Gracie & TJ DeFalco on Volleyball, Sacrificing for Success, & the Road to LA 2028

Before we get into that, though, how do you feel about being inducted into the Hall of Fame? Because that happened recently, and that's really cool.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

That was something that I wasn't really expecting, and I would assume it's similar to the idea of when I kind of started getting into volleyball.

I didn't know that it was a thing to have this as a career.

I didn't know if it was a thing to go further.

I was doing it because I loved it, and so that's similar on the topic of being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

It's such an honor, and it's such a great thing to feel that, there is recognition for the things that I did while I was just having fun.

And it was just, it's very meaningful.

And I'm very grateful.

That's awesome.

You're inspiring so many people to understand that like, yes, I think especially now, I love that you keep speaking on and touching on like the passion that drove you because I think we've lost the fucking plot when it came to like the NIL stuff.

It's like now people are going to colleges for the money and people are going literally with the idea of like how can I set myself up to make the most amount of money in those four years.

Yeah.

And I don't think we're doing it for the love of the sport anymore.

I don't think we're doing it for the commitment to a team.

People are picking up and going to different schools now based on the check that's being written, and it sucks.

It's honestly so disheartening to see, and I hope that they find a way to put boundaries on it a little bit more so we can reel it in and focus back on why we're doing sports and the whole point of it.

Sure, yeah.

There's professional sports for a reason.

But if you think about it, we had already lost the plot earlier than that with basketball and football because people would go to college for their freshman year and then go.

So now we're bringing that culture into NCAA where it's like, we want you to stay here in this level, this domain.

But now how do we get those people to not leave and go play professional sports so fast? We got to pay them.

And so they're integrated, which I agree with your point of the integrity of I'm doing it because I love it.

Which