AUSSIE volleyball star Zachary Schubert knows that when his sporting career comes to an end, he has a job to go back to in an buzzing industry.
When he’s not earning Olympic qualification for Paris 2024, Schubert is the CEO of Schubugs, one of Australia’s largest cricket farms.
Schubert, 28, will leave his insects behind to travel more than 9,700 miles to Paris to compete in the 33rd Summer Olympics.
The 6’6 Australian said that the cricket farm combines his family background in farming with his qualifications in nutrition.
It started as a modest set-up in his garage, but now involves several shipping containers full of insects on the family farm.
After his studies, Schubert wants to get into selling the insects for human consumption.
So far, he makes smoothies and shakes plus supplies the animal food market.
He told an Aussie news outlet: “You don’t get many people starting cricket farms.”
Schubert reckons a shipping container holds a million crickets – and he has eight of them.
For now, his dad Tim, 64, handles lot of the work – including shipping the critters – but Schubert works at the weekends.
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Schubert, from Loxton in South Australia, started playing volleyball at school aged 13.
He was inspired by his cousin Grant Schubert, who won a gold medal in hockey at the 2004 Athens Games.
But despite his success, he has always needed another job – in the early days, that was washing dishes until 2am.
Schubert and his volleyball partner Thomas Hodges are ranked 19th in the world.
The duo came 9th in the 2024 World Championships in Mexico.
Schubert underwent double knee surgery in 2021 after failing to qualify for Tokyo 2020.
