The new Nebraska volleyball coach joined Volleyball State for a wide-ranging conversation on her career, taking over for a legend, and so much more!On this week’s Volleyball State, new head coach Dani Busboom Kelly joined Jeff Sheldon and Lincoln Arneal to discuss Nebraska being her dream job, the timeline of how this came to be, and her early days leading the program.
Below is an excerpt of their conversation.How long had this been Dani Busboom Kelly’s dream job?
Jeff: Nebraska volleyball head coach, Dani Busboom Kelly. Thank you so much for joining us on Volleyball State.
Dani Busboom Kelly: It’s great to be here.
Jeff: How does that sound? Like, have you said it out loud? “Head Nebraska volleyball coach, Dani Busboom Kelly.”
Dani Busboom Kelly: It sounds good, but I don’t really think about it like that; That I’m in charge. It’s more, “I’m back and going to be a part of this program and still learning about the staff and the players.” When I think about like head coach, it just feels like I’m a coach, not necessarily the head coach.Jeff: You’re sitting in a very familiar chair. We talked to someone sitting in that chair with kind of that same backdrop a couple of months ago. Tell us, Dani, how long has this been your dream job? And when did you first sort of start talking with John [Cook] about wanting to be the next person to sit in that chair?
Dani Busboom Kelly: You know, it’s definitely been a dream job since I got into coaching, but you never really know where your path’s gonna go. I mean coaching is so much about timing, opportunity, and you really have no clue what kind of opportunities are going to come your way and at what time of your life they’re gonna come your way.So, once I got to Louisville, it was like, “okay, I’m going to do the best I can here and make this my ‘dream job’ and, and see what happens.” So, I really started talking to John about it more, you know, in 2021, but there was never a date or a thought of like, when this could happen. It was more like, when I talked about other jobs, he would just bring up, “you know, if you want to come to Nebraska, you should stay at Louisville.”
You know, I never really was that serious about ever leaving Louisville for anywhere besides Nebraska. But when he started making comments like that, I started thinking, well, I guess that could happen in this window of time that would work for me.
