By: Siri David

This season at Nebraska there is a new head coach. Her name is Dani Busboom Kelly. She is an alumni of Nebraska and played there as a libero and setter in the past from 2003 to 2006. She then coached at Louisville from 2017 to the winter of 2025 where she then stepped down, and decided to coach at Nebraska.

This is a huge deal because the Nebraska coach at the time, John Cook, was retiring and he played a huge role in the whole organization of volleyball at Nebraska. He coached at Nebraska for 25 years, and made an incredible impact.

He coached Dani throughout all of her years at Nebraska, and the loss of him retiring affected everyone. John made a strong impact on the outside hitter Harper Murray. Harper struggled with her mental health a lot in her freshman year and made a lot of mistakes, but John never stopped supporting her and helping her even when she couldn’t help herself. Before John told anyone else on the team he sat down with Harper and talked to her because of how important their bond was.

Dani coming to Nebraska caused a lot of different reactions both negative and positive. For the team though everyone was excited, and they all knew that she was a great coach because of how successful she was at Louisville. She also went to Nebraska so she knows how the atmosphere is and how to help them continue to be a successful team and organization.

Along with that she is also one of the only females to ever coach at Nebraska, and is taking major strides to help female leadership roles become more common. She took Louisville to the national championship against Penn state where both head coaches were female which has never happened in NCAA volleyball history.

Overall, Dani coming to Nebraska has caused a lot of changes but a lot of good changes. The Huskers are currently undefeated and are ranked number one. A lot of people are saying that they will go to the national championship and win it all. The players at Nebraska have vocalized that they do miss John but that they love Dani a lot and that she is doing a lot of good for the team and they have a lot of trust in her. There obviously have been a lot of things to adjust to but the team is handling it all really well.