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Nebraska, I’ll bet, is the only state in the union where the retirement of the volleyball coach is frontpage news.
And where the installation of a new coach is covered live on television with the governor in attendance.
But that’s what happened after legendary coach and cowboy John Cook announced recently that he was riding into the sunset and leaving a team that he’d guided to four national titles over 25 years.
“It’s better to burn out than fade out,” Cook said at his retirement press conference, quoting a line from a Neal Young song.
Cook, a 68-year-old California native, took over a team former coach Terry Pettit had built to national prominence. Prior to Pettit, West Coast teams dominated volleyball. But the old coach changed the dynamic, and there’s been a power shift to Midwestern teams like Nebraska, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Creighton.
Nebraska, as we all know, is unique in its love affair with volleyball. In no other state will 92,003 fans pack into a football stadium to help the Huskers establish a record for attendance at a women’s sports contest as they did in 2023. The Huskers regularly lead the nation in attendance, and the program produced an unprecedented revenue of more than $7 million in the past year.
Non-football sports rarely turn a profit. NU is a glaring exception.
I used to cover the Huskers way back when they played in the confines of the old Coliseum and won Big 8 title after title.
Fans packed the place, and embraced the grace, power and athleticism of the sport.
They embraced the players, too — intelligent and committed women, who stayed long after the home matches to sign autographs for a generation of young girls, who had their own dreams of greatness in sport.
NU teams played hard, trained hard, and built a culture of success. It taught leadership skills that helped prepare many former players for top positions in business, medicine and sports. I’m waiting for a former Husker player to run for political office.
“Dream big,” was the team’s motto, for its success on the court and for its players.
Why is Nebraska so volleyball crazy?
I think it’s a lot of things. Nebraskans love success. Good mojo, and sellout crowds, followed after Bob Devaney’s football teams began winning back in the ‘60s.
Volleyball is a great sport for the fans. It’s fast moving, with abrupt momentum swings, and powerful spikes and blocks that bring fans out of their seats.
Matches at the Devaney Center are fun — you don’t hear the griping heard in the stands at football games, for instance, and the place gets ultra loud.
It’s a sport that’s great for girls. Participation in club and high school volleyball has exploded across Nebraska, and training here is top notch. Because of it, Nebraska high schools play a very high level of volleyball, and many of its players graduate to top Division I programs.
It’s translated into national prominence for the state’s other college programs, from Creighton to Kearney, Midland to Wayne State.
It’s also built a stable of great coaches — great high school coaches like Renee Saunders at Omaha Skutt, Steve Morgan at Ogallala and Sharon Zavala at Grand Island Central Catholic.
And there’s big-time college coaches like Kristen Bernthal Booth at Creighton (who played at Lincoln East) and Nebraska’s new coach, Dani Busboom Kelly (a native of Cortland), a former Husker player and assistant coach. She was highly successful as head coach at Louisville, and might have won a national title this year but for an injury to her best player.
We’re volleyball central in Nebraska; NU is known by some as “a volleyball school.”
John Cook had a huge impact on that, raising the program to new levels. His team came within a couple of points of winning another national title this year, and they’ll be among the favorites in 2025.
“I’ve always wanted to go out on top,” Cook told reporters.
And he did. Well done.
Paul Hammel has covered state government and the state for decades. He retired in 2024 from the Nebraska Examiner.
He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he loves traveling and writing about the state.
