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Inside The Coaching Mind Podcast

Saying Inside the Coaching Mind is about volleyball in the state of Nebraska, is like saying the Wizard of Oz is about a tornado and a balloon flight. How does a state with three times as many cows as people, become so enthusiastic and successful, in the sport of women’s volleyball? Join our conversation you will become a better coach, communicator, and team-builder. “
– Terry Pettit

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Latest Podcasts & Blog Posts

  • Steve Morgan talks with Terry Pettit about building an exceptional high school volleyball program in western Nebraska – ITCM 010
    UNL Coach John Cook congratulates Ogallala's Steve Morgan on his successful career. Photo from Lincoln Star-Journal. Steve Morgan coached at Ogallala High School for 45 years. During his tenure the Indians won 984 matches, three state championships and were runners-up four times. Morgan talks about becoming a high school coach after … Read more
  • Terry Pettit Talks About Leadership and How Volleyball Has Changed With John Baylor – Part 2 – ITCM-009
    In part two of being interviewed by John Baylor, Terry Pettit talks about training leadership, and how extraordinary leadership led to Nebraska's first national championship.  He also talks about how volleyball has changed, and what we might look for in the future of the game.
  • Terry Pettit talks about his early vision for Nebraska Volleyball with John Baylor – Part 1 – ITCM-008
    Terry Pettit talks about what he looks for in hiring a head coach, his vision for Nebraska volleyball, what the differences are between leadership on an athletic team and leadership in private business, and why he left coaching when he was only fifty-three years old. Terry is interviewed by John Baylor, the voice of Nebraska … Read more
  • The Development of a Championship Coach in Omaha – ITCM-007
    Photo Credit: VolleyballMag.com Rene Saunders, the 2016 Volleyball Magazine High School Coach of the Year, talks about her progression from playing two sports in college, to winning four state championships at Omaha Skutt High School.
  • John Baylor, the Voice of Nebraska Volleyball, On His Development as a Volleyball Sportscaster – ITCM-006
    John Baylor, play by play announcer for The University of Nebraska Women’s Volleyball for 26 years. Seated next to him is color commentator and Former Husker Lauren Cook West. John Baylor, who has been the play by play broadcaster for Nebraska Volleyball for twenty-six years has seen more Nebraska volleyball matches … Read more
  • Two Players Who Continue to Serve – ITCM-005
    Janet Kruse Sellon and Barbie Young Gutshall, summer of 2019 in Grand Island, Nebraska. Barbie Young Gutshall and Janet Kruse Sellon grew up in small towns in Nebraska in the 1980s. Both went on to play volleyball at the University of Nebraska and played on teams that advanced to National Championship … Read more
  • UNL Volleyball’s John Cook on Leadership – ITCM-004
    John Cook, Head women’s volleyball Coach at the University of Nebraska, continues a conversation with host Terry Pettit. The focus this time is how John made the decision to change his coaching behavior when he faced coaching burnout in 2009. John also talks about how he worked to create “ultimate trust” with a setter that … Read more
  • Coaching High School Volleyball with Sharon Zavala and Bill Root – ITCM003
    Sharon Zavala and Bill Root have coached high school volleyball for a combined 85 years and thirteen state championships in the state of Nebraska. In a conversation with Terry Pettit they discuss the challenges of coaching high school athletes, and how that has changed since they began.
  • Creighton’s Kirsten Bernthal Booth on Building a Program – ITCM-002
    Three-time national coach of the year, Kirsten Bernthal Booth, head women’s volleyball coach at Creighton University, talks about building a program, developing leadership, and being a more efficient coach. Kirsten inherited a program that had not had a great deal of success, and has built into a consistent champion. Creighton has won five consecutive Big … Read more
  • UNL Volleyball’s John Cook on How He Has Evolved in Coaching – ITCM-001
    John Cook, head women’s volleyball coach, at the University of Nebraska shares what motivated him to set a goal of working towards a program that would pay for itself. John talks about how his vision of what being a coach is, and how that has evolved during his career as a high school coach through … Read more
  • Welcome to Inside the Coaching Mind – ITCM-000
    “Saying Inside the Coaching Mind is about volleyball in the state of Nebraska, is like saying the Wizard of Oz is about a tornado and a balloon flight. How does a state with three times as many cows as people, become so enthusiastic and successful, in the sport of women’s volleyball? Join our conversation you will become a better … Read more
  • November 16 on the Banks of the Cache La Poudre
    I live an analog life. I don’t have a bucket list of restaurants that I need to get to. I stopped recording an annual bird list years ago. I talk more than text to a few close friends. When I dream at night, it usually about the same regrets. I’m alive at seventy-two because I … Read more
  • A Report From Lincoln
    It is late spring in Lincoln, Nebraska. The dogwoods planted in backyard gardens, The pear trees on the Boulevard, The plum bushes in wild thickets at the edge of town, Have already blossomed. Sunlight comes early and goes home late. We are ten days from the summer equinox When the “Big Boys” and "Better Boys” … Read more
  • Clothes Make The Team
                                                                                       I have always been interested in architecture, design and things in proportion. When I … Read more
  • The Vortex
  • How to Watch a Volleyball Match Like a Coach
    1. While many volleyball fans like to sit at mid-court, coaches prefer sitting behind the endline. Why? The view behind the endline gives a coach a much better site-lines on whether or not the block is closing. That can be a very difficult thing to do from a seat on the bench, which is why … Read more
  • Time Capsule
    It is early June in 1954 in a small town in northwestern Indiana that lies forty-five miles from Chicago and fifteen miles south of Lake Michigan. On the town square, nighthawks and swifts contend with darkness as they dive from the rooftops of two-story buildings that surround a courthouse built in the previous century. They … Read more
  • Walking With Jake at Twilight
    We walk beneath the dreams Of ash trees that line our street, Each tree oblivious to An armada of ash borers Forty-five miles to the east. Brown bats that live In the column of our deck unwrap their wings As they exit their nest. Toward midnight Great horned owls Will be calling across roof tops. … Read more
  • The Problem With Loyalty in Collegiate Sport and Congress
    Many teams and athletic departments include “loyalty” as one of the primary tenets in their mission statements. Frequently it is joined with other values like integrity, service, and work ethic. Institutions tend to make decisions based on goals and performance rather than the values that are part of a mission statement. This is true of … Read more
  • There are Trillions of Galaxies
    Each one with more stars than grains of sand on Half Moon Bay. Every star is a sun with a covey of planets. Every second new stars rise from the gases of collapsing stars. There are stars that are billions of years old; there are stars that existed long before the earth was born. It … Read more
  • A Conversation on the Paths we Take
    Last night we had dinner at the home of a person who was from my hometown. I didn’t know him well. He was in the same class as my brother who, with our spouses, attended the meal as well. For several hours, we discussed high school friends and events in a small town in northwest … Read more