Ex-Nebraska Volleyball coach John Cook recently got emotional about a situation in his team, the Omaha Supernovas. The former coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers is currently managing the Omaha Supernovas, which plays in Major League Volleyball.
Cook previously worked for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He served as the head coach of the Big Red team from 2000 to 2024, after which he announced his retirement.
John Cook Turns Emotional About Players Voluntarily Taking Pay Cut
In a recent interview with the KE 7 Omaha channel, Cook opened up about the financial crisis within the team and how two players came up with a solution to address it. In his words,
“I’ll tell you an incredible story though, that happened last night, This caught us all off guard, but we had, by today, we had to be today at the salary cap, and we were planning on making another cut. And yesterday, a couple of leaders on the team kept asking, when are we going to get our stuff, our bags, our sweats and that all stuff? And they were told that, you can’t have all that till we have the final roster. And we got to make another cut.”
Cook further added how two players decided to take voluntary pay cuts to maintain the current roster. He mentioned,
“A couple hours later, they came back and said, ‘How much we have to reduce our salary so we don’t have to cut anybody?’ And they figured it out and both those players took a pay cut. We had to redo their contracts last night took a pay cut, so we wouldn’t have to make a final cut. And so I got teary eyed.”
Cook didn’t mention the names of the two players in the interview, but felt proud of their large-heartedness.
Cook’s Track Record As Head Coach
Cook had joined the Nebraska women’s volleyball team as the head coach in 2000. In his very first season, Cook did the unthinkable, inspiring the Big Red team to win every match and ultimately claim their second NCAA title overall. Nebraska became one of the rare few institutions to not lose a single game in its journey to an NCAA title.
Cook then transformed the Huskers into a consistently evolving unit, with a unique fan base that not only cheered for its team but also showed absolute sportsmanship towards the other teams. He led the Big Red team to three more NCAA titles in 2006, 2015, and 2017.
Cook retired in 2024, after the Huskers missed a second consecutive NCAA finals by a whisker, losing 2-3 to the eventual NCAA champions, the Penn State Nittany Lions.