John Cook stepped up to the podium for his final address as Nebraska’s head volleyball coach on Thursday, a little later than scheduled.
Before addressing the media, he had to complete a speaking engagement with a group of landscapers at Nebraska’s Innovation Campus. He had scheduled the speech long before announcing his retirement and had forgotten it was on his calendar. Cook gave the speech anyway before heading to the Hawks Championship Center Media Room, where more than 50 people waited to hear his parting address.
As athletic director Troy Dannen said in his opening comments, the turnout was representative of what Cook had accomplished during his career. Cook taking time out on a busy, emotional day to honor a speaking engagement in the community also speaks to who he is.
Cook made it through a couple lines of his prepared speech — including a reference to Neil Young’s “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue),” citing the “It’s better to burn out than fade away” line, before the emotions hit him and he had to take a moment to fight back tears.
That wasn’t the last time during the address, nor was it the first time the emotions it him on Thursday. That happened in his car as he pulled up to the Hawks Championship Center. He said he had been doing great until that point.
Cook spoke for more than 30 minutes about his decision to retire, his legendary career and the excitement he has for his successor, Dani Busboom Kelly.
Cook said there wasn’t an exact moment when he knew it was time to retire. It was business as usual throughout the offseason — including landing a commitment from Baylor transfer Allie Sczech last week. He just said he had a feeling, and had been talking to friends who have retired and studied Nick Saban’s process.
Exactly one week before his farewell presser, at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 23, Cook went to Dannen’s office.
“It’s time,” Cook told him. “We need to talk about a transition plan.”
That’s where the discussion began, feeling out what a retirement plan may look like. By Monday night, after numerous conversations, Cook informed Dannen that he had decided to call it a career immediately.
“It just felt like now is the right time — for her, for me, for the program and the team,” Cook said. “I want to give her the best shot and the best runway going into the season, and so I think that was the biggest part. But there wasn’t a moment. It was just a feeling that started happening, and it was hard to work through. I’ve had a knot my stomach for weeks, but I just feel really good about where our programs at and where our team’s at.”
The state of the program and his relationships with the current players simultaneously made the decision difficult and also pushed him in the direction of hanging up his whistle.
“I’ve had more fun coaching the last two years with this group than I can remember coaching,” Cook said. “It’s been a blast, and I’ve always wanted to go out on top when it’s really fun, and I’m enjoying a group. I didn’t want to go out where, ‘God, it’s miserable. It’s time, I want to get out.’ And so that was one of the hardest things, and I tried to explain that to our team. I have so much love and respect for them, and they’re so much fun to be around. They’re just a great group. That was the time to go out, feeling it like I was at the top.
“And also, if you look at the last 10 years here, it’s been the most successful, the greatest run we’ve had since I’ve been the coach here. And so again, I just feel like we’re at the top of our game, and it’s a great time to be a cheerleader now.”
Cook called Tom Osborne, who coached at Nebraska for 25 years just like Cook did, his greatest mentor and someone he was honored to work for. He also cited his family as a motivating factor. His daughter, Lauren, is expecting her second child. He missed a lot of time with his kids during his coaching career and wants to be there for his grandchildren.
“Dani’s the right person, so I feel really good about handing this over, and it just feels like it’s the right time … Coach [Terry] Pettit left this program in a great spot for me, and I feel like Nebraska volleyball is in the best spot it’s ever been since I’ve been here,” Cook said.
He believes the 2025 squad has a chance to be a great team, especially after meeting with his players to break the news. The transfer portal opens for 30 days for players in a program following a coaching change, but Cook said the immediate response has been emotional yet positive.
“I called in Harper [Murray] first because I knew that would be the toughest one,” Cook said. “I didn’t even get to the T in retirement, and she was very, very emotional. So once I got through that, it was a lot easier to go with the team, because I knew that would be the tough one. They all responded really well. But again, it was tough. I just pretended I’m giving them a pregame pep talk; that’s what I told myself. We did it, and I was so pumped up — their first reaction was, ‘we’re going to meet.’ And when they went to meet, I didn’t know what they were meeting about. I’m like, ‘Wow, are they all going to start talking about going in the portal or what?’ But they made a commitment to help Dani. Can’t ask for any more than that.”
Busboom Kelly spoke to the team via FaceTime after Cook shared the news and is planning to meet the players in person on Thursday. Cook has received visits and text messages from the players over the past couple of days, sharing their feelings and offering gratitude.
Cook said he’s been experiencing a litany of feelings since finalizing his decision, but the overriding one is a sense of accomplishment.
“I’m content,” Cook said. “I feel like I’ve done everything I can do. What’s left to do? There are going to be new challenges out there. We’re going to open at PBA, that’s going to be one. These are ones for Dani now to take on, and Kelly [(Hunter) Natter] and Jaylen [Reyes] and Lindsay [Peterson]. There are going to be new things, the revenue share’s new; that’s going to be a whole other animal to tackle. I think the Big Ten, there could be some type of tournament.
“So there are going to be a lot of new things, and I just think I’ve done everything. The only thing left to do was to continue to try to win more games. I just felt like it’s time to make that change now. It was a feeling, and it’s a freeing feeling. Am I going to miss it? Hell yeah. Yeah, I’m going to miss it, but I’m going to be the biggest cheerleader.”
As Cook walked off the dais, delivering one final “Go Big Red” as Nebraska’s head volleyball coach, a round of applause followed him. He didn’t walk off into the sunset, however (and not just because it was before noon). The California native turned Nebraska cowboy donned a black cowboy hat, and then he spent the next hour speaking individually with different media members on and off the record and reminiscing with various staff members.
“Dr. [Jeffrey] Gold said it best: I’m a Nebraskan by choice,” Cook said. “I wasn’t born here, but I really feel like I’m a Nebraskan, and it was by choice. I bleed Husker, and it was the greatest thing, I think, that ever happened to my wife and I, to move here.”
