Breaking John Cook retiring/Busboom hired

[BillButtlicker]

No way this is right

 

[Red Finger]

 

[Alum-Ni]

John Cook Announces Retirement After 25 Seasons at Nebraska

huskers.com

John Cook Announces Retirement After 25 Seasons at Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. - Four-time national champion Nebraska Volleyball Head Coach John Cook, who has won more matches than any Division I volleyball coach this century, announced his retirement on Wednesday.


“I’ve been here for 25 years. That’s a long time to do something. It’s been a great run,” Cook said. “I want to thank my family for their support, and I want to thank Bill Byrne and Terry Pettit for giving me the opportunity to be the Nebraska volleyball coach. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great coaches and staff over the years, and I’m forever grateful for how hard they worked and for how much they gave to Nebraska volleyball.


For me personally, the greatest accomplishment in coaching is seeing former players go into coaching or other careers and taking the lessons they’ve learned from being a Nebraska volleyball player and applying it to their everyday lives. There is no greater reward in coaching than that. Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank the fans for always supporting Nebraska volleyball. I’ve always said to ‘Dream Big’, and we’ve dreamed bigger than any volleyball program in the history of the world.”


Cook spent 32 years as a college head coach - seven at Wisconsin and 25 at Nebraska. Consistent excellence was a hallmark of Cook’s Nebraska teams. Since taking over the program in 2000, Cook guided the Huskers to four national championships, 12 NCAA Semifinals appearances, nine Big 12 titles and five Big Ten titles. He achieved a career record of 883-176 (.834), the fifth-best winning percentage all-time for a Division I volleyball coach. Cook's record of 722-103 at Nebraska is the best winning percentage (.875) for any DI program over the last 25 years.


“John Cook leaves a legacy of excellence that places him alongside a very small group of coaches who can be considered the greatest in college athletics history, regardless of sport,” Nebraska Director of Athletics Troy Dannen said. “John took over one of the nation’s best programs a quarter century ago and elevated it to another level. The national championships, Final Four appearances, conference championships, All-Americans and Olympians speak for themselves, but John’s impact goes beyond the on-court accolades. Behind his vision, Nebraska volleyball has become arguably the most successful women’s program in the country which has helped the sport of volleyball reach a popularity level it has never seen before.”


With Cook at the helm, Nebraska produced numerous individual honors, including five Olympians, a Honda-Broderick Cup winner, three AVCA Division I National Players of the Year, 72 AVCA All-Americans, three Academic All-Americans of the Year, 25 Academic All-Americans and 10 conference players of the year. Nebraska volleyball student-athletes combined for 88 all-conference awards and 155 academic all-conference honors in Cook's program.


Cook lived out his mantra at Nebraska: Dream Big. When he took over the reins of the Nebraska volleyball program in 2000, Cook was replacing one of the sport’s legendary coaches in Terry Pettit, who won 694 matches and guided the Huskers to 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and six NCAA Semifinals. Cook, who left an emerging power in Wisconsin to guide the tradition-rich Husker program, had his own vision for Nebraska volleyball. He saw a program that had even more potential to grow.


His goals included consistently selling out home matches at the NU Coliseum, expanding the media exposure for his program and most importantly, continuing the tradition of athletic and academic excellence started by Pettit nearly a quarter of a century earlier. His vision catapulted the program to a new phase in 2013, as the Devaney Center underwent a renovation and became the new home for Nebraska volleyball. Moving to the Devaney Center increased the capacity crowd for Nebraska volleyball matches from 4,125 at the Coliseum to more than 8,300 plus standing room only.


Cook played an instrumental role in helping to expand the program’s visibility throughout the state and the Midwest. Nebraska played a regular-season match in North Platte in 2004, and the team played spring exhibition matches in Kearney, Scottsbluff, Ogallala, Wayne, Grand Island, Norfolk and Central City during Cook’s tenure.


In 2023, Cook took a chance on having his Huskers play a volleyball match outdoors in a football stadium, which was an overwhelming success story as 92,003 people packed Memorial Stadium for Volleyball Day in Nebraska on Aug. 30. The event gained worldwide attention as the crowd set a record for the largest to attend a women’s sporting event anywhere in the world. It further cemented Cook's program as the leader in growing the sport. Eleven of the top 12 crowds in NCAA women's volleyball history have been matches featuring Nebraska, all in Cook's tenure.


The vision for Cook was for the Huskers to remain at the forefront of college volleyball to enhance the sport at both the local and national levels. His program did just that, reaching the NCAA Semifinals seven times in the last 10 years, including NCAA Championships in 2015 and 2017. The fan support continues to be unrivaled in the sport, as the Huskers have sold out 337 consecutive regular-season matches since 2001, the longest sellout streak in NCAA women’s athletics history. Since the move to the Devaney Center in 2013, the Huskers have led the nation in attendance every season.


Cook was a three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year, earning the prestigious honor in 2000, 2005 and 2023. He is one of only three coaches all-time (Russ Rose and Mary Wise) to be a three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year. Cook was also an eight-time conference coach of the year, including his selection as Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1997 (at Wisconsin), 2016, 2017 and 2023. He was honored in 2008 by USA Volleyball, receiving its All-Time Great Coach Award. In 2017, Cook was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame, joining Pettit as former Husker head coaches in the hall.


“It is a reflection of Nebraska volleyball and the program, and not about one person or one player,” Cook said when accepting the AVCA Coach of the Year Award in 2005. “We’re trying to be a leader in the sport. We’re trying to take risks and dream big, and fortunately I’m surrounded by a lot of people who have that vision."


Cook and his wife, Wendy, are the parents of two children, Lauren and Taylor. Cook has one granddaughter, Madden.


Notable Nebraska Seasons Under Head Coach John Cook
• Cook immediately started to create his own legacy after taking over for Pettit in 2000. In his first season at the helm, Cook was named the AVCA National Coach of the Year after guiding the Huskers to a 34-0 record and the 2000 NCAA Championship. The Huskers, who became just the second team in NCAA history to cap an undefeated season with a national title, were ranked No. 1 in the AVCA/USA Today Top 25 poll for 14 straight weeks. Greichaly Cepero earned AVCA National Player of the Year honors.


• In 2006, Cook’s dream was realized, as Husker Nation had an opportunity to see Nebraska raise the bar in college volleyball. From record-setting, sold-out crowds at the Qwest Center Omaha, to a team that maximized its potential in winning the school’s third national title, the Huskers enjoyed a remarkable season. The Huskers entered the 2006 campaign with many questions, as they were forced to replace three All-Americans, including AVCA National Player of the Year Christina Houghtelling. With four first-year starters on the court, including freshmen at setter and middle blocker, and sky-high expectations with the NCAA Championship in Omaha for the first time, 2006 shaped up to be Cook’s toughest coaching job to date. Nebraska took on all challenges head-on, going 33-1 and becoming only the third team in NCAA history to be ranked No. 1 the entire season. The Huskers went on the road and overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat Minnesota to reach the national semifinals, marking the first time that Nebraska had won a regional outside the state. That victory set the stage for a watershed moment in college volleyball. Behind sellout crowds of more than 17,000, the Huskers captured the school’s third national title with victories over No. 4 UCLA and No. 2 Stanford. Four players earned AVCA All-America honors, including Sarah Pavan, who became NU’s first Honda-Broderick Cup winner.


• Two years later in 2008, the NCAA Championship returned to Omaha with another Husker team taking center stage. A then-all-time NCAA attendance record of 17,430 traveled through a winter storm to witness one of the greatest matches in Nebraska’s illustrious history. After dropping the first two sets to No. 1 Penn State, Nebraska fought back, winning the next two sets to hand the Nittany Lions their only set losses of the 2008 season. Although the Huskers were unable to complete the comeback, the performance symbolized a never-say-quit attitude that fueled the team’s success. Despite losing a pair of performers to season-ending injuries, the Huskers went 31-3 and won their fifth consecutive conference title.


• For the third time, the final four returned to Omaha in 2015. And once again, the Huskers made good on their goal to get to Omaha. After home losses to Minnesota and Wisconsin in October, the Huskers dialed in and did not lose a match again in 2015. In fact, only one of the Huskers’ final 16 wins went five sets, and Nebraska did not need five sets to win any NCAA Tournament match for the first time during a championship run. After opening-round wins against Harvard and Wichita State, Nebraska avenged its 2014 regional final loss to BYU by sweeping the Cougars in the Lexington (Kentucky) Regional. The Huskers then knocked off top-ranked Washington, 3-1, in the regional final to reach their destination: Omaha. But the job wasn’t done, as the Huskers turned their goal toward winning the national title for the first time since 2006. Nebraska blew past Kansas, 3-1, in the NCAA Semifinal to set up a winner-take-all match against Texas. The inspired Huskers played their best match of the season to sweep the Longhorns. The attendance for both NU matches (17,551 against Kansas and 17,651 against Texas) set then-NCAA all-time records.


• In 2016, the Huskers won the Big Ten title for the first time since 2011 and finished with a 31-3 record for the program’s best winning percentage (.912) since 2008. Nebraska advanced to the NCAA Semifinals for the second straight season. Cook was rewarded for his team’s season, as he was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year and the AVCA North Region Coach of the Year. Nebraska’s four AVCA All-Americans were their most since 2007.


• In 2017, Cook’s Huskers put together one of the most remarkable seasons in school history. Despite losing three AVCA All-Americans to graduation, both assistant coaches to Division I head coaching jobs, and entering the season with eight first-year players in the program, the Huskers defied all odds to win the program’s fifth national title. Nebraska dropped its first two matches of the season but went 32-2 the rest of the way, including a 19-match win streak to end the season. The Huskers avenged one of their early season losses with a 3-1 victory over Florida in the title match in Kansas City in front of a then-NCAA Tournament record crowd of 18,516. The national title capped off a dream season for Cook that also included a Big Ten Championship, a Big Ten Coach of the Year accolade and induction into the AVCA Hall of Fame. Cook joined Russ Rose as the only coaches to win four national titles since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1998. He also became the fourth coach in NCAA history to win four national titles and the third to win four national championships at one school.


• Following up on their 2017 NCAA title, the Huskers weren’t expected to come close to repeating as national champions in 2018 with eight new players - five of them freshmen - and a new assistant coach and a freshman starting at setter. After hitting a rough patch in October that had the Huskers at 16-6 overall and 7-5 in the Big Ten, the Huskers improved more than any other team in his tenure at Nebraska, according to Cook. NU won 13 straight matches to make it to the national championship match for the third time in four years. The seventh-seeded Huskers went down to the wire in five sets with No. 1 Stanford before falling just a few points shy of back-to-back national titles. But for the remarkable season and a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Semifinals - a first in program history - Cook was named the National Coach of the Year by VolleyballMag.com.


• In 2023, Cook coached a team with no seniors to the NCAA Final and a 33-2 final record. The Huskers won the Big Ten Championship, and Cook was named AVCA National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year. With four freshmen in the lineup, the Huskers won their first 27 matches of the season and held the No. 1 ranking from Oct. 23 through the end of the regular season. Cook did more for the growth of the sport of volleyball in 2023 than possibly any other year in his career. Cook took on the challenge of having his Huskers play a volleyball match outdoors in a football stadium, which was an overwhelming success story as 92,003 packed Memorial Stadium for Volleyball Day in Nebraska on Aug. 30. The event gained worldwide attention as the crowd set a record for the largest to attend a women’s sporting event anywhere in the world.


• The Huskers repeated as Big Ten champions in 2024, finishing 33-3 overall and 19-1 in Big Ten play. The Huskers reached the NCAA Semifinals for the seventh time in 10 years. NU's 33 wins tied for the most victories by a Husker team since the 2000 national championship team went 34-0, and the Huskers tied the school record with eight victories against top-10 teams.

 

[Alum-Ni]

 

[cwessel76]

Holy fuck

 

[HuskerChemist]

Dani busboom coming home?

 

[Huskers4420]

John's had enough of the simulation.

 

[Kazman5k]

John's had enough of the simulation.

He died for our sins

 

[Samkellers_69]

Lame. There goes the last thing we're known for these days

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Wow, this is surprising

 

[Fargo Husker]

Frank Solich have any kids that coach volleyball?

 

[PonyBoy]

Dani busboom coming home?

It's gotta be her or Reyes.

Larsen stepping away Monday an indication it's DBK?

 

[clifscales]

It's gotta be her or Reyes.

Larsen stepping away Monday an indication it's DBK?

Busboom was in town last week, I'm guessing its her job

 

[BillBra5ky]

 

[Alum-Ni]

 

[That SOB Van Owen]

Well that was quick lol

 

[Cookiemonster]

That was quick.

 

[BIG TONE SOPRANO]

Perfect hire

 

[Alum-Ni]

Dani Busboom Kelly Named Nebraska Volleyball Head Coach

huskers.com

Dani Busboom Kelly Named Nebraska Volleyball Head Coach
Huskers.com

LINCOLN, Neb. – One of Nebraska’s own is coming home to lead the Nebraska volleyball program. Dani Busboom Kelly was named the
fourth head coach in program history on Wednesday by Nebraska Director of Athletics Troy Dannen.

Busboom Kelly will succeed her former coach and mentor, John Cook, who announced his retirement on Wednesday after 25 seasons as Nebraska’s head volleyball coach.

A Husker national champion player and assistant coach, Busboom Kelly has spent the last eight years building Louisville into a national power. The Cardinals have reached two NCAA Championship matches, three NCAA Semifinals, five regional finals and have won four ACC titles.

Busboom Kelly has compiled a 203-44 (.822) record in her eight seasons at Louisville, including a 120-15 (.889) mark over the last four years, which is the second-best winning percentage in the country during that span. This past season, the Cardinals reached the NCAA Championship match for the second time in the last three seasons.

“We are excited to welcome Dani and her family back to Lincoln to continue our tradition of excellence in our volleyball program,” Dannen said. “She has demonstrated outstanding leadership at the highest levels of the sport and I am confident that our program will remain among the nation’s elite for years to come. This is a special place that needs an exceptional coach, and we have her. Welcome to Dani and her family!”

Busboom Kelly was the starting libero on Nebraska’s 2006 national championship team, and she was an assistant coach when the Huskers won the 2015 national championship in Omaha. She took the helm at Louisville late in 2016 after being named AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year in her final season as a Husker assistant, and she has guided the Cardinals to heights the program has never experienced.

A Cortland, Neb., native, Busboom Kelly has agreed to a six-year contract to return home to lead her alma mater. She will be formally introduced as the Huskers’ head coach on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The welcome event will be open to the public, with an introductory press conference to follow.

“The opportunity to come home to Nebraska is more than a dream come true,” Busboom Kelly said. “I want to thank Troy Dannen, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, and Kristen Brown for their trust in me to continue the legacy of Nebraska volleyball. A huge thank you to John Cook. I would not be here without his mentorship and support. I’ve gotten chills listening to the roars in the Coliseum and now Devaney since I was nine years old. Nebraska is the greatest place in the world to play volleyball and I am honored to be a part of it once again! My family and I can’t wait to get to work and bring more championships home. Go Big Red!”

In her first season at Louisville in 2017, Busboom Kelly took over a program coming off a 12-18 season and led UofL to a 24-7 record, an ACC title and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Picked eighth in the ACC preseason poll, she coached two players to major conference postseason awards, ACC Setter of the Year (Wilma Rivera) and ACC Defensive Player of the Year (Molly Sauer). For her efforts, she was named the AVCA East Region Coach of the Year for the first of four times at Louisville. Following her first season, Busboom Kelly was named the head coach of the U.S. Collegiate National Team Europe Tour, leading them to the gold medal in the European Global Challenge.

The Cardinals continued to improve each season, reaching the NCAA Tournament Second Round in 2018 and the program’s first-ever NCAA Regional Final in 2019. During the shortened 2020-21 season, Busboom Kelly’s Cardinals went 15-3 and won the ACC Championship, and she was named ACC Coach of the Year.

Louisville broke through in a big way in 2021, winning 32 straight matches to begin the season before finishing the year in the NCAA Semifinals for the first time in program history. Busboom Kelly was again named ACC Coach of the Year as well as AVCA National Coach of the Year, as the Cardinals achieved their first No. 1 ranking in program history. She became the first woman in NCAA history to coach an undefeated regular season, and two Louisville players (Tori Dilfer and Anna Stevenson) earned the program’s first-ever AVCA All-America
First Team honors.

The Cardinals finished 31-3 in 2022 and reached the NCAA Final for the first time in school history, falling to top-seeded Texas. Busboom Kelly was the ACC Coach of the Year for the third year in a row, as the Cardinals won their third straight ACC title. Claire Chaussee was voted ACC Player of the Year, and Amaya Tillman won the NCAA Elite 90 Award for having the best cumulative GPA at the NCAA Championship.

After going 27-5 in 2023 with another regional final appearance and another ACC Player of the Year honor (Anna DeBeer), the Cardinals began the 2024 season with pressure to get back to the NCAA Semifinals, which were being played at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. Not only did the Cardinals qualify for the NCAA Semifinals in their own city, they also impressively turned aside top-seeded Pittsburgh, 3-1, despite losing their top hitter DeBeer for the tournament early in set four.

Prior to her time at Louisville, Busboom Kelly played a vital role on the Husker coaching staff, assisting with Nebraska's setters, liberos, outside hitters and recruiting. Regarded as one of the best recruiters in the nation, Busboom Kelly helped Nebraska's resurgence to the forefront of college volleyball, as the Huskers captured the 2015 NCAA Championship at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, the same place Busboom Kelly won the national title as a player for the Huskers in 2006.

Behind Busboom Kelly’s recruiting efforts, the Huskers' 2013 signing class was ranked No. 1 in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com, and the 2015 class was also a top-five class. From that group Mikaela Foecke went on to become the third freshman to be named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championship.

Busboom Kelly helped the Huskers to a 134-30 record and NCAA Regional Final appearances in all five seasons. Before joining the Husker staff in 2012, she was an assistant coach at Tennessee from 2009-10, and an assistant coach at Louisville in 2011.

As a captain at Nebraska, Busboom moved from setter to libero in 2006 to help Nebraska’s defense and finished her career as one of only two players to rank among NU’s all-time leaders in both digs (1,281) and assists (2,873). She was a four-year starter for Cook, guiding NU to a 124-10 record, three Big 12 titles, two NCAA Final appearances and a national title in 2006.

Busboom was considered the Big 12’s best libero in 2006, as she helped NU limit opponents to a Big 12-low .144 hitting percentage. She set Nebraska’s single-season digs record (580) in her first year as a libero. She notched her best defensive performance in the NCAA Semifinals against UCLA, totaling a career-high 29 digs, which ranks as the second-best postseason performance in school history.

In addition to her accomplishments on the court, Busboom excelled off the court for the Huskers. She was a 2006 second-team Academic All-District VII selection, while earning six Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll accolades and becoming a three-time first-team Academic All-Big 12 honoree. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Nebraska in 2007.

Following her graduation, Busboom spent time with the U.S. Women’s National Training Team before working as a sales representative for an Omaha insurance company. She also worked as a sideline reporter for radio broadcasts of Nebraska volleyball matches on the Husker Sports Network and was an assistant coach with USA Volleyball’s Select A2 Program.

Dani and her husband, former Nebraska football player Lane Kelly, were married in the summer of 2010 and have a son, Boone.

 

[Scarlet ObsessioN]

If football begins its reign and volleyball takes a step back I will not be upset.