TOPEKA — Over a decade ago, Chris Herron was coaching Camryn Turner’s second grade volleyball team. The introductory skills and rules of the game were taught, but the Washburn volleyball coach saw something different in Turner’s skills at a young age. 

Knight returns to Westwood after concluding his professional playing career in Germany in 2025 with SWD Powervolleys Düren in the German Bundesliga. He also played for the Bruins and received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from UCLA, where he helped the Bruins win national titles in 2023 and 2024.

“We are thrilled to welcome Alex back home to Westwood,” head coach John Hawks said. “Alex brings a winning pedigree both from his time at UCLA where he was an AVCA All-American and a two-time national champion, and from his professional playing days. Alex is a Bruin through and through, and I can’t wait to see the impact he will make on the young men in our program.”

Knight had a successful season in Germany in 2025, helping his club team to the finals of the German Cup, and a sixth-place finish in the league standings at the end of the season. He returns to Westwood having made appearances in 109 matches for the Bruins between 2020 and 2024.  

“I am so excited to be coming back home to UCLA,” Knight said. “My time as a student-athlete was a dream come true, but I know that there is unfinished business for me in Westwood. Thank you to Coach Hawks for giving me this opportunity — I can’t wait to step into this new role and help bring more National Championships home for this program.”

While at UCLA as a player, Knight played in a total of 109 matches, playing both at outside hitter and at libero. While playing primarily at outside hitter, Knight totaled 635 kills over five seasons between 2020 and 2024, with a career-high of 257 kills and a .332 hitting percentage as a redshirt junior in 2023. For his efforts, Knight was named a second-team AVCA All-American and a MPSF first-team selection.

Knight played a key role for the Bruins in both the 2023 and 2024 NCAA National Collegiate title runs. In the 2023 NCAA tournament, Knight recorded 21 kills, including 15 in the final, where the Bruins beat Hawai’i in four sets to claim their 20th national championship. After the tournament, Knight was named the most outstanding player of the tournament.

His role was different during the 2024 title run, as he played primarily at libero down the stretch for the Bruins. Knight finished the year with 89 kills, hit .350 on the year, recorded 70 digs, and played every set of the Bruins’ title run in the NCAA tournament as UCLA captured its 21st national championship.

UCLA men’s volleyball enters the 2026 season fresh off another strong season in 2025. The Bruins, under first-year head coach John Hawks, made the NCAA Championship title match for the third consecutive year, won over 20 matches for the third consecutive season, and claimed the MPSF regular season title for the third consecutive year. To conclude the season, outside hitter Cooper Robinson was named the MPSF Player of the Year, while Robinson, Zach Rama, Andrew Rowan, and Cameron Thorne were all named AVCA All-Americans.

 

Boys and girls swimmers from Maine South accounted for 18 of Illinois’ 83 NISCA academic All-American athletes to help Illinois rank No. 6 in the nation for most selections.
A total of 22 boys and girls from the Journal-area were honored.
To earn NISCA academic All-American honors, athletes must be a senior with a GPA above a 3.75 and complete an application.
Maine South went all out and accounted for over 1/5th of the Illinois selections. 
Only Texas (262), Michigan (210), Ohio (140), Pennsylva…

“I’ve never bought an expensive watch, I don’t spend lots of money on clothes. I don’t fly business class…even to Australia, I flew economy,” Beahon recently told the Financial Times. “The whole concept of spending also just doesn’t make me happy.”

Beahon used to be a professional youth football player, starting off by playing for the Tranmere Rovers in his late teens, then joining Spanish club Jerez Industrial CF. But his athletic career abruptly came to an end in his early 20’s, as he and his brother Philip ditched the sport to work finance jobs in London, aiming to raise capital for their sportswear venture. Tom joined Lloyds Bank while Philip worked at Deloitte—and by 2015, Castore was up and running. But their pockets were incredibly tight. 

For the first three years, the cofounders and co-CEOs paid themselves £1,000 ($1,355) a month in order to preserve money for the business. Tom said he moved back in with his parents, while Philip’s soon-to-be wife paid his rent. The ex-footballer noted these were “rough times financially,” but even after his sportswear business neared a £1 billion valuation in 2023, none of his frugal habits changed. In fact, he lives a low-key lifestyle out of concern he’ll hit rock-bottom by overspending—with no safety net to catch him. 

“I did go through a period where I thought ‘I should do something nice,’ but I have always just been a saver rather than a spender,” Beahon said. “I don’t know if it’s because of my background or having lived through those three years where I was constantly in fear of running out of money.” 

“That fear never leaves you. It’s deeply branded on my soul—that day-to-day focus on cash, that paranoia.”

Fortune reached out to Beahon for comment. 

Growing up with a frugal mindset has stuck with him

Beahon may not be splurging on silk pajamas and caviar for himself—but he’s more than happy to shell out on his parents. He said he likes to buy them nice holidays and business-class flights because they’re in the “getting to enjoy it” phase of life. Meanwhile, Beahon believes he’s still in the “building stage” with long hours, so no vacations are on his horizon. 

Plus, he said it’s nice to be able to spoil his parents who never had the chance to enjoy such luxuries themselves. Beahon grew up proudly working class, living in northern England without much money. His family didn’t go on holidays, and he was well aware that others were better off than he was growing up. It’s another reason he’s so frugal today—and that perspective has stuck with Beahon in leading his highly lucrative athletic-wear business. 

“When we started Castore, I vividly remember meeting other entrepreneurs and thinking, ‘There’s very few people like us,’” Beahon said. “Everyone else had a safety net—their parents had spare cash and, if it didn’t go well, they’d do something else and it would be okay. I didn’t feel like that.”

Unlike some silver-spoon-fed founders, Beahon’s family didn’t have a “spare £40,000 lying around.” With a teacher mom and construction-worker dad, Beahon recalled his parents making a “huge sacrifice” by offering to remortgage their house to give them a loan in launching Castore. Those dire circumstances 10 years ago feel very far away from the success his brand brings in now—but his pivot to entrepreneurism was about financial stability, not ultra-wealth, anyway.

“More than wanting to make a certain amount of money, I was driven by the feeling of security. My dad was always nervous about being made redundant, and it affected the family,” he said. “Being successful to the point of having security was always the goal.”

Other millionaires are still pinching their pennies too

Beahon isn’t the only one to skimp out on holidays and expensive clothes, despite being on the come-up of great financial success. Even the youngest self-made billionaire who knocked Taylor Swift off the top spot, Lucy Guo, still shops at Shein and pulls up to work in a Honda Civic.

Serial investor Mark Cuban also didn’t go on vacation for the first seven years of getting his technology company MicroSolutions off the ground. He said that at the time he was “broke as f-ck” living in a three-bedroom apartment with five other roommates, often sleeping on the floor. While all his other friends were going out on the weekends, he was head-down in growing his business out of fear that the whole thing “could fall into the sh-tter.” He later sold MicroSolutions to H&R Block for $6 million. 

Actress Keke Palmer was also a millionaire at the age of 12—but just like Beahon, her humble upbringing guided the way she handled money forever. For the first 15 years of her career, all of her travel was business-related. And she still lives under her means in other ways; Palmer said that even with $1 million in her pocket, she’d still only rent out a $1,500 place and affordable car—no need for a Bentley. She got her penny-pinching habits from her parents, who worked with what they had. 

“I learned from my parents very early on because they knew their limitations with money and finances,” Palmer told CNBC Make It earlier this year. “I believe in saving and frugality…I don’t play around with that.”

David’s Bridal CEO Kelly Cook may be leading one of the biggest bridal chains in the country, but her early career looked a lot different. Years ago she was barely scraping by, juggling weekend work as a bartender, her college courses, and caring for her young child. Cook described living off pinto beans and cornbread to make her money stretch, her take-home pay of $882 as a single mom barely covering her car note and rent. Now, the 58-year-old is helming a wedding giant with 200 stores across the U.S. and Canada, leading around 5,000 employees.

ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio volleyball team has released the nonconference portion of its 2025 schedule, as announced by interim head coach Kenzie Brinkman on Thursday, July 10.
 
“We’re excited to unveil this season’s volleyball schedule. It’s a challenging lineup including a Pittsburgh team that made it to the final four for the last four years. It will push our team and showcase the incredible talent we’ve been building the last couple years,” Brinkman said. “With some awesome returners and some incredible new faces, fan can expect high-energy matches and unforgettable moments all season long.”
 
The Mid-American Conference announced the in-league matchups for the 2025 season in the beginning of April; the release is available HERE. The previously announced MAC schedule has one update, Ohio’s home series versus Western Michigan. The series will now be played on Thursday, Nov. 13 and Friday, Nov. 14.
 
Ohio will kick off the 2025 season in the Convocation Center with a home tournament, the Bobcat Invitational. The Bobcats will host Bucknell, Iowa State and Eastern Illinois on Friday, Aug. 29 to Sunday, Aug. 31. Ohio will play Bucknell on Friday at 7 p.m. ET. On Saturday, the Bobcats will face Iowa State at 5 p.m. ET. Ohio will conclude the tournament with Eastern Illinois on Sunday at 12 p.m. ET.
 
The Bobcats will start September with the Chattanooga Classic in Chattanooga, Tenn. Ohio will face Cincinnati on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. ET. On Friday, Sept. 5, the Bobcats will face tournament host, UT Chattanooga, at 12 p.m. ET. Ohio will conclude the Chattanooga Classic on Sunday, Sept. 6 against Jacksonville State at 12 p.m. ET.
 
Ohio will continue nonconference play at the Tru by Hilton Dayton Beavercreek Invitational in Dayton, Ohio. The Bobcats will kick off the tournament against Ohio State on Friday, Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. ET. On Saturday, Sept. 13, Ohio is set to face Pittsburgh at 2 p.m. ET. The Bobcats will conclude the tournament against Wright State on Sunday, Sept. 14 at 2 p.m. ET.
 
The final weekend of Ohio’s nonconference schedule will be played at the Charlotte Invitational in Charlotte, N.C. The Bobcats will play two matches on Friday, Sept. 19. Ohio will face Maryland Eastern Shore at 10:30 a.m. ET and tournament host, Charlotte, at 6:30 p.m. ET. Ohio is set to conclude the tournament with a match against Furman on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 12 p.m. ET.
 
2025 Volleyball Season Tickets
Season tickets for the 2025 Ohio volleyball season are now available HERE. There are three seating options: Courtside ($105), Reserved ($75) and General Admission ($45). The sections for the reserved tickets are 1-4 behind the team bench while the rest of the arena is general admission.
 
#OUohyeah
 

The Providence Journal is proud to announce the 2025 All-State Volleyball first and second teams. The Journal Sports staff, with some help from the coaches associations, determine the first- and second-team members. All first-team members were nominees for Player of the Year in that sport, and winners were announced at the All-State Awards show held June 18 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, featuring Rhode Island FC midfielder Clay Holstad.