The L issue with my John cook story is out. My scanner isn't big enough to show the whole thing but you can get the jist of the layout.
Here is the story:
John Cook story. By Brian Reetz
A short stack of books, all with the same title, sits on the right corner of a big desk in a recently renovated, upstairs office at the NU Coliseum on this bitterly cold January morning.
It’s the former office of longtime and revered Husker football coach Bob Devaney, who had a nice scenic view of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and with a turn of the head, a glimpse of Memorial Stadium. Now a different Husker coach sits and shares his wisdom from this grand office. With two national championships, an overall record of 252-16 and a Big 12 record of 154-6 as head coach of the Husker volleyball team, John Cook is well on his way to gaining legend status himself in the Cornhusker State.
It’s been close to a month since another powerful, dominating and heart-stopping season came to a sudden end in the 2007 NCAA Regional final to Cal. But Cook is already looking to the 2008 season and this stack of books, The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players by NBA Coach Pat Riley, will definitely come in handy.
“One of the things that we’ve discovered is that people in this generation are very visual and they don’t just do what you tell them to do anymore,” Cook says, who is in his fifties. “They need to be stimulated and you have to communicate with them visually and with ideas to get your point across. To me that is one of the most enjoyable parts about coaching – finding ways to try to inspire people and get them to think by being creative.”
Reading hasn’t always been at the top of Cook’s list. But he took the advice of former NU volleyball coach Terry Pettit, who Cook was an assistant for in 1998-1991 and then again as his associate head coach in 1999. Pettit said Cook, known as a grinder, needed to use resources available to him and use his creative side more. “Coach Pettit taught me how important reading is,” Cook said. “In coaching you have a lot of plane flights and hotels so I always have a stack of books and then read them when we are traveling. It helps the travel go by faster and I always have a highlighter. I’m always looking for inspiration somewhere.”
Cook will soon be sending The Winner Within out to his juniors and seniors to read in preparation for the 2008 season, a season that will be a true test due to the loss of a number of All-American players. “I think it is one of the best team books that I’ve ever read,” Cook said. “Every year I try to get my team a book to read and then we talk about it. I have another book to send to my freshmen and sophomores and I’m waiting for it to come in. It’s a book that our older players got a couple of years ago called, Go Girl, by Natalie Cook.”
It’s an inspiring, team concept that everyone can use in every part of their life, from their workplace to their school or in their home. When Cook looks back on this past season, he knew what the team’s challenges were going to be because they went through something very similar to this in 2001 as the Huskers were coming off a national championship in 2000. “We returned a great team, with a ton of expectations, and basically winning a national championship is what it came down to,” he said.
So the Huskers were extremely pro-active in terms of inspiration and motivation. It actually started in January, just days after winning the national championship, as the team was presented with concepts to think about, including some from The Winner Within. Then in April, a team meeting took place and a video was shown with different scenes from a Tour de France time trials documentary, a Mt. Everest documentary and from a big wave surfing documentary to get the team thinking about what would be important heading into the 2007 season.
Another concept Cook instituted was the team’s foundation -- the circle. In the core of the circle was – max out. Then around the circle were words like love, trust and elevate.
“Every two weeks we would meet about one of those words and I would have people come in and talk to them, including Coach (Tom) Osborne,” Cook said. “The focus was on what the word meant, why we had the word, defining it and examples of it. We wanted to live that circle 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think for the most part it worked pretty well. At the beginning of the season, we were playing unbelievably well. So I like what we did.”
But as the season went on, Cook could see that the burden of repeating as national champion was beginning to take a toll. “Teams have their end points when the energy runs out and I think ours ran out a week too early. We’ve been on an incredible run for two years and it’s hard to keep that up. It takes so much to be at the highest level. I don’t care what field you are in. A lot of things need to go right and things can come up and get in the way. It’s how you handle them and deal with them. That is the constant challenge of coaching – to deal with them and have them perform at the highest level.”
Heading into the 2008 season, the complete dynamics of the Huskers change. Gone are the likes of household names such as Sarah Pavan, Tracy Stalls and Christina Houghtelling -- players who have played a lot of matches and have had a lot of success in Husker red. But that is why Cook is giving the upperclassmen, The Winner Within to read. The first chapter is called, The Innocent Climb, which is described as a time of growth that unexpectedly changes the whole face of an organization. “When this senior group was freshmen, we went on an innocent climb. They lost their first match here in the coliseum to Florida A&M. Their first match that they get to play in the coliseum, they lose it. They never lost another home match after that but they went on an innocent climb.” Of course, the end result for the team was the 2006 National Championship.
Riley, a coach that Cook has never met but has admired since the Lakers “showtime” days while growing up in San Diego, talks about a new energy with the new people that are going to step up in the book. Cook admits that it’s exciting to coach teams like that because you are going to see a lot of improvement in them and see leaders emerge.
“You look at this past team and we really had nowhere to go. One of the things that caught us in the end is we started off at such a high level and I wasn’t sure how much more we could improve. You hit a point where you are either getting better or getting worse and I think we started tailing off a bit. Not with the level of play, but the passion, energy and focus that it takes to repeat as a national champion. Next year’s team will start an innocent climb. More than half our team will be freshmen and sophomores. But those are some of the most rewarding years.”
Cook wants Husker fans that have helped NU to win 72 straight home matches at the coliseum with over 100 consecutive sellouts to know this, “That this year they kind of sat and watched and we pretty much dominated teams in the coliseum. Next year they are going to have to get off their butts and get those hands going and willing this team to a new level because it will be a completely different journey for our fans as well.”
Those fans have witnessed a dominating program thanks to the sustained, methodical and brilliant efforts of Cook, who has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of San Diego and a master’s degree in teaching and coaching effectiveness from San Diego State. The married, father of two head coach keeps raising the bar to a new level in the state of Nebraska, across the nation and even the world.
“In regards to that, we’ve raised the bar pretty high,” Cook said. “I don’t know what is next but that is why we keep going at it here. You try to replicate it and keep the program at a high level. Next year the Qwest is hosting the Final Four again and I don’t think a lot of people think we are going to be there but in a way it is kind of a great challenge.”
Cook said one of the next bar raising moves might be to schedule a match at the new arena in Grand Island. They have played matches in Nebraska communities such as Ogallala, North Platte and Scottsbluff. “This is Nebraska’s team and we want to make sure it continues to be Nebraska’s team,” Cook added. And, along those lines, recruiting Nebraska girls that dream of playing volleyball at NU. “Coach Pettit set the example for taking athletes and training them to be volleyball players,” Cook said. “We have to do that at Nebraska. We can’t get the top recruits off the west coast or east coast. We have no choice but to build this program around Nebraska girls. Many of them in Nebraska are multi-sport athletes. Dani Busboom is a perfect example. She did everything. I remember she was one of the first girls doing a jump shot at the state basketball tournament when I watched her. That was an athlete, from Nebraska, invested in Nebraska and that is why our in-state recruiting is so important to this program. You can’t coach athleticism. That is God-given talent that they have.”
Even with the two national titles, multiple Big 12 championships and a nearly 90 percent winning percentage against ranked teams, the most rewarding part for Cook is witnessing the kind of experience the players have while with NU. He evaluates that by how many of them are going back into coaching, into teaching, continuing to play professionally and staying involved in the sport. Several of the players are coaching right now in college, high school or with a club team.
“I know that we are making an impact on these young women who are going out and talking to kids and impacting kids like they were impacted here,” Cook said. “When I say impact I’m talking about how to take care of yourself with choices, discipline, time management and nutrition. All of those things that we try to instill in our players here. It’s seeing a player like Sarah Pavan, who when she came into our program couldn’t carry on a conversation and was a very poor interview. But to see her up in front of about 50 media in New York and give a speech that was unbelievable was an incredible transformation. That was one of the most fulfilling moments for me as a coach here at Nebraska. Also trying to elevate, not only our players, but our program to do things that it has never done before like selling out Devaney, hosting Final Fours, the home sellout streak, the academic all-americans, just trying to raise the bar. We are taking the risk and going after big things.”
So for now, Cook focuses in on a team bonding experience over Spring Break and in reading (he’s currently in the middle of Launching a Leadership Revolution). If you notice someone looking over your shoulder on your next plane flight, it might just be him.
“I’m always asking people about good books to read. I ask other coaches or if I’m sitting next to someone on the plane I will ask them. I’m always looking for the next idea.”
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