Volleyball Stars Logan and Shaye Eggleston

Published Nov 30, 2023, 12:00 PM

After graduating and winning a national title for the University of Texas, volleyball superstar Logan Eggleston is now playing professionally in Turkey and has become a leading advocate for the game. Her sister, Shaye Eggleston, is a rising volleyball star in her own right, as a two-time Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year and current outside hitter at the University of Cincinnati.

Host Jon Frankel talks to Logan and Shaye about growing up, supporting each other, the pressures faced by student athletes and the growing popularity of volleyball in the US.

In the game of life, Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and nurturing meaningful connections with family can be among the most formidable challenges we face.

I was able to know that, you know, I wasn't alone in it. My sister went through the same thing, and we're like the same person, So I knew that I was going to struggle the same way that she was.

Yet, for many professional athletes, fostering both has proven to be a triumphant recipe for success.

I'm going to beat her in every single card game, every single you know, everything like that, I'm going to win, But when it comes to the big things, I only want to see her succeed.

I'm John Frankel. For the past two decades, I've traveled the globe covering some of the most impactful human interest stories in sports. On this show, I'm sitting down with some of the biggest families in the game, the legends, current superstars, and the up and coming playmakers to understand what's really making them tech. What can pro athlete families teach a new generation about the importance of care for your health and finding success in the face of adversity. Together, we'll hear stories of their remarkable comebacks, setbacks, and the crucial role their family and self care played in their paths to championship glory. This is part of the game. As teenagers in Tennessee, Logan and Shay Eggleston helped build a volleyball dynasty at Brentwood High School. The sisters each won four state championships at Brentwood, and they had volleyball coaches from across the country trying to recruit them. Their paths would diverge after high school. Logan chose the University of Texas, while Shay, two years younger, went to the University of Alabama. Both found success and fulfillment on campus in different ways. Logan became a superstar outside hitter for the Longhorns, even leading them to a national title in her final season.

Logan eton no nurse for Eggleston tonight.

Shay was a key contributor for Alabama before deciding she needed a fresh start and transferred to the University of Cincinnati. She's fully embraced campus life, maximizing her time as a student athlete as she strives for greatness on the court and in the classroom. Shay Eggleston and Logan Eggleston thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. You grow up in Tennessee, you grow up in Nashville, and you go to your local high school I assume in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Yes, yes, Brentwood High School.

And it's a powerhouse volleyball school that over time won sixteen state titles, including eight in a row, of which Shay and Logan you were both part of. Right, you each won four titles? Is that right?

Yes?

Does the school owe its success to the two of you? Specifically?

We would love to take that on her, but no, I think our coach did a great job building an amazing program at Brentwood, and we had a lot of really talented volleyball players just come through the school and leave a legacy that Shay and I were able to continue on.

Logan and Shay's father, Stan Egleston, played college basketball, and early on Logan played hoops too. Then one day, during her freshman year of high school, she finally beat her dad playing one on one. That victory would mark the end of her basketball career. By that time, the fiercely independent older daughter had already decided to give volleyball a shot. Your dad was a college basketball player. I assume he pushed you towards basketball initially just because it was probably his passion. Why did you end up playing volleyball in that basketball? Well?

Yeah, he was actually both of our coaches growing up. And it's funny because usually when your dad your coach, he's super hard on you. We know he played basketball. He wanted us to be great in basketball, but he never forced us to play basketball. It was just something that we got to do fun together and he was honestly a great coach.

Like, he never was too hard on us. Shay, I don't think he was hard on you met there was.

He yeah, I mean he definitely was like involved, like more involved than a normal parent would be. But I would say, like, I feel like other parents sometimes are more like pushing it. And we both loved it when we both started, and so he really just wanted to be a part of that.

I guess the more important question is how did you go to dad and tell him that you wanted to play volleyball rather than basketball.

It wasn't as hard of a conversation as some people think. I think our mom took it a little bit harder than our dad because she loved watching us play basketball. But I remember telling my dad like, hey, I think volleyball is what I want to do. I think I should focus on it. And he was super excited because he loves watching volleyball, and I think it kind of took a little bit of the pressure off of him because he didn't have to be our coach and you know, know everything about the sport. He could really just sit back and just enjoy the sport rather than knowing everything about it.

Logan, tell people your position and what the objective is, what your charge is as a player.

So I'm an outside hitter, me and Shay both are, and an outside hitter kind of has to do a little bit of everything. So we pass, play defense, we attack, block, and serve, and then also set whenever the setter isn't in system. So outside hitters are kind of tasked with doing a lot. And that's one piece of advice I tell young players is just to learn how to play volleyball and to be an overall volleyball player, because just knowing all the skills and being able to step in and do anything that's needed is the most important thing in the sport.

And I think that's what outside hitters do the best.

Shay natural for you to be an outside hitter, or big sister did it, so I'm following Big sister.

I would say like a little bit of both.

When I was in middle school, I was a setter, and then when I started playing club, I was a middle A lot of outside hitters started off play different positions. Just like she said, like, it's really important to be able to do everything. Logan's always been my role model, so obviously I've always looked up to her and I've always wanted to do what she does. So I do say like that was probably what kind of drew me to being an outside hitter. But once I got there, like I knew that I had the experience from being the other positions and you know, just having other skills. So after that, I was just like I was kind of all in on the position.

At Brentwood High, Shay left her own mark. She set the schools all time kills record, that is, when the offense hits the ball to the opponent's side of the court and results in a point. Like her sister, Shay won the Gatorade Player of the Year in Tennessee, except she won it twice, but when it came time to move on to college, she took a different path than her big sister.

Growing up.

Obviously, everyone always is going to say, oh, that's Logan Egleson's little sister, And I think a lot of pressure came with that. And although I saw how successful she was at Texas, I love the people at Texas, the coaches, everyone in that program, I never really wanted to go there, and I think that we could have been able to play together and we would have had a great time. But I just think that for me as a player and for me as a person, I needed to be able to, you know, do my own thing.

Logan, help our listeners understand how vicious is the recruiting trail for volleyball. We hear about it for college football, we hear about it for women's basketball, men's basketball. Obviously, how is it for volleyball.

It's exactly the same as what you hear in the sports you just listed.

You know.

I know the rules have changed now to kind of help young players not have to go through this process so early, but coaches were coming to tournaments to watch thirteen year olds, twelve year olds, fourteen year olds play and offering them scholarships, you know, that early in their career, and so it was pretty intense, you know, feeling like you had to make a decision that is going to impact you five years down the road. I'm so grateful for my younger self for, you know, vetting the options the way that I did and making the decision I did, because I think it was the perfect decision.

Shay. You choose to carve out your own path. You start at Alabama, You're now at the University of Cincinnati. To most people who watch college sports today, that may not sound so unusual. We're seeing it now with the NCAA Transfer Portal, which is a website that manages and facilitates the process for student athletes looking to switch. People are flying around going to different schools. How difficult was it for you to make that move? Why did you make that move from Alabama to the University of Cincinnati.

I graduated high school early, so I committed my junior year to Alabama. It's a great place to be a student athlete. There's a lot of resources there, and so my freshman year I went in. I was seventeen, I just graduated high school and then we ended up having a coaching change. I also got injured my freshman year. I had a stress fracture in my foot, and so I think stepping away from volleyball because of my injury had me look at the university in a different way. It really like stressed the importance to me of really loving where you are and making sure that the school was a great fit for you. And so I realized that Cincinnati was a much better fit for me all around. It had a lot more things that you know, helped me as a person, and so I ended up choosing to come here and it's been great ever since.

Shay, when you entertained the idea of entering the transfer portal and finding another school, was your first call to mom and dad or is your first call to Logan?

It was definitely to Logan, I would say, honestly, like I wasn't happy my freshman year, and I was like terrified of not being able to go somewhere that would be better for me, and I was terrified that it wasn't going to work out. And every other person, like my parents too, they were also kind of had the same fears. But I think like knowing that Logan had faith in me and she was always like, you know that you can be happy y or somewhere else. You know that something else is better, that's waiting on the other side of the door. And she really helps me to make that jump and help me to realize that, you know, I'm supposed to be happy, Like it's not supposed to be as heavy as it is. And so without her, I probably wouldn't have made the jump, and I probably wouldn't have ended up as happy as I am now. So I'm always eternally grateful for that.

While she was settling into her new life in Cincinnati, Logan felt right at home in Austin. During her time with the Longhorns, she won Big Twelve Conference Player of the Year three times. She capped her senior year by helping Texas win the national championship and was named most outstanding Player in the tournament. The challenges of college athletics most people from the outside don't see. They don't understand that you are carrying what is essentially a full time job workload as a student and a full time job workload as a college athlete at a Division one program. Talk about the stresses of that.

It is a struggle.

I'll start there on top of being an athlete, you have to focus on being a student and keeping your grades up. If you want to play, you have to make sure you're eligible and that you're performing well in the classroom. But then on top of that, you also need to make sure you're taking care of yourself as a person and as a human being. You know, there's so many mental things that come along with being an athlete. There's so much pressure, expectations that you feel like you have to live up to. And I think that's really important for athletes to realize, is the importance of taking care of yourself and taking care of things outside of your sport, because when you're able to do that, you can perform so much better in your sport.

And I think you speak to a point that where you're all learning more and more about, which is the mental health of athletes. Say you're actually a psychology major, right, Yes, I am, so. I imagine this all gives you a perhaps a little better understanding. I don't know if it helps you cope with it at all, But do you feel some of the same things that Logan just discussed.

Yes, And I think think for me and Logan, especially, like we've both always been very academically driven, and so you have to put in a lot of work to do well in academics and in your sport, and I think that's one of the hardest parts too, especially in season you're traveling four to five days out of the week. You have a bunch of stuff that you have to juggle. You have to, you know, become the queen of time management, which I think we all end up figuring out.

Are you both satisfied with the way that colleges and your coaches have dealt with the issue of mental health one hundred percent.

My coach at Texas, Jarre Elliott, has been probably like the most supportive he could be. Obviously, he's a man coaching female athletes and so he can never really understand what we go through. But just the willingness that he had to be empathetic and to ask questions and check in on us and make sure we're doing okay was just amazing. In my senior season, I was really struggling. I wasn't playing the way I wanted to. I just felt all this pressure of having to be perfect. It was my last chance to win. I just felt this pressure, and he was like, you're coming to my office. We're going to have a conversation. He was like, you need to be vulnerable, you need to tell me how you're feeling. And I think if that conversation hadn't happened, we wouldn't have ended up winning it all at the end. It's just so important for coaches to recognize when their players are struggling and actually be proactive and having conversations with them and checking on them, making sure they're okay and being okay, having kind of like awkward conversations and really digging to understand what's going on with them.

Shay, have you and Logan, I assume you've compared notes on this, and would you say that her coach at Texas is the exception in this case when it comes to dealing with mental health.

I would say that it's more rare than people think to have coaches that truly do care about you and truly want to know every single aspect of your life and why you're struggling. I would say my coaches here at Cincinnati are the same way. Our head coach, Molly, She's been here for twelve years and she kind of has the same approach of really making sure she knows her players and she cares about her players, and I do think not a lot of coaches have that mindset, which I think is why mental health has become such a problem in college athletics. But I do think that, like all around, the resources have increased. Like Logan had sports psychologists at UT, I have sports psychologists here at the University of Cincinnati, and they've really started to stress the importance of talking to people and you know, not being afraid to be vulnerable.

We actually did a story at HBO Real Sports that covered the Temper Scale, which was named after a professor at Ohio State University who did a study of not only college athletes, but compared it to other professions in some of the most strenuous, demanding situations, including those who were in the military, which is considered to be one where people are under extreme duress. And they found that the worst situation is for a Division I college athlete, and typically they come in in with a much more positive and healthier mental outlook than the traditional student. But very quickly on the graph, the Division one athletes mental health begins to turn downwards and deteriorate, and the regular student body season uptick. If you will, and I don't think people really recognize there's stress that college athletes are under. Yeah.

I think it's because you come into college and you're so confident and you're so excited for what can come in the future. You know, you set up these high expectations for yourself and for your team, and then it's the reality of meeting those expectations. You know, you can always set these goals for yourself to accomplish, but then when it comes to you know, being a freshman and playing in these games and being in these high pressure situations, that first experience definitely takes a toll on you because you realize that although you are prepared, it's not as easy as you think it is. There's definitely a wall that you hit that kind of changes perspective little bit.

I'm always sort of amazed when I watch grown men and women roots so hard and in some cases the happiness of their week is determined by the success of a seventeen or eighteen or nineteen year old student athlete win the critical game, and if their school doesn't, they go home moping and they're in a bad mood. Is that too much pressure for people who are seventeen eighteen, nineteen years old.

Volleyball fans in general love the game and just love and respect the players that play. But Shay was at Alabama and al she's at Cincinnati, I'm at Texas. We have, you know, football programs that are expected to do really big things, and it's definitely hard to see these athletes just ridiculed and torn down by people.

It's definitely an excessive.

Amount of pressure that does harm these athletes, and I think, you know, it needs to be addressed and we need to find ways to the humanize these athletes and you know, let them relax and play free, because that's the only way that you're going to perform well.

Logan, were you able to give little sister Shay some advice about this and offer some insight about what it was going to be like when she stepped down to a college campus as a student athlete.

Yes, one hundred percent.

I remember, like the second Shay committed to school, when she was packing, when she was getting ready to go, I was like, this is what's going to happen.

You need to prepare for it. I might have been a little.

Harsh just telling her exactly how it was going to be a Shay. You can let me know if I was or not, But yeah, I wanted to. I really did want to prepare her for what to expect because I wanted her to be successful.

I'd agree.

I mean, I definitely think like I have my whole life just like watching you and how you went through it. Whenever she was struggling her freshman year, she would always communicate with that with me, so I definitely knew what was coming. I wouldn't say that it made it easier when I hit that wall, but I was able to know that, you know, I wasn't alone in it. My sister went through the same thing, and we're like the same person, so I knew that I was going to struggle the same way that she was.

It sounds like then you've been able to lean on each other.

I would agree.

I think we're both kind of the people that don't like to tell other people what we're going through, and so I think being able to have each other to talk to just really helps both of us get through both of our struggles.

Coming up, Logan and Shay discuss their future and what volleyball's growing popularity could mean for the sport in the years to.

Come United States Olympic teams, beach indoor and the Paralympic teams all three one goal that the lost Olympics. People are tuning in to watch it. We have really talented American players and I think that's what's going to drive people to love the professional sport as well.

Part of the game will be right back and now back to part of the game. When Shay Eggleston was mulling the decision to enter the transfer portal and leave Alabama, her sister Logan was there to support her every step of the way. She encouraged Shaye to put herself first and make the choice that was best for her and her future. Logan, why were you so confident that there were greener pastures?

I mean, I think Shay is the most amazing person on the planet, and because I think so highly of her, I didn't want her to have to go through that struggle. So I just kind of told her. I was like, you need to be a little bit selfish here. You need to think about yourself, and you know, I was like, I want you to see yourself the way I see you, as this great person who can thrive and be somewhere where they can succeed at such a high level, there can be a place where you feel confident, happy, successful, And she found it gratefully. But I just I wanted her to feel that for herself and not feel that she needed to, you know, make us a situation.

Work for her that wasn't the right situation.

I hear a ton of love, admiration, respect between the two of you, which is so sweet, not unusual for siblings, but there is also the term of sibling rivalries. How competitive are the two of you, given that you are both extremely talented athletes.

I'd say we're both very competitive athletes, but we've never really been competitive between the two of us, like maybe in your you know, your family game night, that kind of stuff, But when it came to volleyball and when it came to the things that we're both passionate about, we've never been competitive in that realm, which, like you know, say, for like a few comments, like I remember whenever I won Gatorade the second time, I'm like, well, you didn't want a second gatorade, you know, like that, but it's never actually competitive to the point that it's like I'm trying to do exactly what she does. It's just like maybe the playful sibling banter, but at the end of the day, like we do love each other so much and we do just support everything that each other does, and there's really no hostility in any way when it comes to volleyball.

I'm going to ask Logan if she felt that it was friendly family banter when you mentioned that you won Gatorade Player the Year in Tennessee two years in a row, when she only won it once.

I'm gonna say that still bothers me to this day that you got you got to win it, but I'm so happy that you got it.

You know, I wouldn't.

I don't think anyone else deserved it, But no, I think I mean Shay's right, it's we both want to see each other succeed in anything that we do, and that's the most important thing. When it comes to little things like, yeah, I'm gonna beat her in every single card game, every single you know, everything like that, I'm gonna win. But when it comes to the big things, I only want to see her win. I only want to see her succeed. It's so important to have someone like that in your life, that you know, regardless of what you're doing, you have someone cheering you on and who's always on your team and you can always rely on and you know, regardless of what she does in life, I'm always going to be her number one fan, and I know that she's the same way for me, And it's just it's rare to have someone like that, and I'm just grateful.

That we get to be that person for each other.

While at Texas, Logan was heavily involved in campus activities and used her voice to push for change. Well, many athletes choose to stay in their lane and avoid controversy, Logan did the exact opposite. Logan, when you were at Texas, you were president of the Texas Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Yes, I want you to explain to me what that was and why you chose to participate and rally for change if you will.

Yeah, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, there's one at every single school. It's an organization that has representatives from each sport that comes together just to talk about changes they want to see on campus. They talk about ways to engage with campus, engage with community, build community within the athletic department, and do different community service events. And then I really wanted to become a leader within the athletic department and I don't know, just find ways to continue to grow as a person, And I think that was kind of the way to do it and a way to expand who I was.

You know, outside of volleyball, Logan, you were also heavily involved in a program called LEAD Longhorns for Equity, Access and Diversity. What was the goal there?

The goal of LEAD was to engage with the community and impact diverse groups who are looking for help. One thing I think is so important for college athletes to realize is how much the community supports them, and as athletes, it's important for us to get back to these communities who you know, show up to games, who donate money to the university, who just support from AFAR, who watch our games on TV, who buy our merchandise, things like that. So I think the goal with LEAD was to look internally at who we are as student athletes and then go out into the community, find organizations that are working towards goals that we believe in and helping them do that.

So we've talked about the mental health part of the game, but we shouldn't diminish or dismiss the physical health and the challenges that go with that, and Shay, this is perfect, This is right in your wheelhouse now since you are actually recovering from an injury a broken ankle suffered earlier this year in the preseason. Help people understand how physically demanding volleyball is and how tough it is on the body.

For sure, I'd say volleyball is very demanding. So I think the weight training aspect is very very important, you know, strengthening your body so that you can diminish the chance that you would get these injuries. You have to, you know, prioritize yourself physically, because if you're physically you're not there, there's no chance for you even to like the mental side to you know, overcompensate for that. And then also just with injuries like they happen. And I think that's something that is really important as you're going through the recruiting process and choosing a school, is that that's why it's so important to choose a school that is the perfect fit for you all around, because you never know what's going to happen. So I think that's why Logan has also given me a lot of advice about that is making sure that you're involved in things other than your sport at your school.

She did a great job. She was the president of SAK.

She did a bunch of things outside of it, and so she kind of encouraged me to do the same thing.

And you have to have.

Other places that you can go for outlet. You have to still be a person outside of your sport.

While Shay continues her collegiate career at Cincinnati, Logan is playing professionally in Turkey. Logan, you have moved on from the University of Texas. You are now playing professional volleyball in Turkey. Yes, How has that transition been for you?

Definitely a challenge. You know, I'm in a new environment, different culture, different language. So on top of it being a higher level of volleyball, there's also so many other changes in my life. You know, I'm all the way across the world, eight hours ahead from my family and friends. So it definitely was an adjustment, but also such a cool experience. You know, playing overseas and getting to be a professional athlete is something that you know, everyone in dreams of doing. And the fact that I get to play the sport that I love as my job is just you know, that's something I can't take for granted. And I know that thirteen year old Logan would be very very pleased with the career that I've had so far and would be very happy to see that I'm still playing and I'm you know, making a decent amount of money getting to do it.

Shay, would you like to continue to follow in Logan's footsteps and venture overseas to play volleyball?

To be honest, I don't think that going overseas is exactly what would be best for me, but they are bringing a few leaks here in the United States, so I definitely have been thinking about that as a potential option, but I'm not really sure. I'm my psychology major and I want to get my PhD, and so I think that's kind of to something that I might just want to move on from volleyball and you know, start my professional career, and so I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out, but definitely looking at the options.

I'm still convincing her don't worry.

I'm sure you are. It's like the transfer porter all over because transfer overseas volleyball is immensely popular, particularly at the collegiate level in the United States, Penn State's women's team draws big crowds. Nebraska's women's volleyball home games have been sold out for more than twenty years. In August twenty twenty three, the team set a world record for attendance at a women's sporting event, more than ninety two thousand people. But that popularity has not translated into professional opportunities here in America for the sport's top stars, at least not yet. Major League Volleyball played two full seasons in eighty seven and eighty eight before disbanding. The Women's Western Volleyball League went two seasons in ninety three and ninety four. The US Professional Volleyball League lasted one season in two and two. There's now something called the Athletes Unlimited Volleyball, a women's professional volleyball league in the US where forty four of the best players participate. But you get my point, Yes, there are not a lot of opportunities. It's not a viable career here in the US yet yet, Yes yet being the operative word. Why do you think that it doesn't translate?

Well, I think the biggest reason that it's so popular in college is because these fan bases of these volleyball programs are also fan bases of the university. So you look at the Nebraska volleyball fans, and it's because it's Nebraska, you know. You look at the Texas libell fans and it's because it's Texas. These schools have huge brand names and have been so successful just as universities and as athletic departments for so long that they've been able to create this brand recognition that just draws people into any sport that the team plays in. But I do really think over the last few years we've seen really huge growth in women's sports, but it's specifically in volleyball. Like you said that, Nebraska just broke the women's attendance record in all the world in any sport.

Like that, that's huge.

And this year, last year, there's TV records being made, there's a tenant records being made at every single school across the country.

It's been really crazy to see.

So I think now although volleyball has been really really popular in college because of this brand recognition, people are starting to really love the sport as well, and so I think that there is an opportunity now for professional volleyball to kind of pop up and.

Find some success in America.

The United States Olympic teams both beach indoor, and the Paralympic teams all three one goal at the last Olympics. So people are saying that volleyball is important and we have really talented American players, and I think that's what's going to drive people to love the professional sport as well.

You bring up the Olympics, so that's a wonderful transition to looking ahead the summer Olympics twenty four in Paris? Do you plan to try out for that team.

I have huge dreams of playing the Olympics one day. I actually got my first invite into the national team's gym this last summer on like the pandem roster, which is like the roster.

Below like the you know, main Olympic team.

So just being in the gym amongst that level of talent was insane, and just seeing the way that they carried themselves and just how competitive and intense they were was amazing to see. And you know, my dream is to one day playing the Olympics. I don't think it's gonna be twenty twenty four, but I'm excited to watch them come home with another gold and then also just potentially in the future, get to be a part of that roster and to bring a gold back to America.

I really believe that the.

Team that we have right now is just gonna kill it next Olympics.

I can see why you're such a great leader and people love to have you on their team.

Thank you.

In June of this year, the McLendon Foundation announced that you would be one of eight individuals a WAD ordered a prestigious postgraduate scholarship. You've got ten thousand dollars towards a postgraduate studies in athletic administration, and you have the management undergraduate degree. So it sounds like that's where you're headed one day, whenever you decide to step away from the court.

Yes, and I'm actually I'm doing it now. So I finished my business degree while I was at Texas, and then immediately after I finished my eligibility, I applied tom a sports management program that's all online. So I'm actually in grad school right now while I'm playing overseas. I know that volleyball is not going to be forever, and so I just want to prepare myself for what's after volleyball, I think I want to be, you know, in athletic administration. My goal one day is to become the athletic director at the University of Texas. And yes, I've told our current athletic director this. He knows this.

You're coming for him.

He knows it. He knows it, so he's ready.

So I take it that we will not turn on the TV one day in the near future and see Shay and Logan Eggleston play beach volleyball together as a team.

Hey, that's not a bad idea. We haven't thought about that one yet. That could be our side gig. We'll just do that in the summer and then Shay will be you know, doctor Shay Agleson, and I'll be you know, doctor Logan Agleson during the year.

So I'm gonna have a little fun here. I came across a few volleyball terms that I'd like to see if you guys know the definitions, can you explain campfire?

The campfires are our favorite place. It's right in the middle of the courts where the defense isn't and it's like the best place to tip the ball and to put the ball where no one can defend.

It. We also call it the donut here at Cincinnati.

Okay, and I would prefer a donut around the campfire. That would be my form of recreation. That's perfect, all right. This one is often heard in football. I didn't know of it being refused in volleyball. A pancake.

Yes, A pancake's a defensive play when someone dives on the ground with just their hand and the ball hits just our hand and stays in play.

So it's kind of like a last resort, like if the ball's really really far away, you don't think that you can get there, and you know, play it with two hands. You stick your hand out and hope that it hits the top of your hand.

So it's desperation. It's just trying to keep it alive.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, this is a little bit of a curveball, and I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to pronounce it correctly. Do you know what mintonet is?

Mintinet?

I'm pretty sure that's what the original name of volleyball is.

Yes, I know, you know your sport.

I know I didn't know that one.

The original name of the game of volleyball, created by William Morgan.

Okay, So there's a club in Ohio called Mintonette who used to play them when I was younger, and I was like, what is Like, what kind of name is that? And then that's how I learned that mincent was is volleyball. So thank you Mintnett Volleyball Club for teaching all of us amateurs more about our sport.

Thank you Logan and Shay for helping us understand your sport a little bit more. Since the name of the podcast is hard of the Game, I'll ask you this, what does the heart of the game mean to you?

What keeps me going and volleyball is just remembering to have joy and to find happiness every single day when I'm playing, and to play for that young thirteen year old whoever that kid is inside of you. When you play for that kid who loved the game and had so much passion and joy and happiness when they played, that's what keeps you going.

Beautiful, beautiful Shay.

For me, heart of the game is a lot of like just like remembering why you started. It's so easy to lose that original love for it, because I do think once you become a college athlete, it's so easy to get caught up in.

All the other things.

You know, the days get hard, you go through a hard practice, a hard lift, you really just think of how much of a privilege it is to be where you are and for everything that you've dreamed of to become into fruition.

Logan is still playing volleyball overseas and even one day dreams of playing on the US Olympic team. In the meantime, she's earning her masters in sports administration and would like to be the athletic director at aer alma mater, the University of Texas. Shay expects to stop playing volleyball when she graduates college and plans to pursue a PhD. But no matter what they're after or how far apart they are, the sisters stand ready to help each other on a moment's notice, And who knows, maybe we'll get to see an Eggleston versus Eggleston pick up beach volleyball game in the future. Next time, on the season finale of Heart of the Game, I'm sitting down with the Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz and his son, college baseball player DiAngelo Ortiz. We'll discuss life on and off the diamond and the impactful work of their charity, the David Ortiz Children's Fund. Part of the game is a production of Ruby Stut Deo from iHeartMedia. Our show is hosted by me John Frankel. Our executive producer is Matt Romano. Our EP of Post Production is Matt Stillo. Our supervising producer is Nikiah Swinton. This show was edited by Sierra Spreen. Our writer and researcher is Mike Avla. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.

Heart of the Game

In the game of life, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and nurturing meaningful connections with famil 
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