Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook was among the four people included in the 2017 American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame induction class announced on Monday.
According to the release, the “AVCA annually recognizes those individuals who have reached the pinnacle of their profession and the sport with the AVCA Hall of Fame.” The sixth-winningest coach in NCAA history, Cook has coached his teams to three NCAA championships and one runner-up finish, seven NCAA Semifinals, 11 conference titles and 660 wins among numerous other accomplishments. He has been named his conference’s coach of the year six times and the national coach of the year twice.
In his 17 years at Nebraska, Cook has led the Huskers to a record of 499-66, 16 NCAA Regionals, 11 conference titles and 15 top-ten AVCA Poll finishes. He guided his team to a national championship in 2000, 2006 and 2015. During his tenure, the team also moved from the NU Coliseum to the renovated Bob Devaney Sports Center with double the capacity in 2013 and has led the NCAA in attendance every year since.
Cook began his career working as an assistant at the Division III level in Southern California before joining now fellow Hall of Fame coach Terry Pettit’s staff at Nebraska in 1989. Cook accepted the head coaching position at Wisconsin in 1992 and led the Badgers to a record of 161-73 before returning to Lincoln to succeed Pettit in 2000.
In addition to Cook, the 15th annual AVCA Hall of Fame induction class includes Debbie Brown, Cecile Reynaud and Rosie Wegrich, bringing the total number of members to 77. The ceremony will be held at the 2017 Jostens Coaching Honors Luncheon held in conjunction with the 2017 AVCA Convention in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
