LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Dan Meske has been the right-hand man for Dani Busboom Kelly for the last eight seasons. Now he has lost the "associate" in his title and becomes the eighth head coach of the University of Louisville volleyball program. 

Meske was introduced at Monday press conference at the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena on campus. That was less than a week after it was learned that Busboom Kelly was returning to her alma mater, Nebraska to be its head coach. Meske said he turned down opportunities to leave over the years, hoping to one day have the chance to run this program. 

"One of the things that kept me here so long was that I thought there was a small possibility that this could happen," said Meske. "I've always said Dani is the best head coach in the country. She's got more competition now but it's a no-brainer at the top. If a great job opens up everybody would go after her. I thought if that were to happen, small as I thought the chance was, I wanted to be here if there was an opportunity to serve."   

He helped lead the Cardinals to unprecedented heights, with three final four appearances in the last four seasons, including national runner-up finishes in 2022 and 2024.   

He has head coaching experience with two years at Augustana College after starting as an assistant for eight seasons at Nebraska. It seems to have been a pretty seamless transition. Meske will keep the rest of the staff intact and bring back a strong core of players from last season's national runners-up. He said the pressure he feels is not really based on the high bar that's been set for this program. 

"The pressure for me is to provide an experience where people continue to grow their love for the game," said Meske. "That is what I feel immense pressure to do. When people come into this program, if they start losing their love for the game, that's when I got to start having a long look in the mirror. And I thought that as an assistant coach and as a head coach. I also use that as a guide. So when you talk about pressure of where our team is at, for me the pulse of the team is where the program is at from a love of the game and love of each other standpoint. And if that's being done at a high level, everything else like that tends to take care of itself. 

"So yeah, I feel an immense amount of pressure and responsibility with this role to keep the culture and to keep the joy and the love that we have for this team and for this game."

A native of Willow Springs, Illinois outside of Chicago, Meske and his wife Laurel have three sons. 

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