Banner or bust for 'Huskers

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

In his first season, John Cook coached the University of Nebraska to the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship.

To start his second season, Cook set the championship banner on fire.

Actually, it was an elaborate special effects video presentation of their championship banner going up in flames that greeted the Cornhuskers on their first day of practice this month.

Still, it was a dramatic way to make a point about this being a new season, which opens Friday for the Cornhuskers against the University of Hawai'i.

It underlined that while the Cornhuskers haven't lost a match in 20 months and return most of the players who have made it possible, the corn-fed colossus is starting over against the Wahine in the first round of the State Farm Volleyball Classic in Stockton, Calif.

"I wanted to do something that gave a sense that last season is over and this is a new one," said Cook , who huddled with Nebraska football coaches in the offseason to see how they handle the expectations that are annually heaped upon the Cornhuskers.

But separating one volleyball season from the other, much less tethering expectations, is no easy task in Nebraska these days, where posters and bumper stickers around campus recall the 34-0 run of last season.

Such is both the curse and blessing that comes with having three returning All-Americans, two of them past national players of the year. It is the burden that accompanies nearly being the unanimous pick of the 65 coaches who make up the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll.

It is hard not to look back when the billboard on I-180 in Lincoln celebrates last year's title. It is even harder not to look ahead when a billboard on Capitol Parkway announces the promise of the upcoming season with a picture of a Nebraska volleyball slamming through the floor.

In Lincoln, where only the second unbeaten campaign in 20 years of NCAA Division I volleyball has fans anticipating a shot at the record of 44 consecutive victories, the 4,000-seat Coliseum may be sold out before the start of the season.

In his first address of the season, Cook tried to bargain with the media. "I want to make a deal with everybody. If you guys don't talk about last year's national championship and repeating, we certainly won't here."

That lasted for maybe a day. It for sure hasn't stopped the Omaha World-Herald newspaper from declaring,

". . . anything short of a second consecutive national title will be viewed, well, as coming up short."

It is a new season, but for the Cornhuskers only last year's perfection will do.