ABOUT MILES

Early Years

Miles Partain grew up in Pacific Palisades near Will Rogers State Beach – which is often referred to as the birthplace of modern day beach volleyball. He played in his first organized beach volleyball tournament at Will Rogers at age 10, partnering with his older brother, Marcus. You could often find them playing 1 vs. 1 skinny court on a small turf court at their house. Throughout his youth, Miles competed in both indoor volleyball and beach volleyball year-round.

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High School

He played indoor volleyball for Palisades High School as a setter and opposite – continuing the legacy of Palisades High, which produced several volleyball gold medal Olympians (i.e., Chris Marlowe, Ricci Luyties, Dave Saunders, Kent Steffes). During his three years there, Pali High won three CIF City Section Championships. He also played for Pac6 volleyball club, a top club team in the nation, winning the 2017 Holiday Classic, placing 3rd in the 2018 Junior Nationals, and 5th in the 2019 Junior Nationals.

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UCLA

During the middle of his high school sophomore year, Miles accepted an offer from UCLA Head Coach John Speraw (also USA Olympic Indoor Head Coach) to play on the UCLA indoor team after he graduated high school. Miles chose UCLA for many reasons – its academic reputation, its proximity to the beach, and the indoor coaching staff at UCLA. However, his foremost passion for the sport was always beach volleyball – a sport that the NCAA does not sponsor for men at the college level.

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As a setter at UCLA for the 2022 season, he earned First Team All-American Honors as well as the All-Conference Player of the Year. That 2022 team had the nation’s highest hitting percentage and reached the semifinals of the 2022 national championship.

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A Tough Decision

In January of his 2023 UCLA season, however, he faced a difficult decision when the FIVB announced its 2023 dates for the World Tour (i.e., the tournaments required to qualify for the Olympics): roll the dice and stay with his indoor UCLA team through the end of the season, jeopardizing his chances for an Olympic bid, or leave a few months early to pursue his dream and give him and Andy their best chance to qualify. Only the head coach remained from the prior year’s staff and the team had continued to improve from 2022 with other setters able to set the team well. By early February, it became clear to him that he could not do both. Believing his team had all the pieces to win a national championship without him (which they did), he made the difficult decision to step away from the UCLA indoor team, and pursue his Olympic dream.

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Having graduated as valedictorian and a semester early from high school, Miles had accumulated enough college credits to complete his UCLA coursework in March 2023 of his third year for a B.S. degree in Applied Math.

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Thereafter, he began training full time with his beach partner, Andy Benesh. Benesh is a 28-year-old, 6’8” blocker from Palos Verdes, California, who played four years for the USC Trojans’ indoor team as their starting middle blocker. He also played professional indoor volleyball after college in Switzerland before converting to beach volleyball full time, where he earned Volleyball Magazine’s 2023 AVP honors as its MVP and Best Blocker.

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Pursuit of an Olympic Gold

Miles and his partner Andy enter the field just as some of the most prominent men’s players in USA Olympic history have retired (Phil Dalhausser (43), Nick Lucena (43), Jake Gibb (47), Casey Patterson (43)).

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Miles and Andy began their Olympic Gold run in April 2023, starting in the qualifiers for two FIVB Challenger tournaments in Brazil. They placed 5th in Itapema and 4th in Saquarema, and then went on to earn podium finishes in each of their next three FIVB Elite 16 events. They captured the gold medal in the storied FIVB Elite 16 Gstaad tournament in July 2023, beating out the reigning Olympic champions from Norway (Anders Mol and Christian Sorum – known as the “Beachvolley Vikings”). They also earned silver in Montreal and bronze in Ostrava.

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Miles is hoping to make his Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and become the youngest USA Olympian to date in the sport of beach volleyball. He hopes Paris is a follow-up to having been the youngest USA player to win a gold medal in a major FIVB event (Dubai 2022) and the youngest USA player to win a gold medal in a NORCECA event (Jamaica 2019).