Zachery Schubert

South Australian beach volleyball star Zac Schubert knows that when his sporting career comes to an end, he has a job to go back to in an industry that is absolutely buzzing.

When he’s not on the beach, Zac is the chief executive of Schubugs, one of Australia’s largest cricket farms. It started as a modest set-up in his garage, but now involves several shipping containers full of insects on the family farm just outside Loxton, in South Australia’s Riverland.

At the moment, 90 per cent of their crickets are sold to people who keep reptiles, but Zac hopes one day to sell most of his bugs for human consumption.

Zac’s interest in insect protein was piqued when he was studying for a bachelor of nutrition studies at the University of South Australia.

“Nutrition subjects at the time opened my eyes up to the fact that we’re not living that sustainably and there’s a big call for us to do more,” Zac said. “At the start it wasn’t about getting myself a job; it was about how can I do a bit of farming when I’m back in Adelaide living in a small house. So I thought I’d see if I could grow my own insects and turn them into my own food.

“For me, I don’t care if people eat a whole cricket or if it’s in a powdered form – what I’m focused on is if there’s people who aren’t getting enough protein in their diet, how can we make it cheaper to get it in their system.”

In the meantime, however, Zac has left the crickets in the care of his Dad, while he focusses on the Paris Olympics, a goal that seemed way out of his reach just a couple of years ago.

Growing up in Loxton, Zac’s Olympic dream was inspired by his cousin, hockey striker Grant Schubert, who won gold with the Kookaburras at the Athens Olympics and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

“I love talking to him just about the Olympic dream and training and attitude,” Zac said. “Grant’s been like a role model for me.”

Zac started out competing at the elite junior level in beach volleyball in 2013 and had some success over the next few years with a variety of partners.

But it wasn’t until the birth of an almost accidental combination with Tom Hodges that things really took off.

Zac had suffered an injury in 2021 that required double knee surgery and put his whole career in doubt. At the same time, Tom had major shoulder surgery and the pair ended up doing rehab together.

“We got pretty lucky because we were both injured at the same time, so we kind of needed each other,” Zac said.

They began competing as a pair in 2022, reaching the podium six times at futures, national or continental tournaments.

The following season, they broke into the world top 10 for the first time when they won the Jurmala Challenge in Latvia, before making it to the round 16 at the 2023 world championships in Tiaxcala, Mexico.

They also triumphed at the 2023 Asian Beach Volleyball Championship, dominating the four-day tournament in Pingtan, China, to claim the title.

At the Paris Olympics Zac and Thomas played teams from Germany, Poland and France in the pool stage. The pair had a difficult run of opponents at Eiffel Tower Stadium, however found a win in their last pool match against the host nation's Lyneel and Bassereau to advance to the lucky loser round.

That's where Americans Miles Evans and Chase Budinger were waiting, with Zac and Thomas ending their campaign on a 2-0 loss.