Players reveal the 40-year secret to Russ Rose's unprecedented success at Penn State

By Vicki L. Friedman

http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/24566214/the-40-year-secret-penn-state-volleyball-coach-russ-rose-success

September 3, 2018

Russ Rose with a scoop of 'Russ "digs" Roseberry' ice cream at The Creamery (Mark Selders)

Russ Rose isn't big on hoopla when it's all about him.

On Friday, Penn State recognized its volleyball coach for his 40 years running the program with a luncheon attended by dozens of his former players. On Saturday, the 105,232 in attendance at Beaver Stadium for Penn State football's 45-38 overtime victory over Appalachian State roared in appreciation during a first-quarter break to recognize Rose's accomplishments. After a sweep of Texas A&M at Rec Hall Saturday night, the Nittany Lions hosted an ice cream social with their fans, who took home a commemorative gnome of the legendary coach.

Maybe the winningest coach in Division I volleyball history with 1,251 victories (and counting), seven national championships and 17 Big Ten titles would rather skip the commotion, but this was one of those rare times when nobody listened to him.

"When you think of Penn State, you think of Russ Rose," says Simone Lee, a starter on last year's final four team. "He's built an empire."

The cast of that empire includes 44 All-Americans, four of whom were national players of the year. It also encompasses players like Jen Burdis, a recruited walk-on who accounts for four of the 191 times one of Rose's players has been named All-Academic Big Ten. What's remarkable is the white-haired, bespectacled 64-year-old relates as easily to today's Beyoncé fanatic who is boasting about her next Insta post as he did to the pioneers who sewed the numbers on their uniforms when he took over the program in 1979.

"He's not on Instagram or Twitter. I don't even know if he knows what that is," Lions freshman Gabby Blossom says. "He has better advice than any person I've ever met. He's been around; he's dealt with everything there is to deal with, which makes him easy to talk to. He connects with us better than anybody could ever imagine."

Rose often quips, "Don't go changing," and players past and present insist he hasn't, citing the handwritten letters he writes in a digital age, the cigar he whips out after significant wins and an unbridled candor Nittany Lions of multiple generations embrace.

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http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/24566214/the-40-year-secret-penn-state-volleyball-coach-russ-rose-success

Book Reviews: Dream Like a Champion by John Cook

By Jon Johnston

https://www.cornnation.com/2017/12/12/16758398/book-review-dream-like-a-champion

December 12, 2017

The University of Nebraska Press sent me Dream Like a Champion: Wins, Losses, and Leadership the Nebraska Volleyball Way when it was first released in September 2017. I had planned to review it, but I put it on the shelf and then a lot of things happened this year and I forgot about it until about two weeks ago.

It's a good time for review. Nebraska volleyball is knee-deep in the NCAA volleyball tournament and is about to face their nemesis Penn State. Also, Christmas is coming and I know that your family already has everything that they want or need. You'd still like to get them present, and this book is a great option.

I typically read the books I'm reviewing instead of just writing a review off the media information that they send. I thought about being lazy with this one, but I started reading it. My first thought upon finishing is how honest John Cook is with regards to the information he doles out in this book.

I've read a fair amount of coaches books, and most of them are like business – leadership books. They have a few insights, but they are mostly fluff. You have to read about 200 pages to get a few things that might help you. Cook's book is fairly detailed with regards to the trials and tribulations he's gone through in both his regular life and in his coaching career.

At the beginning, it almost sounds like he's doing a lot of name dropping, but what he's doing is letting you know where he's been and where he has come from.

The concept of "culture" is spread throughout the entire book. Sports fans focus heavily on talent and athleticism, and in Nebraska, we especially focus on "heart". “Team culture” is largely overlooked because most of us are not in the position where we are coaching or managing teams of people. We don’t deal with it, and we certainly don’t understand it, so we dismiss it or diminish its importance.

Keep in mind that the “culture” concept goes beyond sports but is relative to our daily lives whether we are working in business, farming, research, or John Cook's case – winning championships at the University of Nebraska.

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https://www.cornnation.com/2017/12/12/16758398/book-review-dream-like-a-champion

Book Review: Dream Like a Champion by John Cook

By John Forman

http://coachingvb.com/book-review-dream-like-champion-wins-losses-leadership-nebraska-volleyball-way/

February 27, 2018

(Brendan Sullivan/Omaha World Herald)

There are loads of volleyball books, but there aren’t a lot of books with a biographical and/or historical perspective in the volleyball literature. That’s one of the motivations for theVolleyball Coaching Wizards project. Dream Like a Champion – Wins, Losses, and Leadership the Nebraska Volleyball Way by Brandon Vogel and John Cook adds to that list. It joins Mike Hebert’s books there, adding much-needed depth.

Try not to be jealous

The first thing you may have to get over while reading this book is jealousy. Nebraska volleyball has access to resources most of us could never dream of having. In some ways, the book is a constant reminder of just how well off that program – and others on their level – really is. I’m sure you can get past that, though. 

Fourteen chapters, fourteen topics

The book begins with what is essentially a personal biography from Cook. After that, though, each of the chapters has a different theme. They include things like going deeper on player physical development, understanding how to coach the current generation of college athletes, looking at who you work and surround yourself with, and continuing education and development as a coach.

Cook uses stories to make his case on the different subjects throughout the book. I might argue too many in some cases, but it’s not over the top. I’m sure some folks will enjoy them as they focus on elements of volleyball history at Nebraska. I’m not a part of the Husker universe, but I can appreciate Cook’s perspective on the program’s past.

Some real nuggets

A sure sign of a good book is the number of pages or sections you flag throughout the text. I pulled out several along the way myself. Here’s one of the deeper ones where Cook talks about how his coaching mentality changed over time.

“I coached for a long time like that before realizing that it did not have to be that way. I had a choice to make when I walked into the gym every day: I could coach with love or I could coach with anger. I could be in the moment every day and remember why I wanted to do this in the first place. I could marvel at all of the amazing athletes I was getting to work with and really be grateful for the opportunity we get each season to take a group of players, coaches, and staff and try to make our dreams come true.

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http://coachingvb.com/book-review-dream-like-champion-wins-losses-leadership-nebraska-volleyball-way/

Big 10 Close Up: Penn State & Wisconsin Women's Volleyball

Click on the link below to access video:

https://youtu.be/-HAKIh3_dWg

Pain and Gain

By Cassidy Lichtman
http://www.theplayerstribune.com/
September 15, 2015

To see me on the court as an outside hitter with the USA National Team, you’d never detect anything out of the ordinary. The truth, though, is that I’ve been in pain every day of my life for over 16 years.

I woke up one morning when I was nine years old with a constant, unrelenting pain in my lower left leg. It has never gone away.

It’s not the kind of pain that disappears after a round of physical therapy or the kind that goes away with painkillers. It’s chronic. The best way I can explain it is having the worst shin splints ever, permanently. Many Americans live like I do, in silent pain.

Worst of all, maybe, the source of it is still a mystery. Since age nine, I’ve been on a mission to find out what causes it and a journey to learn to live with it. At first, I didn’t walk for seven months. Following failed treatment after failed treatment, the doctors had decided I probably wouldn’t walk ever again. I was the only fourth grader who used crutches every day. On the last day of fourth grade, I remember I decided not to bring my crutches to school. It was exhilarating, painful, terrifying and probably ill-advised. It was the single hardest thing I’ve ever done. But one step at a time, quite literally, I learned how to walk again.

I didn’t just want to walk, though. I wanted to play volleyball. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the sport. I’ve been hanging around gyms since I was a little kid. My mom is a coach and my older brother has always played. At home, my dad would sit in the living room with us, and set the ball back and forth during commercial breaks. The game has always been a part of me. I wasn’t about to give that up just because my leg caused me pain.

I played on my first club volleyball team when I was 10 years old, and never stopped. Eight years later, I had a scholarship to Stanford. We played in two National Championship matches, won four PAC-10 Championships and I was named an All-American. Now I put on the red, white and blue for Team USA. I get to live my dreams every day.

Read the rest of the article by clicking on the link below:

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/cassidy-lichtman-volleyball/

Megan Hodge Easy: Spiking for the USA

By Matt Goisman
http://capecodtimes.com/
August 8, 2015




U.S. Olympic volleyball star Megan Hodge Easy relaxes with her husband, former NFL player Omar Easy, and their nine-month-old son Easton at their summer home in East Falmouth. Megan won a silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games and is a 2016 Olympics hopeful. STEVE HAINES/CAPE COD TIMES

EAST FALMOUTH - When you’re an Olympic indoor volleyball player like Megan Easy, you travel. A lot. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) World Grand Prix alone took her to Turkey, Russia, Hong Kong and finally Omaha, Nebraska, for the final round, in which the U.S. won gold for the fourth time since Easy joined the team.

Next up for the U.S. is the FIVB World Cup in Japan starting August 22. Easy left last week for two weeks of training with USA Volleyball in Anaheim, California, and then heads to Japan for the 2016 Olympic Games qualifier.

Between competitions, Easy is happy to relax with her husband Omar Easy and 9-month-old baby Easton in their summer home at The Golf Club of Cape Cod.

“It’s where we come to just kind of take our minds off of everything and enjoy it,” Megan said. “That’s kind of what this home, what this area, symbolizes for us, is peace and quiet and time away from everything and everyone. It’s just a beautiful place.”

Omar and Megan bought their home, the backyard of which overlooks the 10th hole, in April 2013, two months before they were married. Megan, 26, was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and grew up in Durham, North Carolina, before accepting a volleyball scholarship to Pennsylvania State University. So her familiarity with the Cape was limited prior to purchasing the property.

Omar, however, has been coming to the Cape for decades. His guidance counselor at Everett High School, Richard Aliberti, owned a summer home in Cotuit, and Omar would often visit Aliberti.

The two remain friends to this day. Aliberti introduced Omar to golf - Omar won The Golf Club of Cape Cod - championship in 2014 and volunteers with Aliberti’s youth golf program in Hyannis - which in turn helped bring Omar and Megan together.

Omar, 37, was a star football player during his two years at Everett, then went on to play for Penn State until he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2002, the start of a four-year NFL career. Omar later returned to Penn State to earn a Ph.D. in education administration and work for the Nittany Lions, and one of his hobbies in State College was playing golf with women’s volleyball coach Russ Rose.

Megan Hodge (her maiden name) played for Penn State from 2006 to 2009, tallying a kill on the final point of the 2009 national championship against Texas, her last collegiate match. The win, PSU’s third national title in as many years, stretched the Nittany Lions’ winning streak to 102 matches, and the team went on to win the first seven matches of the 2010 season before finally losing.

Rose, Omar said, would often talk about Megan when they golfed together. Rose would then often talk to Megan about Omar.

“I actually knew that I was going to marry her after the first date we went on,” Omar said. “We sat in the car and talked for about three or four hours until the battery on my car died and I had to get roadside assistance to come get us started again.”

Read the rest of the article by clicking on the link below:

http://capecodtimes.com/article/20150808/SPORTS/150809429