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Cockroaches and crickets the future for Olympic hero
Neil Cross • November 19th, 2025 2:52 pm
For many retiring athletes, the future can look uncertain.
For Australian beach volleyball gun Zach Schubert, it sounds more like crickets.
The curtain came down on Schubert's storied career this week, after he and partner Luke Ryan bowed out in the group stages of the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide on Monday.
But the Paris Olympian has no time to pause and reflect. He’ll marry his partner Britt Kendall this weekend.
Then he’ll focus his attention on the family’s sprawling property in the Riverland town of Loxton, where Schubert farms an orchestra of crickets.
Farming the chirping insect has become a passion project for Schubert after studying nutrition at university a decade ago.
He’s since established the business Schubugs, with goals of offering the world an alternative source of protein.
“I started the business with my dad,” Schubert said on Tuesday.
“The whole goal was for human consumption, but we mainly do pet food now, and we've also got cockroaches up there as well.
“In beach volleyball, you kind of go through highs and lows with funding. So most of the beach volleyballers have to have another source of income. We grow crickets.
“It’s about diversifying the farm because we're broad acre farmers up there as well as horticulture. We have a huge orange block.
“But it's also kind of like drought-proofing the farm too. So insects, yeah, it's pretty cool. They don't really take any resources and time and energy. So we've set the farm up to be super sustainable.
“They only take a litre of water to make a kilo of body weight, so it's pretty incredible. And the Riverland is honestly the perfect climate for it, because we run it all off solar power, so it's super cheap to run and really affordable.
“So it's a nice little venture and also something great to do with my old man as well.
“Across the last, like, six years, we've been running it and then playing beach volleyball. I've got a little bit more time my day now that I don't have to train full time, so I want to grow that business more.“
Schubert is only 29 and heading to a second Olympic Games was a realistic goal. But he knew it was the right time to call it quits.
“It's pretty tough playing beach volleyball from Australia,” he said.
“There's still three years to go until the next Olympic Games, and to be able to achieve qualification, you need to be on the road for like, six to eight months per year.
“And, like, I want to start a family. I'm getting married next week, and it makes it really tough to just leave my loved ones back home and just travel the world for six months.
“In beach volleyball, we don't earn crazy amounts so you can't really afford to take your family with you and that makes it really tough.”
While his future is firmly fixed on farm and family, Schubert will never forget his swansong on Memorial Drive.
“It’s pretty special, because not too many beach volleyball players get to end their career like that around friends and family at a home event,” he said
“Normally, what happens is, you fly to somewhere in China, you're in the middle of nowhere, and you get a 17th and then your career is over. So it was great. I really loved it last night.”
The The 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are well underway, so don't miss out! Get your tickets here!
