A Q-n-A with John Cook, Part I

Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook, like the rest of us, has been working from home, doing what he can to help prepare his Huskers for another national title run. Only, he can't do much in terms of coaching, so he's been staying in contact with his staff and players as much as possible, encouraging them to remain positive and "Win each day." What else has Cook been up to, and how's he personally handling a very unusual situation? He visited with Brian Rosenthal for a QnA, with Part I below, and Part II here.
 
BR: Coach, how are you doing first of all? I understand you've been doing your part to stay at home as much as possible. What's your routine been like at home and how much do you miss coming to work?
 
Coach Cook: "It feels really weird not going to work, so I feel like I'm probably not getting much done, but there's really not much to do right now. I mean, we're in a holding pattern. We can't recruit. We can't coach. I think Lindsay and I are going to work on the budget this week, but for us every day it's about how we can connect with the team and our staff. We've done a virtual happy hour with our staff. We have Zoomed a couple of times with the team and kept them updated. Otherwise my goal is how to win the day each day. I try to get up and get something done around the house, work out. Walk my dog. I've been baking. Working on breathing. I'm pretty into some Yoga-type breathing I've been doing. That's really helpful."
 
BR: What's your specialty in baking?
 
Coach Cook: "Right now we've been making scones, banana bread, stuff like that. You have ripe bananas, you have to do something with them. Baking sweets mostly. Made some cookies. My daughter said the other night, 'I've never seen you cook before.' "
 
BR: Does this situation compare to anything else in your coaching career?
 
Coach Cook: "The only thing that reminds me of this is 9-11, but we were, after about a week, kind of back into a routine of things and things were moving forward. This thing feels like it's still moving backward."
 
BR: Are most of your players still at home, and what's the tentative plan for them to return?
 
Coach Cook: "Last week, most of them were working their way back. We had four or five already within driving distance. And then the ones that had to fly, they've all been straddling. We're encouraging them to follow the protocols, isolate. We can feed them and they have access to tutors. That's kind of our concern is how we're going to do with this on-line stuff."
 
BR: How have you handled the uncertainty of the next few months? Have you been making plans for the different scenarios, or are you just waiting to see what happens with everything up in the air?
 
Coach Cook: "I told them when they left, best-case let's hope we can get back here mid-May and get back to business. Back in my mind, that was my best case scenario. I don't know if that's going to happen now (the Big Ten on Monday moved back suspension of activities until May 4). I'm mentally preparing them that our summer may be different. We may be training in the summer. Let's hope that happens. Let's make them understand, 'OK, I'm going to have to try to do the best I can with where I'm working out and staying in a routine.' It's interesting that most of them are coming back, which tells me they probably feel more like they're getting something done here, more of a routine, and being tired of being at home. There's probably nothing to do at home and there's no place for them to work out because everything is closed. I was talking to Callie Schwarzenbach, and her dad is a principal of a high school, and she can't even use the facilities there. She goes for walks. There's no place for her to work out. I think they have a sense of, 'At least I'm in a routine, at least I'm around Nebraska.' The other big thing is we're trying to connect with them, and what I've really noticed is they really enjoy the Zoom conference calls, plus we've been calling them on the phone, talking to them every couple of days. Usually it's very short conversation; now I sense they just kind of like to talk. That's the other thing I've noticed that's been interesting in all of this. But right now we're in a holding pattern and have to make the best of it. What can I do to win today? Get a good workout in, study hard, get ahead, read a book, connect with my family. Do something new. You can only watch so much Netflix. They have accountability partners they've created. That's helped each other, help each other stay accountable with each other. Really the focus the next month is really doing a good job on school."
 
BR: I assume you've had a lot of time to study film in getting ready for the 2020 season. What are some of the biggest takeaways you've gathered after re-watching a lot of the 2019 season?
 
Coach Cook: "Well, Stanford and Wisconsin set the level everyone has to be at, so we got to figure out how to get at that level. When you look at it statistically, we're close in a lot of areas. The key for us, what's the next step for us to get to that national championship-level, is we've got to become a better serving and passing team, and ball-control team. That's it in a nutshell. You could look at everything else, analyze it, put it an analytics program, whatever. But it comes down to us serving and passing better."
 
BR: With the Olympics being postponed a year, obviously that throws a wrench into Tyler Hildebrand's plans for this summer. Where does that stand and what's the update on his status as far as coming to Nebraska and if he could still be involved in the Olympics in some capacity in 2021?
 
Coach Cook: "We've had several conversations on that, and now that the Olympic dates are set, we've got a great plan. He's trying to get here as soon as he can. Originally he was going to come straight from the Olympics. I think our goal now … It all depends on what happens this summer. If we're allowed to start training, he'll be sooner. If not, July 1. That's kind of our new date for him to get here. Of course if we're allowed to practice in June and have camps, then he'll be here for that. A lot of that will depend on that. I think USA Volleyball wants him to go to the Olympics as a consultant in some role. I think they're still working on how they're going to do that. But the dates work out great. I think he's still going to be able to go. It won't, obviously, be as a full-time coach and what he was doing but I think he can go as a consultant and advisor. And I think he'll still spend some time during the spring with USA Beach Volleyball, helping keep that going. I think he's going to help hire whoever the next person is. But we still want him to go, because he's spent a lot of effort getting his teams ready. And they want him to go."

Check out part II of the Q-n-A with Coach Cook here. 
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.