Finding a New Coach for Omaha, Part 1: Pressure on Alberts to Make Great Hire
OMAHA – While many people were traveling to out-of-state volleyball tournaments and trying to avoid the massive fury of Mother Nature last Thursday, many were taken aback byhead coach Rose Shires’ announcing her retirement that evening after 29 years at the helm.
By the time the masses of people from Nebraska had settled in Denver for the Colorado Crossroads, the Mile-High City was abuzz with speculation about who the next coach would be.
Shires’ retirement itself certainly wasn’t a shock to the volleyball community, as many had speculated that she could decide to hang up the whistle at any time. But, strangely enough, it was the timing of it all that took everyone by surprise. There were no leaks of it happening. According to many outside of the Omaha program, they had been communicating with the Maverick staff about future plans involving Rose right up until the announcement.
Everyone was caught by surprise.
In fact, it is believed that the volleyball staff wasn’t aware of it until moments before her final practice on Thursday with the team. After the practice, she told the team and the announcement went public.
So, now, all the attention turns to AD Trev Alberts. Ever since Omaha transitioned to a Division I program, there has been strong indication that the Maverick job would draw national interest because of its facilities, local talent base and – now – a massive stockpile of talent on the roster.
How many Division I opportunities come open in a volleyball-rich area like this where a coach can come in and immediately compete for a conference title and trip to the NCAA Tournament? Very, very few. And it’s not like the opportunity to be a head coach at a major college volleyball program in Nebraska comes along – at any level. Shires was hired in the late 1980s at Omaha, John Cook succeeded Terry Pettit at Nebraska in 200, a two-year college coach named Kirsten Bernthal-Booth got the Creighton job after the 2002 season and turned the Bluejays into a national power. Heck even Nebraska’s two Division II powers have long-ventured coaches as Scott Kneifl has been at Wayne State since 2005 as head coach and Rick Squiers start at UN-Kearney in 1999.
So, Alberts and Omaha find themselves in a very enviable position of having an opening that is garnering national attention. But, before we get into who might be a good fit, there are some very, very pressing issues that will likely need to be addressed as the Mavericks move toward hiring a replacement. Something that will – I would think – be done within the next three weeks.
Issue #1 – is Omaha willing to invest in the volleyball program to make it a Top 50 program annually?
This was easily the most popular question of the past few days as people talked about the direction of the program, but “investing” doesn’t necessarily mean breaking the bank in this case.
Omaha already has – with Baxter Arena and Sapp Fieldhouse – the facilities that it needs, although larger and better locker room facilities would definitely be an area for improvement, even though the locker room got a much-needed facelift last year. It still needs an upgrade.
To get a coach that can make Omaha a consistent NCAA-tournament caliber team, more money is going to need to be directed towards the coaching staff. Alberts and the volleyball program supporters have to know that.
The real investment needs to come in the form of marketing and promotions. Last year, Omaha – despite playing some pretty good opponents at home and having a team that was at the top of the conference standings – averaged an attendance of just 566 last year for home matches and the mean was 487. Only once did the Mavs draw more than 1,000 people to a match, and that was 1,237 for the South Dakota match.
Meanwhile, we all know that Nebraska draws 8,000 per match. Creighton averaged 2,802 for the season and had more than 2,500 at Sokol Arena for the first round of the NCAA Tournament. You can’t be a Division I program in a volleyball-crazed state like Nebraska and draw less – significantly less – than the Division II and NAIA programs in the state.
Any coach that is interest in the Omaha job is going to be very interested to hear Alberts’ vision for the future of the program and what kind of support – culturally and financially – the Mavericks are going to make.
Not only are potential candidates going to want to know – but so are a lot of local volleyball people. It’s been no secret that over the years a lot of really good in-state talent has gotten away, but that is starting to turn the corner in the last couple years with upgrades and Baxter Arena. If this coaching hire and vision for the future aren’t done in a manner that tells the world Omaha is ready to put itself on the NCAA Division I volleyball map, a lot of local talent may continue to go elsewhere.
Issue #2 – Do you want a coach that will use Omaha as a stepping-stone or a coach that will stay a long time?
Omaha could go either way on this and there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to go about it. But, as mentioned above, coaches tend to stay at Nebraska college jobs a while. The quality of life here is excellent and the recruiting locally can easily feed all the programs and there is a very passionate fan base.
An educated guess here is that Omaha will look for someone committed to being a Mav for a long time. But, how would that effect the coaching search? Would some pretty high-profile names that are circling around want to come to Omaha and stay or would they be looking to make a 3-4 year into the NCAAs – which is extremely possible with the talent pool on the roster and coming in – and then leap to a Power Conference school.
However, I think you can look just east on Dodge St. and see an example of the benefits of getting someone committed to the long haul. Kirsten Bernthal-Booth has certainly had many opportunities to pursue much more prominent jobs as she rapidly built Creighton into the program that it is now.
Maybe a better example of what Omaha is potentially on the cusp of becoming – with the right investment and right hire – would be Northern Iowa. There certainly is no reason why Omaha couldn’t be what Northern Iowa is within the next five years. But that would take someone dedicated to being here for a long ride – or at least more than five years. Northern Iowa was #16 in the college volleyball RPI in 2018. I think you can also look at programs like Denver (#40 and Summit League member with Omaha), UMKC (#89), Bradley (#99) and South Dakota (#110) as examples of the fact that Omaha is not far from being a top-50 program. Last season the Mavs were #165 and I think can realistically be a top 75-100 team in 2019.
Issue #3 – What qualities or experience will Omaha value the most in its coaching search?
As stated earlier, I think it’s fairly safe to say there will be a lot of people wanting to kick the tires on the Omaha opening. With that, it’s also an educated guess that the use of an exploratory committee or search firm and some sort of mediator to be used to try and narrow the field down for interviews and what you would expect to be on-campus meetings.
Will head coaching experience at the Division I level be a priority? Again, it would be easy to look at Creighton’s Booth as an example of someone who had just a handful of years of coach at a two-year program taking over a Division I program and doing great things. But, remember, when Booth was hired, Creighton had been playing its home games in high school gyms. Omaha has Baxter Arena and a successful Division II history. The timing isn’t really comparable when talking about the next Omaha coach.
I do think, however, that Division I head coaching experience probably won’t be a significant thing to have on your resume for the gatekeepers to an interview at Omaha. While Omaha is still a rising program, it is still a middle-of-the-pack Division I school, so I would think your best candidates are probably going to be a mix of very successful coaches at the Division II or NAIA level and top assistants at successful Division I programs.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out, that’s for sure. All I know for sure is that there is a lot of chatter about this opening and this has the capability of being a program and University-changing decision by Alberts.
No pressure Trev 😉