In a new expanded position, Sean Smith works with the Huskers to combine their physical and mental improvements.
One of John Cook’s favorite analogies is comparing Nebraska volleyball to a racecar.
The former Nebraska volleyball coach compared the Huskers to a finely tuned machine that needs constant tinkering to perform better.
That analogy isn’t lost on Sean Smith, the Huskers’ new director of volleyball player performance and development, who has actual experience in the motor racing world. He also sees many similarities between college volleyball and his time as a performance coach with Hintsa Performance and the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team.
During his work in IndyCar, Smith helped create individualized plans for drivers to manage their responsibilities, including constant travel, commercial obligations, administrative duties, nutrition, psychology and strength training. He also helped them with time management, recovery and mental health. All that experience has helped as he dives back into collegiate athletics.
Smith said the NU volleyball team faces similar challenges, as student-athletes have to balance schoolwork, NIL deals, revenue sharing and all the extra eyeballs on them. Once he knows what they want to achieve, he can create a road map to get them where they want to be.
“I’ve told all the players that I am the GPS in the car,” he said. “They’re still in the driver’s seat in terms of their own development. I can’t make them want to be great. They have to want that intrinsically, and they have to want that for themselves.”
What will also help is Smith’s history with NU coach Dani Busboom, with whom he served as the strength coach at Louisville from 2018-23. He joined the Huskers in June and hit the ground running.
“What he did at Louisville and what we did together was pretty awesome,” Busboom Kelly said. “Then on top of that, now he’s had these really unique experiences that would add to our sport.”
After Brian Kmitta transitioned to working with the women’s basketball team, Busboom Kelly needed to find someone new to lead their strength program. She reached out to Smith to gauge his interest and see if he could pass along a few names of people who might be a fit.
Turns out, he was interested. At the time, Smith was also serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the San Diego Gulls, a minor league hockey team. He enjoyed his time with Busboom Kelly at Louisville and feels they align in how they work together. He also didn’t have to try hard to convince his wife Emily, the head nutritionist for San Diego FC, to leave California to move to Nebraska.
“It was a no-brainer for us,” Smith said. “This is about as close as it gets to a dream scenario for myself from a career standpoint. We made the move pretty quick.”
Through their discussions about the position, Smith’s job expanded beyond strength and conditioning. He is focused on helping them grow on and off the court. He worked with IndyCar drivers and the pit crew, but his goal is longer-term: to take recruits and help them develop physically and mentally during their time at Nebraska.
Smith said the development part starts when freshmen arrive on campus in January, and he can help them adjust to college life. He also wants to push them through their fifth year as they either embark on a professional career or life after college.
Even though he’s only been with the team since the beginning of summer, Smith said he’s already developed good connections with the Huskers. Before he was on campus, he started connecting with them over Zoom. While he is ultimately the strength and conditioning coach, he knows that he has to coach the person first.
“I feel like I’ve coached this team for the last decade,” he said. “I feel really good about the relationships that we have built, but I’ve tried to be very intentional about that, and, fortunately, the players are off and around in the summer.”
So far, the players have enjoyed their time working with Smith during his first few months with the program. Senior middle blocker Andi Jackson said he’s a great strength coach and easy to talk to.
“You can just tell from day one that he’s in our corner and he wants the best for us and he’s going to do what it takes to help us excel both on and off the court,” she said.
Smith met with each player individually to talk about their goals for the season and beyond and created a plan for how he can help them become the best version of themselves, whether that means increasing their vertical, improving their lateral mobility or being more intentional with their sport/life balance.
Sophomore middle blocker Manaia Ogbechie likes that he is working with them on their physical and mindset development.
“He knows where we are mentally at every point, so when we need something altered — maybe we can’t go as hard one day as another,” she said. “He’s always there for us and checking in all the time.”
Smith has had a few months to settle in, but now he’s in the midst of his toughest challenge this year — helping NU navigate the first few weeks of the regular season. The Huskers will travel almost 4,000 miles while playing road matches in Texas, Nevada, South Dakota and Illinois.
While he’s also excited to see volleyball played at famous venues like AT&T Stadium and Wrigley Field, Smith’s job is to make sure they can handle the physical toll all that travel can take on their body through mental preparation and active recovery.
“We’ll do a little bit of coaching, and we’ll do some lifting and things like that on the road for the players,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot, but it’s easy to get through that stuff when you’re going to really cool venues and making history.”
