“My name is Casey Jennings and I’m 38 years old. I’m a professional beach volleyball player. I’ve been playing professionally for 12 years. You know you’re taught as a little kid to dream to believe in things and then all of a sudden you get to high school and people start going, well what are you going to do as a fall back or these things. Where, I think that people do reach their full potential at a sport or whatever they are doing, their passion, they believe in it years before anybody even realizes they are going to do it. You sometimes, you know if you hear someone say something in the crowd that is heckling you, you can flash back to those people who say ah you’re too small or I don’t know if you can do it or whatever, but I don’t use the haters that much anymore it’s more about what you believe. When you believe in yourself and you have a passion like that you commit to it 100%. The commitment along with the passion…the passion allows you to commit it allows you to get up at night and go work out after you’ve put your kids to bed at 10 pm and go to a gym when you know you’re supposed to get your workout in when when you dead tired and beat and you’ve been taking care of your kids and you’ve trained early in the morning and that passion allows you to commit at those times when it’s the hardest you believe in it.
That’s where I’m at today. I love it. I think I’m better than I ever have been. I’m just as fast. My body feels great.
It’s because I’ve put that commitment into it by taking care of it, and lifting, and eating good food, and putting good energy into my body and it’s responded by taking good care of me and I’ve been able to do it for a long time. Regardless of looking at my age or people saying that I might not be able to make it to Rio…I’m gonna make it to Rio. I’m going to find a way to make it to Rio in 2016 and not only get there but I want to win a gold medal with my wife. While she’s winning on the women’s side I want to win on the mens. And if I don’t I know that I’ll have dedicated everything and maxed out my potential at this sport and I think that’s what it’s all about.”
One week after this interview Casey and former partner Matt Fuerbringer defeated the #1 seated team to win the 2013 Manhattan Beach Open also known as the “Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball!
