“Thank you again, Husker nation. This has been a homecoming fit for a queen.”
Those were Dani Busboom Kelly’s final words during her introductory speech at Nebraska’s welcome ceremony for its new head volleyball coach, and they were an apt description of Thursday’s scene at the Devaney Center.
Roughly 2,000 people filled the arena in the middle of a work day, from friends and family to former teammates to the current Huskers to John Cook to Gov. Jim Pillen to numerous fans. Adding to the attendance numbers was large group from Freeman Public Schools and the Adams, Nebraska, community. Athletic Director Troy Dannen said he learned the population of Adams was roughly 604, but he received 700 RSVPs from the town.
After her speech, Busboom Kelly met with the Freeman students to take a picture.
“Having Freeman here today is pretty amazing,” Busboom Kelly said during her press conference after the ceremony. “It’s funny, I was joking — they got out of school at noon, so of course they’re all going to come. If they came, they got an excused absence. But just to see the support out there and hearing them cheer, and to know that they’ll always support one of their own was a very, very neat moment.”
Deputy athletic director-senior woman administrator Kristen Brown, university president Dr. Jeffrey Gold and Dannen all spoke and Nebraska played a welcome video on the big screen before Busboom Kelly stepped up to the microphone to speak publicly for the first time as Nebraska’s head coach. Confetti rained down as she stepped forward and the administrators presented her, her husband Lane (a former football player for the Huskers), and her son Boone with Nebraska jerseys.
Busboom Kelly said he hadn’t been overly emotional over the past week; those emotions waited until she walked onto the stage to truly hit her.
Even after the hour-long ceremony in front of a crowd of thousands, she said she’s still having a hard time wrapping her head around present reality.
“Looking at the stage, I was like, ‘This is this is crazy. This is a bit much,’” she said. “But at the same time, it’s an honor to be part of a place that cares so much about the sport of volleyball and continues to push the limits and shows everybody what can be done and that it works and people care. I’m really grateful, and just having John Cook around and being so supportive, it’s meant so much and given me a lot of confidence, and has made this transition seamless and exciting and not nerve-wracking or scary.”
Busboom Kelly laid out her expectations for the program under her watch, which should sound pretty familiar to its fans.
“The expectations aren’t changing,” Busboom Kelly said. “Our expectation is to be in the hunt to win the Big Ten and to be in Final Fours and winning national championships. But I also want our players to leave here just loving the sport of volleyball and loving the game and be dying to play pro or coach or give back and have this feeling that they’re not burnt out. So I think the expectation is for these players to have an amazing experience, and usually that leads to success.”
The advice she’d give to her 10-year-old self should also sound familiar to Nebraska fans: dream big. She is a Cook disciple, after all, and while he may not be in charge anymore, his teachings will continue to reverberate throughout the program.
“Make sure that you are prepared or that you can handle the good and the bad times, and also to remind her that in sports, there are a lot of high highs and a lot of low lows, she continued. “But at the end of the day, this is a game that brings so many people joy and love, and it can unite people. It’s such an amazing opportunity to be a big part in the sports world.”
While the native son or daughter returning to Nebraska has produced mixed results in recent years, Busboom Kelly had no reservations or moments of hesitation when Dannen and Cook welcomed her back. Everything she’d learned in her time away gave her the confidence necessary to follow in her mentor’s footsteps, especially with the state in which he’s leaving the program as a perennial national contender.
With her contract signing, pre-planned family vacation and introductory press conference out of the way, the work starts in earnest for Busboom Kelly as she leads the Huskers into a new era.
“I’m very humbled and grateful to be here living another dream of mine to represent this amazing athletics department and this amazing state and a place that just means so much to me and my family,” Busboom Kelly said. “So just really excited to get going and get in the gym for our first practices and get to know this team.”
