Welfare standards and athlete council

On today’s episode of the Sports Pundit Performance Podcast, Rich and I are joined by Rosie Spaulding, President of League One Volleyball (LOVB) Pro, the first fully-integrated youth-to-pro volleyball league in the United States.

Rosie’s 20-year career has taken her behind some of the world’s biggest sporting stages, from Super Bowl 50 to the Rugby World Cup Sevens and the America’s Cup, but it’s at LOVE where she is rewriting the playbook entirely. Rather than inheriting a league, she’s building one from the ground up, designed around the whole athlete.

Frustrated by the fragmented pathways and lack of infrastructure in women’s sport, LOVB have set out to create something radically different: a performance ecosystem where a 12-year-old club player can dream of turning professional without leaving the LOVB community.

In this conversation, we explore how LOVB is reshaping athlete development, redefining welfare standards, and building a sustainable professional model fuelled by youth participation, not broadcast dependency. This is the future of performance, built at the intersection of community, care and competition.

Timestamps

• 02:30 - Rosie’s Journey from Marine Biology to President of LOVB Pro

• 05:00 - Building a Youth-to-Pro Volleyball League

• 8:00 - Community Engagement and Athlete Development and The Whole Athlete Philosophy

• 15:00 - Challenges and Successes in Professional Volleyball in the U.S.

• 22:00 - Lessons on Leadership and Interdisciplinary Thinking

• 30:00 - Looking to Season 2 and Beyond…

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Rich Buchanan is a human performance consultant with extensive experience at the highest levels of sport, including roles as Performance Director at Swansea City FC in the Premier League and consultant for DC United in Major League Soccer.

With a background spanning coaching, physiotherapy, and strength and conditioning, Rich specialises in building multi-disciplinary teams that deliver resilient, high-performing support systems. Passionate about holistic performance, Rich is committed to evolving best practices and helping organisations sustain long-term success. Connect on LinkedIn

Andy Marston is the founder of Sports Pundit, a community and media platform for sports and technology executives. Through a weekly newsletter, podcast network, lively group chat, and regular social events, he shares industry analysis and connects leaders across the sector. Alongside Sports Pundit, Andy leads Corporate Venture at athlete-backed venture firm, The Players Fund, where he works with high-profile sports IP such as Como 1907 to design venture strategies and drive innovation initiatives.

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About Sports Pundit

Sports Pundit is a community-driven platform for executives working in sport, built around content, events, and conversation. Through its weekly newsletter, social channels, WhatsApp groups, and podcast network, it connects industry leaders across the globe.

At the heart of the platform is the Sports Pundit Podcast Network, a multi-show lineup created for sports executives, by sports executives. The network features six domain-specific podcasts spanning innovation, marketing, finance, performance, and media, alongside a conversational companion show, The Pitch. Together, they deliver insider perspectives that live up to Sports Pundit’s mission to be “The Voice of the Sports Industry.”

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