Brooke Sweat takes on new role at Recife, Brazil, Challenge with young Kennedy Coakley

RECIFE, Brazil — There aren’t that many firsts remaining in Brooke Sweat’s beach volleyball career. She played her first AVP in 2007, her first FIVB in 2009. She’s made the Olympics, won eight AVPs and claimed 10 medals for the United States. She has played at the sport’s highest level with the sport’s most well-known player in Kerri Walsh Jennings, and she has also played in low-stakes cash tournaments you’ve never heard of, split-blocking — perhaps split-pulling, or just not even bothering sending anyone to the net at all — with Kendra Van Zwieten.

It’s worth wondering, then, what’s she doing here, in Recife, Brazil, on the heels of five knee surgeries since the summer of 2021, preparing for another qualifier in another country with, of all individuals, an 18-year-old high school senior named Kennedy Coakley.

They’ll begin the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge-Recife  in Thursday’s qualifier, where they are joined by fellow Americans Teegan Van Gunst and Kim Hildreth, Savvy Simo and Toni Rodriguez, Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, and Hagen Smith and Logan Webber. Only two American teams are directly into the main draw: Top-seeded Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, and Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.

Sweat has had, by any measure, a tremendous career. In a span of five years, from 2013-2017, she was named the AVP’s Best Defensive Player in four of them. She made five finals in six AVPs in 2014. She qualified for the Rio Olympics despite her shoulder practically being held together by sticky putty and KT Tape. Then she nearly did it again in Tokyo with Walsh Jennings.

For a career such as that to meet its conclusion with a surgeon’s knife is not the manner in which Sweat wanted to retire. When the time comes to leave this game as a player, she will do so on her own terms, and she’ll do so leaving an impact bigger than the one she has currently made. What better way to do that than to help a high school senior with an iridescent future cut her teeth on the Beach Pro Tour, learning the ins and outs of travel, preparing like a professional — and realizing that, while volleyball is the reason for the travel, there’s also much more to the sport than the sport itself.

“We’re 20 years apart but we get along so great, we have a good time together,” said Sweat, who at one point was playing with and against Kennedy’s mother. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, like, I’m about to play with an 18-year-old. Stepping into this mentor role has just been fun and she’s super receptive to advice I give her. Things on the court, things off the court. I’ve always played with someone who’s played longer than me, been on Tour longer than me. It’s a new role but I’m embracing it, I’m loving it.”

No doubt, Dain Blanton, the man in charge at USC, where Coakley will be enrolling in the fall, is embracing it as well. While most American high school seniors are sitting in classrooms or practicing with their club or school teams, Coakley is traveling the world, testing her skills against players she’s grown up watching. Already, she has played in two AVP main draws — Miami and Manhattan Beach in 2023 — a Futures in Australia, a Challenge in the Philippines, and an Elite16 in Doha, with two more Challenges in Brazil and another two in Mexico and China lined up.

“It’s addicting. Once you taste it, you go ‘Oh my gosh, where are we going next?’ ” Coakley said. “Walking around a tournament, practicing against people you’ve been watching for years on Volleyball World, Volleyball TV, and see them win these huge tournaments, it’s just incredible. It’s so different from what we have in the United States. Everyone plays with such grit and passion here. It’s so addicting.”

It’s refreshing for Sweat, a bright-eyed reminder from a rookie that this sport can be awfully fun if you let it. Throughout her career, Sweat had always played with the veterans, players either older or more experienced or at least equal in experience to Sweat. It wasn’t that they didn’t enjoy it, but there was a certain rhythm to it, a been-there-done-that feel.

There is no going through the motions with Coakley.

“Just so thankful to be here, and to be playing with Kennedy makes it so much more fun,” Sweat said. “Playing with someone that’s new, someone who’s never done this, I get to show her the way. It’s not like me playing with a vet or something where we’re going through the motions, we know what to expect. Everything is so new to her and she is so excited about everything and that’s helped me so much, that this is pretty cool. I’ve missed it. It’s such a joy to be out here playing, traveling, competing.”

And competing, for the first time since she moved to California in 2012, with no pressure. Sweat can empathize as much as anyone with the athletes in Brazil seeking Olympic points as the race winds down. She felt it for a decade. Now? Now she can relax and play volleyball for the sake of beach volleyball.

Imagine that.

“Every time you step on the court it’s just pressure, you’re losing points, you’re falling in the race, what’s happening. Right now there’s zero pressure, it’s a ton of fun,” Sweat said. “I get to play volleyball, my body’s working, I’m going to play until I’m called to do something different and I’ll be 1,000 percent focused on that.”

For now, her calling is here, in Brazil, playing alongside and mentoring Coakley.

“I just want to show her that she can be bold in her faith, which she is and I’m so proud of her, and to get her ready for USC, get her ready to represent USA,” Sweat said. “I feel like I have what I want to get out of it, but I hope she gets something out of it, showing her the ropes, and that volleyball’s awesome, but there’s more to life, and I want to be her role model in that way too.”

A role, at the age of 37, she’s taking for the first time.