Nebraska
Cook retires after 722 volleyball wins at Nebraska
Nebraska women’s volleyball coach John Cook, who won four NCAA titles in 25 seasons with the Cornhuskers, announced his retirement Wednesday.
Former Nebraska player and assistant Dani Busboom Kelly will take over the Huskers program after eight seasons leading Louisville.
“It’s been a great run,” Cook, 68, said in a statement released by Nebraska. “I want to thank my family for their support … 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.”
Busboom Kelly, 39, was a key player for the 2006 Huskers team that won the national championship in Omaha, Nebraska. She was a setter and a libero during her college playing career.
She was Cook’s assistant in 2015, when Nebraska also won the NCAA title in Omaha. A Nebraska native, Busboom Kelly took over at Louisville in 2017 and went 203-43 with the Cardinals, leading them to the Final Four three times. That included national championship match appearances in 2022, when the Cardinals lost to Texas, and in 2024, when they fell to Penn State.
Busboom Kelly’s Cardinals won or shared the ACC title four times, and she was AVCA National Coach of the Year in 2021, when Louisville made the Final Four for the first time in program history.
Busboom Kelly agreed to a six-year contract with Nebraska, the school announced.
“The opportunity to come home to Nebraska is more than a dream come true,” she said in a statement. “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 (for Nebraska volleyball) since I was 9 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.”
Cook, a San Diego native, began his coaching career at the high school level in California and then was a college assistant at UC San Diego and Nebraska before becoming head coach at Wisconsin in 1992. After seven seasons with the Badgers, he returned to Nebraska as associate head coach in 1999 and then took over the Huskers in 2000, when he won his first NCAA title. The Huskers’ other national championships were in 2006, 2015 and 2017.
Cook has led the Huskers to 12 appearances in the Final Four, including this past season when they lost to Penn State in the semifinals.
Cook won nine regular-season titles when Nebraska was in the Big 12 and five when the school moved to the Big Ten. His career head coaching record is 883-176 (.834), the fifth-best winning percentage all time for a Division I volleyball coach.
Cook was 722-103 at Nebraska, which is the best winning percentage (.875) for any Division I program over the past 25 years. He was a three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year. Under Cook, Nebraska produced five Olympians, three AVCA Division I National Player of the Year award winners and 72 AVCA All-Americans.
Nebraska also set the standard for volleyball attendance, consistently selling out its former home, the NU Coliseum (which held 4,125), during the first half of Cook’s career and then doing the same in the larger Devaney Center (8,300) when the team relocated there in 2013. Nebraska has sold out 337 consecutive regular-season home matches since 2001 and has led the nation in attendance every season since moving to the Devaney Center.
Under Cook, the Huskers also set a world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event on Aug. 30, 2023, when Nebraska faced Omaha at Memorial Stadium before a crowd of 92,003.
“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,” Cook said.
“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.”
LINCOLN, Neb — Gov. Jim Pillen has appointed Antonio Gomez of Jackson to the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission, adding a longtime Siouxland business leader and public servant to the panel.
Commission members serve four-year terms and are subject to approval by the Nebraska Legislature.
Gomez launched Gomez Pallets in South Sioux City in 1983. He has since retired from daily operations, but last year the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce recognized him with the W. Edwards Deming Business Leadership and Entrepreneurial Excellence Award.
Gomez previously served on the Nebraska Commission on Latino Americans from 1981 to 2002. He also served as a Dakota County commissioner for 12 years and was on the Foundation Board for Northeast Community College.
Gomez’s appointment is effective April 1.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers will face the Iowa Hawkeyes on Thursday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. This is the Huskers’ first Sweet 16 in program history, while Iowa is playing in its first Sweet 16 since 1999.
Nebraska defeated Vanderbilt 74-72 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa advanced after beating the defending national champion, the Florida Gators, 73-72.
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CBS Sports reporter Isaac Trotter broke down Thursday’s Sweet 16 matchup. Trotter started by looking at the two previous matchups in this series.
These teams have played twice. Iowa won at home in a 57-52 rockfight. Nebraska returned the favor by winning at home, 84-75 in overtime, in another to-the-death brawl.
It’s no secret that Nebraska’s defense caused significant problems for the Iowa offense in the second game, and if the Hawkeyes are going to win the rubber match, Trotter believes that turnovers will be the key.
There are no secrets in the rubber match. Nebraska’s no-middle defense has given Iowa real problems both times. The Hawkeyes turned it over 20% of the time in Game 1 and 26% of the time in Game 2. That can’t happen in the third encounter.
CBS Sports believes that Iowa has the best player on the floor in Bennett Stirtz, but Trotter also believes that Nebraska’s defense is just too much in the end for Iowa.
Iowa has the best player on the floor, Bennett Stirtz, and can hurt Nebraska on the glass, but the Huskers get the nod because of this pick-and-roll defense. You have to be able to guard ball screens effectively to shut down Iowa, and Nebraska has been an elite pick-and-roll defense, rating in the 99th percentile nationally, per Synergy.
In the end, Trotter selected Nebraska as his pick. Should the Huskers advance to the Elite Eight, Nebraska would play the winner of the Illinois-Houston game. Nebraska-Iowa play in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 26 at 6:30 p.m. CT on TBS.
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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: CBS Sports predicts Nebraska-Iowa basketball in the Sweet 16
We need to do our homework on Nebraska canal plan
Re: “Colorado’s water war with Nebraska comes to a head,” Sept. 21 news story
Farming in northeastern Colorado has never been easy, and it is getting harder. Markets are tough, input costs are up, and young people are leaving. What keeps communities in Northeastern Colorado going is agriculture, the water, the ground, and the community that ties everything together. The proposed Perkins County Canal — to carry South Platte River water into Nebraska — threatens all of it.
When you take water off farmland, the damage does not stop in crop yields. Equipment dealers, elevators, local banks, and businesses all feel it. Schools and roads will suffer. We have seen what happens to towns that lose their agricultural base, and we cannot let that happen again without a real fight.
That fight needs to be a regional one. I am asking communities across northeastern Colorado to come together and hire an independent economic consultant to assess the true local impact of this project (acres affected, jobs at risk, income lost, tax base eroded).
The Corps of Engineers will do its own analysis, but we need our own numbers. If their conclusions do not match what our communities are actually facing, we need the documentation to say so and demand they take another look.
Rural communities have always figured out how to help each other when it counts. This is one of those times. I urge local officials, water boards, farm bureaus, and civic leaders to set aside any differences and work together on this. The permit process will not wait, and neither can we.
Kimberly L. Kinnison, Ovid
Don’t let our children be ‘policy pawns’
Re: “District accused of violating Title IX,” March 14 news story
The Trump administration seems intent on the persecution of transgender children, excluding them from bathrooms, sports and school activities. Refusing to allow transgender children to participate in school in a manner consistent with their gender identity promotes the exclusion of particularly vulnerable children.
Participation in sports, access to bathrooms in which they feel comfortable, and full inclusion are critical components of healthy development for all children.
Some children are taller, faster, or stronger, have been training with private coaches or attending schools with better facilities, but the requirement of biological uniformity applies only to transgender children.
Exclusion harms children. Is this in dispute? Our children are not political pawns.
Jane Cates, Jefferson County
Don’t forget the Denver Chamber Music Festival
Re: “Classical blast,” March 15 feature story
Thanks to Ray Rinaldi for a terrific article about classical music festivals in the mountains this summer. I’d like to add one, and it’s right here in town: the Denver Chamber Music Festival from June 5 to June 13. World-class musicians, including the amazing classical/bluegrass violinist Tessa Lark, our first composer in residence, and local favorites Stephanie Cheng and Margaret Dyer Harris, and the members of the Colorado Cello Quartet.
All performances are at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts; tickets available at denverchambermusicfestival.org. Avoid Interstate 70 and enjoy phenomenal music in Denver!
Alix Corboy, Denver
Editor’s note: Corboy is executive director of the Denver Chamber Music Festival
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