(serene music) -[Larry] When I talk to people about you, the first thing they say is competitive and it's not a normal type of competitive.

One person said A lot of people are competitive, but not everybody goes to bed at night thinking about if I shift the yoga workout two hours, will it give my players better chances to recover so that we can be better in other plays?

Where does that come from?

That it's just a constant turning in your mind?

- Well, I grew up, with my brother, who was two years younger than me, and so that's we were very competitive, and it was embraced to be competitive and in my house, you know, and at the dinner table.

And winning and losing was important.

And, I don't know, I just I had that in me.

And I would I can remember as a kid crying when I lost and, you know, can't wait to get another chance.

And, I've just always been that way.

And, and then when I got into coaching, I was able to probably channel that and try to you know, instill that in our players that, you know, we're playing a game, we keep score.

And it's a lot more fun to win than it is to lose.

And I've always was taking losing really hard.

And if we lost, "okay, what didn't we do right.

What can we do better."

-[Larry] I Talk to another former player.

A former All-American who said, "Wow, I've seen this John Cook over the last five to seven years and I wish I could have played for that John Cook."

-[John] I've definitely have gone through an evolution.

So, and that's one of the reasons, I talked to a couple people my age who retired, and one of the things, the themes I kept hearing was, I want to go out on top.

I wanted to go out on top.

I want to go out the top of my game.

And I know since about 2015, I feel like I've been at the top of my game.

And as a coach, take out the wins and losses.

It's just, I feel like I've done the best job coaching of my career, which, you know, goes 35, 40 years.

So that's another reason I thought it was the right time, because I felt really good about where I was at for my craft and how I was coaching, and I didn't want to wait too long where, okay, he needs to get out.

It's passing him by all that stuff and again, there's lots of ways you can measure that.

You can measure on wins and losses.

How your team plays.

But this last year's team played, it was one of the highest level playing teams I've ever coached, maybe the highest.

And so and they were having fun and they love volleyball and they were great representatives of Nebraska, and they were doing all the little things that we asked them to do.

They worked really hard.

They were we had the highest GPA ever.

So those are all the things that kind of factor in this was at the top.

(serene music) -[Larry] But you didn't get the Hollywood ending?

-[John] No.

And, that was tough.

But sometimes I feel like there's divine intervention and, It'll come back around for Nebraska volleyball at some point.

- Would you have felt the same way in 2003, 4 or 5?

- After 2002, I mean, I had so many regrets.

I mean, so many things that I would have done different throughout the season.

Those are the worst years when you see it coming.

And then it finally happens at the biggest moments.

And those are the years, like, why didn't I?

And like I said, early in my career, there was a lot of things that I wish I would have done different.

The last ten years of my career.

I felt like we were locked in and doing everything we needed to do, and I was able to manage anything that came up to get in the way, interference and just had a way better way of handling it.

(serene music) -[John] You just don't shut it off.

The competitiveness, the desire to learn and get better and try new things and have a growth mindset.

So for me, this is replacing being in Devaney.

I mean this is, here's our team.

We're training out here.

(hoofs clomping) -[Larry] The cowboy life.

Do you now become an evangelist?

And you know I'm preaching to everybody, The cowboy Life.

-[John] Larry, I have.

I've gained a lot of respect for the cowboys in Nebraska and their families, how hard they work, the, their kids.

I've just created this appreciation and respect for the Western side of Nebraska and the lifestyle that they have.

And so I don't I wouldn't know of evangelists is the right word, but it's an appreciation and respect for what they do.

And I know I have a chance to share with people stories and their life.

And I've learned a lot about the cattle industry and the horse industry and the people involved with it.

And it's a very connected world.

And, it's it's just been fascinating.

And I love it, and I love talking about it.

(serene music)