On August 30, 2023, the Nebraska Volleyball Program broke barriers for women’s sports and set a precedent for the future. Overbooking the Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, 92,003 people attended a Nebraska vs. Omaha women’s volleyball game. This game broke the world record for the largest attendance at a women’s sporting event ever!
Led by head coach John Cook, who has coached 24 seasons and led the Huskers to 4 national championships, 10 Final Fours, 12 conference championships, and 21 top-10 final rankings, they have become an unbeatable and historic team. Known nationwide for their dominant hits, perfect passes, and impressive sets, they are role models for girls of younger generations trying to make it in volleyball.
The Laguna Beach High School Volleyball Program is among the world’s many teams that Nebraska inspires. In the small town of Laguna Beach, located in Southern California, is a gym full of 43 girls who work daily to improve their skills, hoping to one day play at that level. The man who runs the program, Sinan Tanik, leads the girls to many victories, including a CIF appearance. His career speaks for itself: he has played globally for many years, winning championships in Tukey, championship league titles, and he played at one of the best clubs in Poland with Olympians (the best club of his career). He has also played in Greece, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates. His coaching career entailed directing a Turkish men’s national team, NCAA D1 men’s college Concordia, 949 Volleyball Club, LBHS, and the Santa Margarita boys’ program.
In 2017, Tanik watched the Nebraska women’s program play in the Final Four; they won the championship that year.
“The fact that they brought 10,000 fans to support themselves in the NCAA final four was a huge deal; it’s very hard to achieve even with a national team. Seeing that in a college women’s volleyball program was a huge deal,” Tanik said.
When he watched the game, he noted how coach John Cook runs the program. Tanik made note of his relationship with the players. In his coaching setting, he makes sure that he also has strong relationships with his players. They applaud his method of critique, making individual comments and not addressing the whole team. Tanik takes this and implants it into his own coaching, for he feels that it resonates with the players and helps them to understand the game better.
He feels that building a team culture is highly important for the team’s success. College programs are not built quickly – building relationships takes a long time.
“Recruiting the right people and creating the right culture are the most important characteristics that Nebraska has,” Tanik adds.
Because they recruited such people, Nebraska has strong leadership throughout the team. Like Laguna, leadership in the group and on staff is vital in creating a challenging work environment and practice setting. Practice sets a precedent for how teams play, so it is essential to have strong environments to do so.
“The work ethic and harder practices and sustaining that level is the biggest deal in any team. We have the potential to do that, and that is what the Nebraska program does the best,” he states.
Overall, the Nebraska women’s volleyball program has great role models for the volleyball world, and they inspire many globally to achieve their full potential and work through any challenges. The girls of the Laguna Beach High School volleyball program will forever look up to those at the higher level, especially the world record-setting Nebraska Huskers.
