LINCOLN, Neb. — Behind John Cook’s desk, a $900 hat made of pure beaver fur sits atop a stand carved from the remnants of a 20,000-pound tree recently extracted in the Nebraska Sandhills.
The four-time national champion volleyball coach at Nebraska, Cook proudly wears the custom-made hat and totes it to speaking engagements. He talks to whomever wants to hear about the story of the hat, presented to him early this year when he attended an event at a ranch in Hyannis, Neb., after speaking to a group of cattlemen in Ainsworth.
The open land of rural Nebraska and the people who live on it fascinate Cook, a southern California native who’s been working — and winning — in Lincoln as the head coach of one of the most successful programs in college sports since 2000.
John Cook has a 689-100 record as the head volleyball coach at Nebraska. (Mitch Sherman / The Athletic)
At 68, Cook, according to those who surround him, is cooler than he was at 48. He has redefined himself in an effort to dig into his passions outside of volleyball and to build deeper connections with his players.
“If he gets into something, he wants to be the best,” said Lindsay Peterson, a former Nebraska player under Cook and the Huskers’ longtime director of operations.
As a byproduct, Cook’s teams have played four times in the past seven seasons for the national championship. Nebraska lost last year, without a senior on its roster, in the title match against Texas.
Moreover, his program is a phenomenon. It attracted a crowd of 92,003 one year ago to watch volleyball at Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium, a world record for a women’s sporting event. In the aftermath, the Huskers built a rock-star-like following outside of Nebraska. Last year’s national championship drew 1.7 million viewers on ABC, a record for collegiate volleyball, and an indoor-record crowd of 19,727 at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.
This month, the Huskers appeared in a Dick’s Sporting Goods ad with Candace Parker, Patrick Mahomes and other transcendent stars.
Inside Nebraska, volleyball long ago morphed into an obsession. The Huskers have sold out 319 consecutive regular-season home matches at the 8,309-seat Devaney Center. Some 7,000 season ticket requests were turned away this year, per the school.
At the center of it stands Cook, named last December as the American Volleyball Coaches Association national coach of the year for the third time. He studies former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, 72, and 28-year-old country music star Zach Bryan, borrowing elements of what Cook considers greatness from both.
Cook participated last year as a subject in a graduate program study at Nebraska called the “Wisdom Years.” It examined life for people who thrive after the age of 65.
“You get to where you’re humming,” Cook said. “You’ve got wisdom. You’ve got experience. Some people do their best work in those years.”
That’s Cook.
About 10 years ago, Cook said, he knew he needed to make a change. His tunnel-vision style as a coach, focused on technical aspects of the sport? Gone.
“I saw the old school coaches getting out,” Cook said. “They had to get out because they couldn’t adjust to this generation. I had enough wisdom to figure out that I had to make an adjustment. The stuff I used to do, you’d get fired for it now. Everything changed, and I had to change with it.”
Cook embraced his players’ music and their youthful spirits. Limits exist. He’s not into TikTok, but last year appeared in a video with one of his players that received more than 5 million views.
“I got out of my comfort zone,” he said. “I can either tell them, ‘This is stupid. We’re not doing it.’ Or I can go along for the ride. I’ve just gone along for the ride.”
Cook recognized, too, that he needed to find something for himself.
This is how the wide-open spaces of central and western Nebraska factored in his evolution. It began with an interest in the television series, “Yellowstone.”
“It’s on fire,” he said. “I got caught up in that.”
Cook visited the Nebraska College Rodeo Program and marveled at its students who participated in roping competitions. He gained respect for their skills.
And just as Cook gravitated to Saban’s teachings or Bryan’s grasp on a live audience, he wanted to know more about the rodeo world. So he looked into purchasing a horse. It was Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 when Peterson, who grew up in rural Nebraska and developed a passion for horses, came to Cook during the Huskers’ road swing through Wisconsin and Indiana with a proposition.
She wanted to buy him a horse. Her husband, Ty, raised on ranching and roping in New Mexico, identified a horse back home while looking for a Christmas gift to give their four sons.
Did Cook want it? He said he was too busy trying to win a Big Ten title to commit. Peterson bought it. And when Cook met the horse, he fell for it. Its name is Bud, and Cook decided to appoint Bud as a volunteer coach for the volleyball team.
“Recruits loved it,” he said. “They went nuts. You got a horse as a volunteer coach? It’s gone crazy from there.”
Bud resides at the Peterson home. When Cook negotiated a contract extension in May through January 2029, in addition to an $825,000 annual salary, he received a retention bonus in July of $70,000 that Cook announced he would use to purchase a roping horse.
The #415 A Pitzer Ranch bred and Mark Wray trained horse. Time to cowboy up! pic.twitter.com/o1OpLT9TZF
— John Cook (@jcook2) June 7, 2024
He asked Nebraska fans to help name the horse. The school received 15,000 suggestions, then 14,000 votes on the four finalists. The winning name, Rev, was inspired by Bryan’s signature song, “Revival.”
Rev lives at Cook’s Wyoming home, where the coach spends about a month after volleyball season and much of his summer.
Meanwhile, he’s gone all in on the cowboy lifestyle. In his office on the third level of the Devaney Center, he displays the hat, crafted by hatmaker Kaycee Orr-Hoffman of the Bar None Hat Company in Thedford, Neb., in addition to a set of personalized spurs, framed artwork of the coach on a horse and a personalized branding iron.
Last month, he spent four days in Burwell, Neb., and served as the Grand Marshal of the Burwell Rodeo. As much as Cook has embraced the culture of rural Nebraska, its people have reciprocated.
In fact, in order to attend the rodeo in Burwell, Cook turned down an invite from Jordan Larson — his assistant coach and most decorated former player — who asked him to watch her play on her fourth and final U.S. Olympic team in Paris.
“Well, I’m at the Burwell radio,” Cook responded to Larson, who brought home a silver medal.
Cook returned to Lincoln with an engraved bottle of Pendleton Whisky and a commemorative plate from the rodeo adorned with his image. The plate sits in the lobby of the Nebraska volleyball offices on a table next to trophies that recognize the Huskers’ 2023 regional championship and most recent national championship in 2017.
“Sometimes, I feel like we’re forgotten out here,” said Orr-Hoffman, who’s been crafting hats for 22 years and makes about 120 annually. “But with coach Cook, he gives us his best. So we’re going to give him our best.”
As the Huskers, ranked No. 2 nationally to open this season, prepare for their sold-out Red-White scrimmage Saturday and a season opener Tuesday against No. 9 Kentucky, ESPN is set on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET to air an E:60 documentary on Cook’s program.
The 60-minute program tracks Nebraska through the 2023 season, starting with the stadium match, and several months of the offseason that follow. It presents a raw look at the Huskers, notably through the personal struggles of former No. 1-ranked recruit Harper Murray, a freshman All-American last year.
Murray’s father, former Michigan football star Vada Murray, died of cancer when she was 6. The loss has weighed heavily on her, documented in the ESPN production. After the national championship defeat, Murray faced criticism for her comments, seen by some as brash, that Nebraska planned to win the next three crowns.
Murray, 19, was arrested in April for driving under the influence of alcohol and cited in June for shoplifting in Lincoln. Her recovery continues — some of it in public view.
When you sign up to play for Nebraska, Cook said, you sign up for all of it.
“Kids today, they come in and they’ve been told how great they are,” Cook said. “They think they can do no wrong. They just think, ‘I’m invincible.’ Now, Harper has figured out, if you get in trouble, you’re in with all the other people who’ve gotten in trouble.
“If you’re a volleyball player or a football player, they don’t give a s—. And that’s pretty humbling.”
The old Cook might have handled Murray’s turbulent offseason with less empathy.
A final piece of his transformation, Cook said, involved a renewed investment in his relationships with players. It provides a foundation that allows Cook to manage his roster with a type of care that has served the Huskers well late in his career.
In the ESPN documentary, Cook described Merritt Beason as “a gift.” A 2023 transfer from Florida, Beason served with Lexi Rodriguez last season as co-captains for Nebraska and as a stabilizing force in its run to a 33-2 finish.
Beason, a first-team All-American for the Huskers, sought a deep relationship with her head coach in looking for a new school after the 2022 season. She found a pillar of support at Nebraska.
“The door was always open with him,” Beason said.
She talked with Cook about her personal battles and his transformation.
“He’s at this stage of his career, at this stage of his life, and he’s continuing to learn every day,” Beason said. “It makes me respect him even more.”
In his 24 years at Nebraska, Cook said, he’s declined multiple opportunities that could have put him in charge of the Team USA men or women. Cook served as an assistant coach for the U.S. men’s Olympic volleyball team in 1992.
Long ago, that was a dream of his. He’s changed to think differently.
“He’s evolved to see that there’s a lot out there off the court,” said Peterson, who played at Nebraska from 1999 to 2002. “The players have seen him have a daughter go through here (as a player). He’s a grandpa. That puts a softer side to him.
“He’s easier to approach, to sit down with and talk to about something other than volleyball to draw that connection.”
Wisdom, self-reflection and a pioneering drive don’t come in a cowboy hat. But for Cook, the symbolism is real.
(Top photo: Dylan Widger / USA Today)
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Publish date : 2024-08-22 04:51:00
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