New Arena, New Season, New Writing Home
Catch me over on Panther-Lair for the 2026 season.
Victory Heights Arena is officially open, and I was able to cover the big day on Saturday over at Panther-Lair.com, where I will be on the volleyball beat for the 2026 season.
Chris Peak
Chris Peak, longtime publisher of Panther-Lair.com and by all accounts a good dude, reached out to me this summer to gauge my interest in writing for the site. It's a wonderful opportunity, especially because Chris is showing a desire to step up volleyball coverage for his audience of Pitt diehards. Pitt's best program deserves much more attention than the sports media in town is currently providing, which Chris is smart enough to recognize.
You can expect match recaps from me, preview articles for some of the bigger contests, as well as additional news and notes as the season goes on – pretty much what you've been seeing here in this newsletter. With 25 of Pitt's 30 matches scheduled on a Friday night, Saturday or Sunday, it's the kind of role that's perfect to fit next to my day job as a comms guy and moonlighting as a public address announcer for high school soccer.
So this means that the Bandwagoner's Guide to Pitt Volleyball itself is going on hiatus. You'll be able to find all of my published writing on Panther-Lair.com this season, my additional thoughts on the site's Olympic Sports Board, and live-posting of matches on Bluesky. But emails? I'll be giving your inbox a breather.
This newsletter was never meant to be a means to an end of another writing gig ("Hey, you! Get rich quick by spending your free time on Sunday and Wednesday nights writing about serve-receive!") and always an outlet for my all-too-pervasive thoughts about the growing and changing Pitt Volleyball program. With this new role, I get to keep flexing the writing muscles and be in the uncomfortable position of asking "why" and "how" of coaches and athletes who just poured their hearts into the game.
Let's see... anything else... oh yeah, now I've got a solo season ticket in section 103 that I won't be using this season, so hit me up for any match you might like before it's listed on SeatGeek.
See you at Victory Heights!
