For a young athlete, a high-five, a few words of encouragement, or the chance to learn from a college athlete can leave a lasting impression.
Those moments are at the heart of Sun Devil Beach Volleyball’s involvement with the Building Brilliant Futures program.
For the third year, Arizona State student-athletes and coaches welcomed young athletes to the team’s courts, giving them an opportunity to learn beach volleyball, connect with Sun Devils and experience a college campus firsthand.
This year, around 35 young athletes participated in the event. Some stepped onto a beach volleyball court for the first time. All had the opportunity to learn directly from Sun Devil coaches and student-athletes and discover that the lessons shared on the sand extended well beyond volleyball.
More than learning the game
The event began with more than an hour of volleyball instruction, giving participants a chance to develop skills and play alongside members of the Sun Devil Beach Volleyball program.
But Head Coach Kristen Glattfelder said what stood out went beyond what happened on the sand.
Her student-athletes made a point of learning participants’ names, asking about their schools and interests, and making them feel like part of the group from the moment they arrived.
Some children showed up early while the Sun Devils were already on the court. Rather than having them wait on the sidelines, the student-athletes invited them onto the sand.
“They really take pride in getting to know the kids’ names and connecting with them on some level,” Glattfelder said. “It’s not just like, ‘OK, there are people coming through here.’ They really buy into forming that connection.”
That enthusiasm continued throughout the event as the Sun Devils played alongside participants, offered instruction and answered their questions.
“They just have such a good time with it,” Glattfelder said. “Even at the end, they’re like, ‘Gosh, that’s just so special. We love this event.’”
Sharing lessons from the Sun Devils’ own training
This year, those connections also gave the Sun Devils an opportunity to share something they have been working on themselves.
During the fall, the team has been reading “The Inner Game of Tennis” as part of a book club and mental-training program led by the team’s sport psychology staff and an assistant coach.
Glattfelder said the work is designed to help athletes calm their minds under pressure, understand what may be holding them back during competition and translate those lessons to the court.
“We’re just trying to find some ways to calm our minds under pressure,” Glattfelder said. “We’re really trying to do a deep dive into what’s holding them back mindset-wise when they’re competing.”
Instead of a longer classroom presentation like the one held during previous Building Brilliant Futures events, this year’s participants broke into smaller groups with Sun Devil student-athletes, who shared lessons from the book and talked about mindset.
The conversations gave the college athletes an opportunity to take the ideas they are learning themselves and pass them along to younger athletes.
“I feel like it’s been really successful so far, and they’re really enjoying it,” Glattfelder said of the team’s mental-training work.
In front of 7,190 fans, No. 8 Sun Devil Volleyball defeated Arizona in four sets in the first matchup between these two schools across all sports in the 2026 school year at Desert Financial Arena.
From the sand to a rivalry match
The experience didn’t end when the clinic did.
Participants and their families were invited to attend a Sun Devil Volleyball match at Desert Financial Arena against rival Arizona, giving some of them their first opportunity to experience a Sun Devil Volleyball match in person.
Glattfelder intentionally selected a rivalry match.
“I always try to look at which ones are rivalry games,” she said. “We want to try to fill the stands and break attendance records, and also just allow them to experience the ASU-UofA rivalry and be in that environment, which I thought would be pretty cool.”
The team had incorporated a similar experience into the program several years earlier, and Glattfelder said its success made bringing it back an easy decision.
A number of participants had never played beach volleyball before the clinic, and several had never attended an ASU indoor volleyball match. That combination allowed families to experience multiple sides of Sun Devil Athletics in one evening, first by learning alongside Sun Devil student-athletes and then by becoming fans in the stands.
Building connections with the community
For Glattfelder, access is at the heart of Building Brilliant Futures.
Participants receive instruction from college coaches and student-athletes, but they also gain something that can be harder to quantify: the opportunity to picture themselves on a college campus.
“I think it’s amazing for them to have these opportunities to come get coaching from college coaches and college athletes and be mentored by them,” Glattfelder said. “To be able to step on the college campus and play on our courts, I think, is super special.”
The program also introduces beach volleyball to young athletes who might otherwise never try the sport.
“Just to introduce our sport and get people excited about not just beach volleyball, but our program and our athletes,” Glattfelder said. “Hopefully, they come out and watch our athletes compete this year.”
Get to know Sun Devil Beach Volleyball on Oct. 30
The next opportunity to do that is close at hand. Sun Devil Beach Volleyball is scheduled to host a free fall competition on Oct. 30 featuring ASU, Grand Canyon and Arizona. Competition will continue through 6 p.m., giving families an opportunity to attend after school or work.
The Building Brilliant Futures program is also expected to return with another event in January or February.
For the young athletes who participated this fall, though, the impact has already begun.
They stepped onto a college court. They learned a new sport. They spent time with student-athletes who treated them not simply as clinic participants, but as people worth getting to know.
For an afternoon, they got a glimpse of where their own sport, education and hard work could someday take them.