Reality hit the Nebraska volleyball team on the first day of spring practice. John Cook is no longer the head coach, and the program is Dani Busboom Kelly’s now. Whereas Cook preferred to ease into things every spring, Busboom Kelly had the team dive right in and go hard from the start.
It’s a new era for the Huskers, one the players and coaches are embracing as they prepare for their first of two spring exhibition matches on Saturday.
“I feel like it’s been a great transition and pretty smooth, and everybody’s been excited and open,” Busboom Kelly said on Tuesday. “Again, it wasn’t reinventing the wheel here and doing a bunch of different things. A lot of what I believe in comes from what John was doing. It was just tweaking it a little bit and making it a little bit more my own. The team has been adapting great and even our not-so-clean days, I would say, have been really high energy and great communication, and that’s what you want.”
Busboom Kelly said the way in which she’s trying to make the program her own is by being herself every day, remaining consistent in her approach and empowering her assistants. She learned much of what she does from Cook himself and understands what it takes to win in Lincoln, but her time at Louisville has shaped her approach as well.
“I think it’s a good thing to blend what’s been done here before with some new stuff, and to let the assistants have big responsibilities and big roles, and maybe a bigger voice than they’ve had before,” Busboom Kelly said. “I’ve always been a firm believer that they need to have a huge part in all this, and so I’ve seen them really step up the last couple of weeks, too, and, and that’s part of my coaching style.”
Busboom Kelly has shuffled position assignments among the coaching staff. She’s working directly with the setters, while Jaylen Reyes has shifted from focusing on middle blockers to help more with the pin hitters.
“We’re all coaching everything, and that’s really important to me, that every player is interacting with every coach somewhat,” Busboom Kelly said. “When we talk about position responsibilities, it’s more who is that player’s go-to for video, set up meetings. It’s more of a point person, and then maybe 10 to 15 minutes in practice a day, you’re really working with just one coach. But other than that, everybody’s involved with everybody.”
Busboom Kelly also prefers to mix things up and try new things, whereas Cook was very much a fan of sticking with a routine. Beyond the preferential differences, however, the focus on fundamentals and the core tenants that have made the program so successful remain.
“I think [practices are] still pretty similar,” Harper Murray said. “Dani still has things pretty structured, but just the way she goes about the order of things and the way she teaches things is a little bit different … The basics are the same. Some of the drills are pretty similar, but she does mix things up a little bit more than Coach. I think Coach was more a routine type of guy and stuck to that, and Dani mixes it up a little bit. But for the most part, I would say it’s pretty similar.”
The fans will get their first look at Busboom Kelly on the sidelines at the Devaney Center on Saturday as the volleyball team takes part in the Husker Games, the all-day event replacing the traditional football Red-White Spring Game. Busboom-Kelly’s squad will take on Kansas in the day’s nightcap, an exhibition set to start at 7 p.m.
“I’m pretty fired up, and this wasn’t on the schedule or planned to have a spring game in Devaney, but it was really important for me to get one under my belt with this team and the staff, and against an opponent that is also in a new era, I think, adds another excitement piece to it with a new coach, a young coach who has got a great reputation,” Busboom Kelly said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of energy on both sides, and I’m really excited for it, and again, just the practice of the prep and the game day is all going to be great for everybody.”
Saturday will be the program’s second opportunity this spring to test itself against another opponent as Nebraska previously held a private scrimmage against Omaha. Murray said her favorite part was getting to see the freshmen — early enrollees Teraya Sigler, Campbell Flynn, Ryan Hunter and Keri Leimbach — play in their first match.
“Obviously, we play six-on-six every day, but for them, I know it’s kind of a special moment to put that jersey on, whether it’s a televised scrimmage, whether it counts for our record or not, but I think it was just really special for them to put that jersey on and actually know what a real game day might look like, and just see all the work that we put in in the past three, four weeks at practice pay off against a team,” Murray said. “I know it was a private scrimmage, and it wasn’t necessarily a big deal, but again, like this weekend with Kansas, I know it’s going to be super exciting for everybody, just to show everyone what we’ve been working on and how much we’ve improved, and all the little things that people don’t see behind the scenes.”
Busboom Kelly said her takeaway from the Omaha scrimmage was the consistency her team displayed. She frequently changed lineups and rotations throughout the match with no breakdowns in chemistry or communication and no drop-off in play.
“I think it’s a sign of a great team when you can change lineups, change players, and the energy, the communication and the level of play stays the same,” Busboom Kelly said.
Nebraska will continue mixing up lineups and giving everyone a chance to see significant reps this week against Kansas and next week against South Dakota State in Ord, the program’s traditional traveling spring exhibition that sold out in less than 30 minutes.
