In 2023, the Nebraska Huskers made it to the NCAA Championship finals. Unfortunately for John Cook’s Huskers, Madison Skinner and the rest of the Texas Longhorns became the immovable wall. Naturally, then-freshman Harper Murray was heartbroken. “If I go in there, it’s not going to go well,” Murray told the Huskers staff who wanted her to attend the presser. She did. It didn’t end well.
In that movement of emotional weakness, the then-19-year-old outside hitter said something that would bring her life crashing down. Murray insisted that the Huskers would win consecutive NCAA titles in the coming three years. However, that statement made her a target for the trolls. And they were relentless. “You should see some of the emails and texts she got. It was sick,” Cook told Huskers Extra in October 2024, after Murray had finally snapped.
John Cook refused to yield
Battling relentless bullying, Murray sank into depression and made the wrong decisions. DUI and shoplifting charges during the 2024 offseason nearly ended it all. Harper Murray went from a prodigious outside hitter to someone facing legal battles. And the repercussions would’ve been swift had it not been for the Huskers head coach.
Now, nearly a year after the incident and over two months since his retirement, John Cook recalled the difficult phase while discussing life after volleyball with Ana Bellinghausen of Hurrdat Sports. The 68-year-old still found it hard to describe just how bad things got last year. “Harper, you know… that was one of the gut checks as a coach,” confessed Coach Cook.
“How do you handle that situation? Because it could go a couple different ways,” said the four-time National Championship winner. Cook revealed that while Murray was dealing with a mental health crisis, he was dealing with the pressure to dismiss her from the team. “A lot of people wanted me to get rid of Harper and kick her out of the program,” added Cook.
In fact, the 68-year-old doesn’t even remember a single person asking him: “Are you going to help her?“ John Cook revealed. Yet, the more Cook understood Harper Murray’s perspective after the frustration and the bullying she had been through the more Coach Cook pushed back against throwing the volleyball star out. The AVCA Coach of the Year knew there was only one solution.
So at the risk of putting Huskers volleyball and his own reputation on the line, the veteran coach went “all in” to help pull the Outside Hitter from the dark pit. Even during the times when Murray was ready to quit volleyball, Coach Cook didn’t quit on his pupil, and it worked. Murray turned it all around at lightning pace with Cook and her teammate’s help.
By December 2024, the Huskers star was back to setting a career-high kill record against Dayton Volleyball. Cook’s gamble had paid off. In October 2024, John Cook told Tom Shatel why he stood up for Harper Murray.
Why the coach stood by Harper Murray
While everything worked out in the end, you may be asking why Coach Cook put nearly 25 years of his legacy on the line for a single athlete. That too under so much pressure that literally no one supported his decision to stick by Murray. Huskers Extra’s Tom Shatel may have had the same thought when he asked why John Cook did it.
The answer was simple. The 68-year-old had made a commitment and a promise. “When I recruited Harper, she lost her dad. Had a single mom. She’s coming all the way from Michigan. I made a commitment to her to be her father figure,” revealed the multiple-time BIG12 title-winning coach. One of the reasons Murray even joined Big Red was because she trusted coach Cook.
The volleyball coach had given her his word, and he wouldn’t go back on it during Murray’s darkest hour. “If it’s your daughter, are you going to ban her? You’ve got to walk the talk,” said the retired Huskers boss. John Cook also believed that while Murray had made some wrong decisions, she didn’t do it on purpose. The buildup of stress and bullying had made her snap.
And Coach Cook couldn’t even begin to describe some of the texts she had received after his bold statement. Many DMs and comments were so bad, Cook “gave several” to the police. However, he didn’t shy away from doing some tough love to Murray either. Cook knew that to get Murray back in the grove, she would need to focus on volleyball again.
The result? Harper Murray became the only Nebraska Huskers member who worked every camp during 2024. John Cook told Shatel that the 20-year-old didn’t like doing every camp, and even “fought” him for it on a few occasions. Yet, the coach didn’t relent. Cook knew Murray had what it took to get out of the rut, and he pressed on.
After returning to the roster, Murry understood exactly why Coach Cook had made her work so hard. The Huskers Sophomore didn’t look like she had lost a beat when the 2024 season started. That, coupled with the support from her teammates, helped Harper Murray bounce back faster than anyone could’ve ever imagined. Needless to say, she’s grateful for the second chance. “I’m really lucky to have a coach like him… It’s one thing to say that, it’s another to act on it,” Murray said about John Cook.
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