teammate, coach and friend.

Equally importantly, Casey has learned to adopt the power of “living in the moment” and simply being present. A learned-trait oftentimes absorbed and understood through adversity and deliberate practice. As the listener will learn from Casey, any great athlete, parent and spouse must have the wherewithal to have an open mind. Casey has done so successfully. Therefore he understands the art of how to harness lived-experiences during his formative years, boosting him into the realm of acceptance and positivity. In other words, Casey Jennings has accepted and embraced lessons learned from his past in order to propel his personal life and professional career. These lessons have now become the catalyst for Casey’s success both on and off the Volleyball court.

In this episode, Casey shares reflective stories from his childhood all the way to present day. As a 2016 Rio Olympic hopeful in Beach Volleyball, Casey has incredible qualities that add to his tremendous success as an athlete, but more importantly as a father and husband.

Casey Jennings is a professional Beach Volleyball player. In fact you may see him center-stage in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. He teams up with Kevin Wong and has teamed up with Brad Keenan or Matt Fuerbringer during most of his career.

Casey began his college career at Orange Coast College and Goldenwest College before transferring to Brigham Young University. At Goldenwest, Casey was a setter and outside hitter, receiving MVP honors on his way to a Junior College Championship. While at BYU he was named Team Captain, helping lead his team to the 1999 National Championship.

He and his former partner, Matt Fuerbringer, captured their first victory at Belmar, New Jersey in 2004. Casey Jennings along with partner Kevin Wong successfully ended the 2010 season by capturing gold at the Swatch FIVB World Tour by beating the Brazilian duo of Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Schmidt at The Hague, Netherlands.

Casey made his AVP in 1999 in Chicago. Over his long and successful career, Casey has seven AVP tour victories from 2004-2013. He was named the AVP Most Improved Player in both 2002 and 2003, and was named Best Defensive Player in 2003. Casey is married to fellow beach volleyball player and 3-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Kerri Walsh-Jennings. The couple has three children. Casey is currently sponsored by Oakley, Asics, and Rain.