John Cook - Dream Like a Champion: Wins, Losses, and Leadership the Nebraska Volleyball Way

John Cook has accomplished nearly everything a volleyball coach can achieve. He has done this not by focusing just on recruiting great players or the physical skills of his players. In Dream Like a Champion John reveals his relentless quest for better team chemistry, improving communication skills, proper goal setting, and attention to detailwhich together result in peak performance.

Tom Osborne, former Husker head football coach, University of Nebraska athletic director, and U.S. congressman

Courage is the word that comes to mind when I think of Coach John Cook. Over the years Ive seen John continually show courage, but never more than when he acknowledged his need to reinvent himself and manage stress. His willingness to share that about himself and to be open to others is one of the most courageous things Ive seen done by a coach, or by anyone, really, in all my years as a sports psychiatrist.

Larry Widman, co-founder of Performance Mountain

The thing that strikes me the most about John Cook is the amount of thought and energy he gives to every possible detail in coaching. Johns reflection about his own coaching and the Nebraska program frequently leads to action, which is how both an individual and a program stay ahead of the game. This is a very good book for anyone who has an interest in coaching and leadership.

Terry Pettit, head coach, University of Nebraska womens volleyball team, 197799

If youre a Nebraska volleyball fan you should own this book.

Jon Johnston, Corn Nation blog

John Cook had an unconventional path into coaching. He has incredible insight into building champions on and off the court. His growth mind-set and ability to constantly develop new leadership skills make him a special breed of coach.

Jack Riggins, co-founder of Performance Mountain, retired U.S. Navy SEAL , and assistant football coach at Midland University

2017 by John Cook and Brandon Vogel

2018 by John Cook and Brandon Vogel

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018945295

Set in Lyon Text by John Klopping.

ISBN 978-1-4962-0484-4 (electronic: e-pub)

ISBN 978-1-4962-0485-1 (electronic: e-mobi)

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To Mom and Dad, who never let me quit and taught me to work hard for everything.

To Wendy, the ultimate coachs wife: understanding of the demands coaches face and the sacrifices they make, willing to make many sacrifices of her own, and always there for all Huskers.

To Lauren and Taylor, who have had to share their dad with volleyball teams and have inspired their parents with their hard work and dedication.

To Tom Osborne, the consummate coach, mentor, and role model.

PHOTOGRAPHS

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PREFACE

A text message arrives at 2:16 a.m., the glow from my phone lighting the darkened hotel room. As a coach I am used to sleepless nights, particularly before the biggest gamesand they do not come any bigger than an NCAA Championship match. It was December 16, 2006.

In less than seventeen hours we would face Stanford in Omaha for the national title. It was Stanfords twelfth appearance in the national-title match and the Cardinal had already won six national championships, the most in college volleyball at the time. This stage was far from foreign to them.

When the preseason poll came out that season, Nebraska was number one and Stanford was number four, but the Cardinal received only one fewer first-place vote than we did. By the time the seeds were announced for the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season, we were 27-1 and champions of the Big 12 Conference, and we had done enough to earn the top seed. Stanford finished the regular season 253, won the Pac-10 Conference title, and earned the second seed in the tournament. It would be just the second time in the history of the tournament that the top two seeds faced off in the final game.

To the outside observer it may have looked like everything was going according to plan. Here were the two best teams in the country playing for the national title. Volleyball insiders, however, knew that a Pac-10 team had won the previous five national titles. Many of the real die-hard volleyball people inside the sport thought Stanford had the best team.

There were plenty of reasons to think that and plenty of players on that team to keep an opposing coach awake at night. A pair of sophomores, outside hitter Cynthia Barboza and middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo, led Stanford. Both were selected as First Team All-Americans by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, and each would earn the honor two more times in college before going on to careers with the U.S. National Team. Stanford junior setter Bryn Kehoe was a Second Team All-American. Senior outside hitter Kristin Richards was a Third Team All-American.

We countered with four All-Americans of our own: freshman setter Rachel Holloway, sophomore outside hitter Jordan Larson, junior right side hitter Sarah Pavan, and junior middle blocker Tracy Stalls. If people were thinking Stanford was the best team in college volleyball, I was fine letting my team think the same.

The day before the match I sent one of our student managers all over Omaha searching for a dvd copy of Do You Believe in Miracles , a documentary on the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. That team, made up of amateur and collegiate players, famously knocked off a much more experienced Soviet Union team in what Sports Illustrated named the Top Sports Moment of the Twentieth Century. The team needed to see that film.

We eventually found a copy at a nearby bookstore. I had our video staff add some of our season highlights to the end of the film and we screened it for the team. Afterward we talked about the level of belief that that U.S. team had to have had to think it could beat a Soviet hockey program that had won the previous four gold medals and 27 of its previous 29 games in Olympic play over two decades. That was the example we left our players with as they headed off to bed.

A few hours later, shortly after 2:00 in the morning, the text message arrived: Dream big. Dream like a champion tonight.

The text went out to the whole team and it didnt come from a captain or one of our four All-Americans. It came from senior Dani Mancuso, a reserve outside hitter from Omaha. She was preparing to play her final match as a Husker.

In high school Dani had been one of the best prep players in the country. I first saw her play at a club tournament and she blew me away. Holy cow, I thought the first time I watched her warm up. She was an explosive player.

Dani went on to set two Nebraska Class B state records for kills when playing for Omaha Gross High School, and we had to out-recruit a handful of schools, including Stanford, to get her. She started fifteen matches for us as a freshman in 2003, but her performance was somewhat erratic. She had what I thought was a breakout performance against Notre Dame as a sophomore in 2004. We were down 2 sets to 1 in a match against the Fighting Irish and Dani came off the bench to record 10 kills over the final 2 sets, powering us to the win. I gave her a chance to start after that, but she struggled in a few games and was back on the bench a couple of games later.