John Cook’s Early Football Sacrifice Helped Nebraska Women’s Volleyball Reach New Heights

John Cook is the perfect coaching maverick. 25 Years = four national championships, 12 NCAA Semifinal appearances, and 14 conference titles. Did we mention that Cook was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame? For 25 years, Cook was the Huskers’ women’s volleyball program’s winning recipe. The legacy he left behind in Nebraska might have a new face now, a face that is still a byproduct of John Cook. Cook might have just been the head coach of the Huskers’ volleyball team, but his interactions with those who came in contact with him are those of a mentor and a guiding light.

For those not in the know, Cook’s background or rapid rise to fame wasn’t the result of a one-shot wonder. In fact, he was a hoop guy who excelled in basketball during his formative years with a passion for football. If we had to travel back in time to meet John Cook before his career took off, he himself wouldn’t have known that his calling was volleyball. But standing where he is now, we doubt that he would have chosen to do anything differently.

A very much retired ‘Coach Cook’ took sometime out to sit with Hurrdat Sports’ Ana Bellinghausen for an interview after the dust settled around his exit from the Huskers volleyball program. Let’s just say that the interview answered many questions that made John Cook the magnum opus of coaching. Insightful, to say the least. In the age and time when women empowerment is a global discussion, did you know that Cook gave up on his passion that is football, just to take up coaching a women’s volleyball (a sport that he had to read up on) team all those years ago when women in sports was a rare sight?

The Universe has a weird way of conspiring to make something magical happen. That’s exactly how the stars aligned to make Cook’s coaching journey in volleyball happen. So when Bellinghausen posed the question to him, “So why are you so passionate about women’s sports and pushing forward women in general?”, Cook’s response opened a pandora’s box of surprises, sacrifices, and stories, which were once his reflection.

In his early years, Cook had his sights set on something very different. “Well Anna, so I wanted to be a football coach,” he recalled. Fresh out of college, Cook poured his energy into coaching football while working as a substitute teacher. He found early success. “My second year we were the number one defensive team in San Diego County… we played Marcus Allen and his brother in the CIF championship and lost. And he, of course, is in the Hall of Fame for the NFL.” That game might’ve ended in defeat, but it solidified Cook’s passion and set his expectations sky-high. “I loved it and I’m thinking, okay this is what I want to do and eventually I can maybe be a college football coach.”

But life had other plans. In order to secure a full-time teaching job, Cook found himself posed with a condition: he needed to coach girls’ sports. “The school offered me a job and said you gotta coach girls’ sports. And the first fall sport was volleyball.” What began as a pragmatic choice quickly became something more impactful and profound. He found himself coaching not just volleyball, but basketball and softball too. “That’s where I think it kind of got ingrained in me that this is an unbelievable opportunity—that girls at the time are getting a chance to play sports.”

In San Diego, where the wave of women’s sports was just beginning to rise, Cook sensed something deeper: a paradigm shift in the world of sports where gender lines were blurring. “It exploded… and now you see where it’s at with clubs and so on. So I think that’s where I felt this… I don’t know, calling maybe if you want to call it that—to Title IX and giving women opportunity.” This calling only deepened when he met his wife, one of the first female athletes to receive a volleyball scholarship at San Diego State.

Then came his daughter, whose life, too, was changed by sport. “Of course my daughter—I saw how it changed her life. So I think that’s where the path took me.” There’s this nostalgic honesty in his voice when he admits, “I still miss football.” But through the years, what he’s built at Nebraska and the legacy he’s created for generations of female athletes has proven that sometimes, what you end up doing becomes more meaningful than what you once dreamed of doing.

But did you know that coach Cook had another side effect in the realm of sports? Let’s just say that he transformed coaching into a holistic experience. He wasn’t just churning out great athletes. He was the pioneer for a great yet silent coaching revolution. Don’t believe us. Ask the Huskers’ football program’s head coach, Matt Rhule, who seems to have taken an inspiration or two from John Cook, starting with TikTok.

How John Cook still R(h)ules

No pun intended. John Cook was asked in the interview if he would ever get involved with coaching in football, considering that he was passionate about the same. He revealed that he was invited to open the Coaches Clinic with a presentation that he was super excited for. His partner in crime? None other than the Nebraskan football program’s head coach, Matt Rhule. Cook had cut a deal with Rhule for giving him “sideline passes” throughout the presentation.

When Matt Rhule arrived in Lincoln in 2022, stepping into the storied role as Nebraska’s head football coach, one of the first people to offer support was none other than John Cook. “He came and spoke to the team when we first got here. He’s been a great friend to me, helped me a ton, comes to practice. He’s always there for us whenever we need anything.” In Cook, Rhule found more than just a colleague—he found a mentor.

Rhule admired the volleyball legend not just for his wins, but for his influence. “When we have a chance to be around the best, when we have a chance to be around greats, it only makes you better.” For Rhule, Cook’s presence was more than just inspiring; it helped him understand the essence of Nebraska’s culture and roots. By the time Rhule joined the Huskers, volleyball had become the cornerstone, and John Cook was the architect, credibility built through results and persistence.

The coaching brotherhood in Nebraska is strong, and for Rhule, Cook was a founding pillar to that family. “It’s those people after you lose a game you thought you were gonna win, it’s those people who usually text you. It’s those people who pick you up because they understand just how hard coaching is and how hard building a program is.” Cook’s guidance became a quiet lifeline in the background of Rhule’s earliest, most defining Huskers moments.

What Cook built went far beyond wins and banners. “Talk about leaving a place better than you found it, which is a foundational element of what we believe in. He’s the epitome of that.” For Rhule, Cook is the gold standard—a coach whose impact will ripple through Nebraska’s legacy for generations. “Happy for him. I’ll miss seeing him at practice… And I’m not getting on a horse, but I’ll go visit him.”