Nearly a year ago we made a video with the indoor Men’s Olympic team, featuring Coach Hugh McCutcheon, Ryan Millar, Reid Priddy, Lloy Ball, Clay Stanley, and Nils Nielsen (who?). During the filming we predicted the outcome of their 2008 Olympics.

Congratulations, Team USA!

Thousands of fans showed up at the AVP Long Beach Open to witness Danny Kinda battle Casey Jennings in a one-on-one vollis match. The most talked about game of the summer was so intense Danny Kinda still doesn’t know who won.

This morning we got an email from our new KG friend David “Colonel” Mustard telling us that one of the Olympics’ indoor-volleyball announcers just said ‘ Wang Yimei is really taking it to SpikeTown!’ during the women’s China/Cuba match. Sitting 5 feet from the TV, we sifted through 18 hours of last night’s Tivo’d coverage (3 stations) and found the match. Our new favorite person (the awesome announcer) Kevin Barnett also threw in an improvised line after another Wang kill, ‘SPIKETOWN!! Population: 1.’

On behalf of the rest of the Kinda Good Crew, we’d like to present this image of a deputy’s badge to you, Kevin Barnett, the newest member of the SpikeTown Deputies. Wear it well. Put it on your Kevin Barnett Performance Volleyball Camps website.

You’re officially Kinda Good!

If you watch volleyball at the Olympics then you’ve seen the footage of President Bush “peppering” with Misty May and Kerri Walsh. Well, the photo below is clear evidence that the best players don’t make the best coaches. I mean, the first thing coaches teach about bumping is don’t cross your thumbs! Keep a flat surface all the way down to the thumbs. Misty, we’re hoping you told him this later on, after the cameras were gone…

View the photo gallery of President Bush with Misty and Kerri.

[Update: Photos of the SixMan, Round 1!]
A Kinda Good SixMan, Saturday
A Kinda Good SixMan, Sunday

This weekend we played in our first ever Manhattan Surf Fest Six-Man volleyball tournament. We got Second Place out of a million people. We lost in a double-final to Team Magnum, a team of guys 6’8” or taller who dress up like Magnum PI for no particular reason. But I suppose that’s what the tournament is all about. Dressing up like morons, playing volleyball, and party-animaling. We did the same, except we were all Danny Kinda. We were all under 6’4”. We looked like midgets. We took it to ‘em. It was great.

We should have won the whole thing, of course. But we were missing two of our top two guys because they were stuck at the AVP in San Diego. It would have been nice to have Jason Ring and Hans Stolfus on our team. Nonetheless, our rag-tag squad served up a whole bunch of beatdown stew in Sunday’s playoffs, including multiple throttlings of corporate teams.

After a Saturday of pool play, walking to and from our far-away party tent, and tuck jumps, we compiled an enormous entourage of “teammates” (60+) and a speaker system that was heard in Nevada. Our team uniform of Patella Digs kneepads, Mizuno shorts, red-white-and-blue bandannys, and Reasonable Serves!!!! tees helped show everyone that Danny Kinda is the man.

We’ll be posting more about the tournament, including an onslaught of photos. And thank you to everyone who played on The Kinda Good Team. It was an AWEsome time.