Oh captain, my captain

On Tuesday, Nebraska coach John Cook confirmed that the Huskers had their captains for 2024-25. But what does the history of Nebraska captains look like since 2000?

Merritt Beason (left) and Lexi Rodriguez (right) speak at Nebraska’s spring game. (Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics)

On Tuesday, Nebraska coach John Cook confirmed that the Huskers had their captains for 2024-25:

Seniors Lexi Rodriguez and Merritt Beason.

The selection isn’t all that surprising. Both are returning as captains from 2023-24, a season where the duo helped lead a younger Nebraska team to a Big Ten title and a national championship appearance.

Probably more interesting is that there was no vote, according to Cook. That’s a bit of a departure from past selections, where Cook has emphasized the process in which captains are selected. It often involves both team and staff input, plus a vote, to determine the captains.

But that process wasn’t needed for Rodriguez and Beason this year.

“They take care of the team,” Cook said following Tuesday’s practice. “They take care of each other. They’re great communicators with the coaching staff. They let us know what they need. Jordan (Larson) was a captain for the USA team — I don’t know if she was this year, but she has been — but she’s their leader, and so they started working with her with stuff. The leaders are setting the direction where we want to go, creating the vision, getting everybody to follow and getting everybody to stay on task.

“Those two have over the last eight months, nine months, they’ve been seasoned, because there’ve been a lot of challenges. We’ve been working on our culture and so they’ve gotten some great experience, so they’re awesome, awesome captains.”

Since Cook took over the Nebraska program in 2000, he’s had 34 different captains — not counting those that served multiple times — span across 25 seasons. As we prepare for a new season, why not take a little trip down memory lane? It might just provide some perspective on Cook and the leaders tasked with helping build Nebraska volleyball to what it is today.