Louisville, Ky. (WDRB) – We knew that day would come. Hoped that it would not, but thought it would be the case. Dani Busboom Kelly heads for Nebraska as a volleyball coach, after having transformed Louisville into a national power which went to three ovens and two NCAA championship games in four years.
Here and there in recent years, someone would ask her what she would do if Nebraska’s work was opening up. Busboom Kelly has always said the right thing. I was never the guy who asked this question. It may be bad journalism. But what was it going to say? In terms of volleyball college, Nebraska is the Yankees.
Louisville is a great place. I love him. I was born here, I spent most of my life here. I went to school here. And Louisville volleyball, thanks to Busboom Kelly, is a national power. It is a legitimate program of the top 5.
But Busboom Kelly is Nebraska. She went to school at Nebraska. She won a national title as Libero in Nebraska. She was assistant to her mentor, John Cook, for another national title at Nebraska. Her husband played football for Nebraska.
Taking this work, she said, “is more than a dream come true.”
Dani Busboom Kelly welcomes fans on the way to the NCAA championship match in Omaha in 2022.
She leaves Louisville about a coach could leave a program – with a championship heritage, a list of fantastic players and an assistant coach, Dan Meske, ready to take the reins and rely on what she has accomplished in eight seasons with a coach head. Meske was named his successor on Tuesday. I will write more about him in another column. This one, however, I want to make the appreciation of Busboom Kelly.
I don’t know volleyball. I do not pretend to be an authority. But I know a good coaching when I see it. I had the chance to cover good. Bob Knight. Rick Pitino. John Calipari. Denny Crum. She is in this class. She is just as impressive. The only lacking thing is a championship ring. And it will come.
It’s just a shame that it didn’t come to Louisville.
But the real measure of his mandate here is more than the simple percentage of victories of 0.822 or final ovens. More than the All-Americans and the case of trophy. These are the players who followed his example, the way they led, their development, how they responded to the pressure.
I said for years that the volleyball program had not gotten like any other team on campus. And he also won like no other program.
In 2021, Louisville went 32-0, undefeated to the Final Four. For the last month of this season, the team played a match filled with pressure after another. With each victory, he came more waiting. He never completed. Never had a bad night.
How? Busboom Kelly spoke to his players in the challenge of being undefeated. And spoken. And spoken. She did not hesitate to the mental challenges of a sport where the momentum is everything. Louisville fell into the Wisconsin in the national semi-finals that year, but she died of a team that was better that day, not at the pressure of the moment.
A year later, he would go to the NCAA championship match.
Before the second weekend of the NCAA tournament this season, his team facing a lot of pressure to go to a final oven that would be played in their hometown, Busboom Kelly turned on a spark, removing a final oven banner , by making each player write a kind of doubt or something that had retained it on the banner, then set fire to it.
Louisville’s volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly speaks with journalists at a final press conference Four in 2024.
Leave expectations. Just play. His team did it.
Louisville drove in the Final Four, then in the NCAA championship match, and he could have won the championship, passed his splendid external striker, Anna Debeer, did not fall with an injury in the national semi-final.
What Busboom Kelly did here, in a city that was already crazy about volleyball when he arrived was an absolute mastery.
But he didn’t take much either to see what she means for Omaha’s people. When I got there for the national championship match in 2022, fans who had no team in the fight had a clear root interest. They brought their DBK panels, sung his name and applauded his team as if it were theirs. Because she was one of theirs. And now she’s again.
Louisville was fortunate to be at the reception of an elite coach talent. And the volleyball community and the players here can be proud of the role they played by helping to establish the figures to continue to be a career in sport.
“Louisville will always hold a special place in my heart,” said Busboom Kelly. “I loved the sports department, the city and, above all, people, since I arrived here as an assistant in 2011. The last eight seasons have been incredible, and we have been so proud to be Cardinals. From ACC championships to the Final Fours, we have accomplished more than I would have ever dreamed, thanks to the unshakable confidence of our current and old players. I cannot thank the volleyball staff and the support staff for having believed in us and push us to dream bigger. I am grateful to Josh Heird and Amy Calabresse of having liked the sport of volleyball and having aligned our vision of Louisville. And thank you to Card Nation! We couldn’t have done anything without you!
From Meske, she said: “There is no one in the country better than Dan Meske to lead Louisville volleyball. Not only is he an incredible coach, but he is an incredible person who leads with integrity, passion and love for his players. “”
This many of Louisville knows it: he learned the best.
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