CRAWFORD | After building a Louisville powerhouse, Busboom Kelly heads home to Nebraska

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – We knew this day would come. Hoped it wouldn’t, but figured it would. Dani Busboom Kelly is headed to Nebraska as volleyball coach, after turning Louisville into a national power that went to three Final Fours and two NCAA championship games in four years.

Here and there in recent years, someone would ask her what she would do if the Nebraska job ever came open. Busboom Kelly always said the right thing. I was never the guy who asked that question. Maybe that’s bad journalism. But what was she going to say? In collegiate volleyball terms, Nebraska is the Yankees.

Louisville is a great place. I love it. I was born here, have spent most of my life here. I went to school here. And Louisville volleyball, thanks to Busboom Kelly, is a national power. It’s a legit Top 5 program.

But Busboom Kelly is from Nebraska. She went to school at Nebraska. She won a national title as a libero at Nebraska. She was an assistant to her mentor, John Cook, for another national title at Nebraska. Her husband played football for Nebraska.

Taking that job, she said, “is more than a dream come true.”

She leaves Louisville about as well as a coach could leave a program – with a championship legacy, a list of fantastic players, and an assistant coach, Dan Meske, ready to take the reins and build on what she accomplished in her eight seasons as head coach. Meske was named her successor on Tuesday. I’ll write more about him in another column. This one, however, I want to make about about appreciating Busboom Kelly.

I don’t know volleyball. I don’t pretend to be an authority. But I know good coaching when I see it. I've been really lucky to cover some good ones. Bob Knight. Rick Pitino. John Calipari. Denny Crum. She is in that class. She is every bit as impressive. The only thing missing is a championship ring. And that will come.

It's just a shame it did not come at Louisville.

But the true measure of her tenure here is more than just the .822 winning percentage or Final Fours. More than the All-Americans and the trophy case. It is the players who have followed her lead, the way they’ve conducted themselves, their development, how they’ve responded to pressure.

I said for years that the volleyball program carried itself like no other team on campus. And it won like no other program, too.

In 2021, Louisville went 32-0, undefeated all the way to the Final Four. For the final month of that season, the team played one pressure-packed match after another. With each win, came more expectation. It never buckled. Never had a bad night.

How? Busboom Kelly talked to her players about the challenge of being undefeated. And talked. And talked. She did not shy away from the mental challenges of a sport where momentum is everything. Louisville fell to Wisconsin in the national semifinal that year, but it succumbed to a team that was better that day, not to the pressure of the moment.

A year later, it would go all the way to the NCAA championship game.

Before the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament this season, with her team facing a great deal of pressure to get to a Final Four that would be played in their home city, Busboom Kelly lit a spark, taking a Final Four banner off the locker room wall, having each player write some kind of doubt or something that had been holding her back on the banner, and then setting fire to it.

Let the expectations go. Just play. Her team did.

Louisville rolled to the Final Four, then to the NCAA Championship game, and it might have won the championship, had its splendid outside hitter, Anna DeBeer, not gone down with an injury in the national semifinal.

What Busboom Kelly did here, in a city that was already volleyball crazy when she arrived, was an absolute master class.

But it also didn’t take much to see what she means to people in Omaha. When I arrived there for the national championship game in 2022, fans who had no team in the fight had a clear rooting interest. They brought their DBK signs, chanted her name, and cheered on her team as if it were their own. Because she was one of their own. And now she is again.

Louisville has been fortunate to be on the receiving end of an elite coaching talent. And the volleyball community and players here can be proud of the role they have played in helping to establish what figures to continue to be a storied career in the sport.

“Louisville will always hold a special place in my heart,” Busboom Kelly said. “I have loved the athletic department, the city, and most importantly, the people, since I first arrived here as an assistant in 2011. The past eight seasons have been unbelievable, and we have been so proud to be Cardinals. From ACC Championships to Final Fours, we accomplished more than I ever dreamed of, thanks to the unwavering trust of our current and former players. I can’t thank the volleyball staff and support staff enough for believing in us and pushing us to dream bigger. I am grateful to Josh Heird and Amy Calabrese for loving the sport of volleyball and for aligning with our vision for Louisville. And thank you to Card Nation! We could not have done anything without you!”

Of Meske, she said, “There is no one in the country better than Dan Meske to lead Louisville Volleyball. Not only is he an amazing coach, but he is an incredible person who leads with integrity, passion, and love for his players. “

This much Louisville knows: He learned from the best.

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