The emotional domino effect behind Nebraska volleyball's high-profile coaching transition

New York Times

05-02-2025

LINCOLN, Neb. — Sarah Murray's phone rang on Tuesday, Jan. 28 around 6 p.m. She answered and John Cook greeted her. They've talked regularly for years but never more often than in the past 12 months as Cook helped her daughter, Harper Murray, through a life-altering time.
He got to the point quickly.
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'Sarah,' Cook told her, 'I'm retiring.'
She doesn't remember her response, only the shock. Cook, the Nebraska volleyball coach with four national championships in a historic 25-year run, began to recruit Harper when she was in eighth grade — eight years after Sarah's husband and Harper's father, former Michigan football star Vada Murray, died of cancer.
After Harper suffered a severe depressive episode a year ago as a freshman at Nebraska, Cook became like a father figure to her. He constructed a road for her to regain love for her sport and to earn second-team All-America honors as the Huskers returned to the Final Four in December.
In a consequential moment during the monthlong chain of events that led to perhaps the most visible coaching transition ever in collegiate volleyball, Cook told Sarah he wanted to inform Harper privately of his decision to retire.
They knew it would generate shockwaves. Nebraska rates among the most financially successful programs in women's college sports and attracts attention unmatched in volleyball. It is woven into the fabric of communities in Nebraska, a state treasure by Cook's description.
Sarah agreed such an arrangement would work best. Cook wanted her input. Should he talk to Harper on Tuesday night or Wednesday before a scheduled team meeting and announcement? Could Harper keep quiet if she knew a day in advance?
'No, absolutely not tonight,' Sarah said.
Suddenly, Sarah said, worries rushed in. She feared Cook was sick, so she requested permission to ask his reasoning for the unexpected retirement.
He answered in the same way to Sarah as at a packed news conference in Lincoln on Thursday morning.
The time is right. 'We're at the top of our game,' Cook said. 'It's a great time to be a cheerleader now.'
From his heart to yours,
a message from the legend himself. pic.twitter.com/B4R44eAQ05
— Nebraska Huskers (@Huskers) February 3, 2025
Much like in some 50 other instances over the past year, Sarah said, she choked up and thanked him for everything.
'Mainly for him believing in Harper when she didn't believe in herself,' Sarah said. 'I just expressed my gratitude that he's been a part of her life. And that I'm sad it couldn't be for four years, but I'm really, really happy that it was for two. And that his impact on her will last a lifetime. I'm so grateful.'
Then Sarah said goodbye and sat at her kitchen table in Michigan and cried.
The path to last week began in 2022 after Dani Busboom Kelly signed a contract extension at Louisville. She negotiated a clause that allowed her to leave the school without penalty only if she went to Nebraska.
Busboom Kelly, 39, was a four-sport standout at Adams Freeman High School in rural Nebraska about 30 miles south of Lincoln. She committed to the Huskers as a sophomore and won a national championship as a setter-turned-libero under Cook in 2006. She was on his bench as an assistant coach for Nebraska's title run in 2015.
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In 2017, Busboom Kelly left Nebraska for Louisville. The Cardinals beat No. 2 Texas in 2019 to make their first Sweet 16 appearance. In 2021, she was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association coach of the year for winning 32 consecutive matches before a five-set loss against Wisconsin in the national semifinals.
After that season, she connected with Cook while on the road to recruit. They met for dinner, an annual event, Cook said, and she told him about her new contract with the non-buyout clause.
'That means you want to come back?' Cook said.
'Yes,' Busboom Kelly said.
'That was it,' Cook said. 'She planted that seed. I knew that was her dream.'
Less than three years later, in December 2024, Louisville hosted the Final Four. Nebraska made it for the seventh time in 10 years. Busboom Kelly was there, too, with her team for the third time in four seasons.
They played in opposite semifinals. Louisville upset top-ranked Pitt to reach the championship match. Penn State stunned the favored Huskers with a reverse sweep victory in the nightcap, Nebraska's first loss in 104 matches after it won the first two sets.
No one in the arena — not even Cook — knew it would be his last match.
'It doesn't take a genius to think at some point he's going to retire,' Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said last week. 'And I think everyone in the volleyball world knew that Dani was the person that was going to follow him.'
Cook wasn't thinking about retirement on that night, he said. He was hurting for the Huskers. The 2024 team had been one of his best, and it failed to reach the championship match after getting there and losing in 2021 against Wisconsin and 2023 against Texas.
Penn State beat Louisville in four sets for the championship on Dec. 22.
A few days after the season ended, Cook began to contemplate his future. He talked extensively with Lindsay Peterson, who played on his first title team in 2000 and has worked for 20 years as Nebraska's director of operations.
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Peterson urged Cook to take his time and avoid making an emotional choice. She advised him not to chase a final victory.
'He had earned the right to go out when he felt right about it,' Peterson said. 'I told him, 'I don't think there's ever an easy time, but you want to go out when you still love it.''
Cook felt a knot in his stomach. He called Busboom Kelly after Christmas. He told her how he felt.
'There wasn't a moment,' Cook said. 'It was just a feeling.'
All that Cook could do in volleyball, he said, he's done. In 2023, his team filled Memorial Stadium with more than 92,000 fans to set a global attendance record for a women's sporting event.
The remaining challenges, he said, 'are left for Dani to take on.'
On Thursday at the Devaney Center — the arena at which Nebraska has sold out every match since it opened as a volleyball venue in 2013 — the school will hold a public event to welcome Busboom Kelly, the fourth head coach in program history.
Thursday is DBK Day in Lincoln.
Join us in welcoming @danib18 + her family back to Nebraska for a celebration at The Bob.
Event begins at 2:00pm CT and is free and open to the public.
ℹ️ Full details » https://t.co/G9pcVYga3c pic.twitter.com/vQgPazn5uC
— Nebraska Huskers (@Huskers) February 3, 2025
Their meeting was on the calendar for a few weeks prior to Jan. 21, a normal opportunity after the season for a head coach and athletic director to review and discuss goals. Cook delayed it for two days as he worked through his thoughts.
'I felt the scale tipping,' Peterson said. 'And as it started to tip, I also started to feel the freedom and the calm and the overwhelming joy that he had. I knew that he was content.'
Cook sat down with AD Troy Dannen on Jan. 23.
'He said it was time to talk transition,' Dannen said.
Cook wasn't sure about his future on that Thursday, but he wanted to start the conversation. The coach endorsed Busboom Kelly as his potential successor. Dannen was impressed by her work and agreed to make her the primary candidate.
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Dannen needed to meet the Louisville coach, though. One day later, Busboom Kelly visited Omaha to watch two of her former players compete for the Madison, Wis., team in the new League One Volleyball professional organization.
Busboom Kelly sat courtside, a few chairs from Cook, who was there to see five ex-Huskers, including U.S. Olympians Jordan Larson and Justine Wong-Orantes, in uniform for the Omaha squad.
Cook and Busboom Kelly briefly talked at the match. They did not mention the brewing bombshell. Next to Busboom Kelly for part of the night sat Bernthal Booth.
The Creighton coach said she caught wind of nothing afoot. At one point as fans filtered to the court level to take pictures with the two women, both Nebraska natives and known well in this environment, Bernthal Booth turned to Busboom Kelly and joked, 'Are you ready for this when you come back?'
'I didn't know that she probably knew already that she was a week away from being that person,' Bernthal Booth said.
The following morning, Busboom Kelly trekked the 50 miles to Lincoln. Dannen notified Louisville AD Josh Heird that he wanted to speak with Busboom Kelly. Around noon that Saturday, as Dannen waited with Kristen Brown, Nebraska's deputy AD and senior woman administrator, Busboom Kelly entered Memorial Stadium through a back door.
Secrecy was important. They met for about three hours, then Cook joined for 90 minutes, according to Dannen.
'When she left,' Dannen said, 'I looked at Kristen and just raised my eyebrows and said, 'She's everything I hoped and thought she'd be and then some.''
But Cook had not made a final decision.
'When he decided the time was right, the time was going to be right,' Dannen said.
Two days later, on the evening of Jan. 27, the time was right. Cook called Dannen. Then Cook called 87-year-old Tom Osborne, the legendary former football coach and AD, and thanked him for his guidance, taking pride that they both retired from coaching after their 25th seasons at Nebraska.
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Dannen set Wednesday for the announcement. Nebraska had less than 48 hours to orchestrate everything internally and with Louisville.
Most important to Dannen, he wanted to maintain confidentiality.
'It was maybe a once-in-a-lifetime sequence of how it worked,' Dannen said.
From Monday night until Wednesday afternoon, Brown checked social media and the Volley Talk Internet forums for any hint that word leaked.
'The number of people who had to know for certain things to be executed,' Brown said, 'you get nervous that someone will get loose with the lips. We wanted to do right by both coaches, but most importantly by the players. And so it was a lot to keep under wraps, but it speaks to the respect that everybody has for coach Cook and Dani.'
It stayed quiet. And when Wednesday arrived, Cook asked Harper Murray to meet with him at 3 p.m.
GO DEEPER
Dani Busboom Kelly is right for Nebraska, which is not doomed to repeat old mistakes
Sarah Murray didn't sleep well on Tuesday after her call with Cook.
She was on edge, Sarah said, not knowing what time Cook was scheduled to meet with Harper.
Cook, in his conversation with the 19-year-old outside hitter, didn't get through the word 'retirement,' he said before Harper turned 'very, very emotional.'
'My phone rang, and she was just sobbing,' Sarah said. 'Just sobbing. There's no way to console that. I just felt like she needed to cry. I listened to her cry and tried to remind her that he's always going to be there for her.'
Sarah wanted to see her daughter, so she asked Harper to switch their call to FaceTime.
'She was a crying mess,' Sarah said.
After a short time, Sarah said, Harper looked at the clock. She had to end the call, Harper said, because their team meeting would begin in 15 minutes.
'I need to stop crying, Mom,' Harper said, according to Sarah. 'I want to put on a brave face for the freshmen. I don't want them to freak out.'
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For Sarah, Harper's maturity spoke to the culture Cook built and the confidence he enabled her to regain. 'She was really caught up in her emotions and really sad,' Sarah said, 'but she was also thinking about her teammates.'
In the team meeting at 4:30 pm., Cook said, two Huskers held Murray's hands as he told them of his plans. Busboom Kelly met with the Louisville players at the same moment.
The Nebraska players asked Cook for five minutes alone. They returned to him and said they pledged to support Busboom Kelly. She is one of them, after all, and she's keeping Cook's Nebraska assistant coaches, Jaylen Reyes and Kelly (Hunter) Natter in addition to Peterson.
Busboom Kelly spoke to the Huskers immediately via FaceTime. Nebraska distributed the Cook announcement via email to the media at 4:42 p.m. The hire of his replacement was announced at 5 p.m.
A Husker homecoming for DBK.
Introducing the 4th Head Coach of Nebraska Volleyball, Dani Busboom Kelly. pic.twitter.com/IIWtL7C2k3
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) January 29, 2025
A new era of Nebraska volleyball began.