John Cook retires at Nebraska; Dani Busboom Kelly takes over

Nebraska women’s volleyball coach John Cook, who won four NCAA titles for 25 seasons with Cornhuskers, announced his retirement on Wednesday.

Former Nebraska player and assistant Dani Bus boom Kelly takes over the Huskers program after eight seasons that led Louisville.

“It’s been a good race,” Cook, 68, said in a statement released by Nebraska. “I would like to thank my family for their support … I have had the opportunity to work with some good coaches and staff over the years, and I am eternally grateful for how hard they worked and for how much they gave to Nebraska Volleyball .

Bus boom 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 play career.

She was Cook’s assistant in 2015, when Nebraska also won the NCAA title in Omaha. A Nebraska-Inborn, Bus boom Kelly took over in Louisville in 2017 and went 203-43 with the Cardinals, which led them to the last four three times. It included the National Championship match appearances in 2022 when Cardinals lost against Texas, and in 2024 when they fell to Penn State.

Bus boom 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 Final Four for the first time in program history.

Bus boom Kelly accepted 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 big thank you to John Cook. I wouldn’t be here without his mentorship and support.

“I’ve got chills to listen to the roars (to Nebraska Volleyball) since I was 9 years old. Nebraska is the biggest place in the world to play volleyball and I am honored to be part of it again! My family and I can’t wait to get to work and bring more championships home.

Cook, a native from San Diego, began his coaching career at the high school level in California and was then a college assistant at UC San Diego and Nebraska before becoming head coach of Wisconsin in 1992. After seven seasons of badger he returned to Nebraska as an associate head coach in 1999 And then took over Huskers in 2000, when he won his first NCAA title. Huskers’ other national championships were in 2006, 2015 and 2017.

Cook has led Huskers to 12 performances in Final Four, including the last season when they lost to the Penn State in the semi -finals.

Cook won nine titles in regular season when Nebraska was in Big 12 and Five when the school moved to the Big Ten. His career-coaching record is 883-176 (.834), the fifth-best winning percentage constantly for a division I-Volley-Trier.

Cook was 722-103 at Nebraska, which is the best winning percentage (.875) for any DI program in the last 25 years. He was a three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year. Under Cook, Nebraska produced five Olympiers, three AVCA Division in the National Player of the Year award winners and 72 AVCA All-American.

Nebraska also set the standard for volleyball participation, which consistently sells its former home, now Coliseum (which held 4,125), during the first half of Cook’s career and then did the same in the larger Devaney Center (8,300) when the team moved there in 2013. Nebraska has sold out 337 consecutive home matches in regular season since 2001 and has led the nation present every season since the move to the Devaney Center.

Under Cook, Huskers also set a world record for participation in a woman’s sporting event on August 30, 2023, when Nebraska was facing Omaha at Memorial Stadium before a quantity of 92,003.

“For me personally, the greatest performance in coaching is watching former players go in coaching or other careers and take the lessons they have learned from being a Nebraska volleyball player and applying it to their everyday lives,” Cook said.

“In the end and most importantly, I would like to thank the fans for always supporting Nebraska Volleyball. I have always said ‘Dream Big’ and we have dreamed bigger than any volleyball program in world history.”