June 16, 2026 • 20 mins
New Omaha Supernovas Head Coach Chris McGown talks about getting the job to lead the team next season in Major League Volleyball and what he's excited about as the roster is being constructed.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
It is the Emory Songer podcast on your radio, the
iHeartRadio app more specifically, and I am indeed Emery Songer.
Thank you so much for being a part of our
show today. Very special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You know me.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm a huge fan of the Omaha Supernovas. Went to
almost every single home game last season and just absolutely
fell in love with this team. And it was an
up and down season. Mid season there was a coaching change.
The coach had been fired. Lucas Leabee, who had been
coaching the team for the first you know, three quarters
(00:42):
of the season, was let go, and still with Thomas Robinson,
the young upstart as the leader and interim coach, the
Supernovas ended up making it to the Major League Volleyball
Championship match. Unfortunately came up short in that match, but
still plenty to be excited about. And then we found
out just a couple of weeks after the season wrapped
up that there was going to be a brand new
(01:03):
coach coming to town. His name Chris mcgownan, and he
is joining us here on our show today. Coach, thanks
so much for jumping on here. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Awy, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I absolutely am fascinated with volleyball culture in Nebraska. I'm
from Iowa originally, so trying to come to terms and
reconcile how passionate this community is about volleyball in Omaha,
in Lincoln, across the state of Nebraska is just so
(01:35):
crazy to me. So when I learned about this professional
league and we started going to the matches, I just
absolutely love the environment. But it is professional sports. You
have to have a certain level of expectation. And for
somebody like you, who has such great experience, what does
it mean to get this type of opportunity for you
(01:57):
to come here and be the leader of one of
the most passionate volleyball fan bases in the world.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, you know, it's been interesting. A lot has been
made I think, you know, in talking about these leagues
that have come up in the United States, about what
a great opportunity it is for the athletes to be
able to play in their home country, to be able
to live in the United States, to just to be
able to experience a professional career, you know, in an
(02:26):
environment where it's easy for most things to happen and familiar,
and I think, you know, not enough is being talked
about about what a great opportunity it is for coaches
as well, and so for me, if I've wanted to
coach professionally in the past, I've had to go out
of the USA to do it. And so to be
(02:46):
able to coach in my home country and to have
things be easy, and to be able to do it
again in front of a fan base that is as passionate,
that is as knowledgeable, that it is as enthusiastic as.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The ones in in Omaha and in Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
It's incredibly special and that was the biggest attraction for
me by far of the job of this particular job.
You know, I'm gonna be able to coach athletes that
are really high level athletes, so that's always fun. But
then just the level of you know, like we talked about,
of love for the game of volleyball and love for
(03:24):
this team that exists in Omaha, I think is unparalleled.
It's you know, it's for sure the best environment in
the whole country for you.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know, your background in history, volleyball is in your
blood as well, so for people who are you know,
listening in and trying to get to know you, what
would be the best way you would describe yourself and
your experiences in this sport that led you to this point.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
My dad is Carl McCallan, of course, and he was,
you know, a volleyball guy from the get go. He
grew up in Setting, California and playing indoor and beach
volleyball there, and then was part of kind of our
men's national team from the sixties into the seventies, and
then I think when when the guys really got it
(04:15):
together and started kind of being a force in the
world of volleyball. He went to every Olympics with the
men through I forget when but seven Olympics in a row,
and had a great career coaching the men at UYU
and and had been you know again around the world
as a volleyball coach. And so I got to play
(04:36):
for him when I was an athlete at UYU and
be in an environment where obviously you're getting coached by
these great coaches and being surrounded by other great athletes.
It was pretty special. But I left, you know, I
left university as an engineer. I didn't start out as
a volleyball coach, and at some point along the way.
(04:58):
Obviously I would follow the team and I'd be really
close to what my dad was doing there with the
men's program at YU, and just it was so evident
how I don't know how passionate you could be about
this job, how much of yourself you could give to
the job of coaching, and just you know, how emotionally
invested you could become. And obviously I love the environment,
(05:22):
the competitive environment. I love this trajectory of getting better
and seeing that in what you did every day. And
then you know, Courtney Thompson talks about how special it
is to be part of something where everyone is trying
to be their very best and you're trying to do
(05:43):
something that's really really difficult, and you're trying to do
that thing together.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That's what we're trying to accomplish, you know, in competitive athletics,
especially at this level of the sport, is we're doing
something that's incredibly difficult, trying to win championships and those
are really really tough to win. And when you get
to do it together with a group, it makes that
I don't know, just that goal that's striving that much
more I don't know, meaningful that you get to do
(06:11):
it with a group of people and you know in
whom you have to put all your faith, all your trust,
and here we go. We're going to go see how
good we can become. And so just you know, the
idea of you know, coaching for me is that it's
this activity in which you can become incredibly invested emotionally.
You can bring all of your passion, all of yourself
(06:33):
to it, and you get to do all that in.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
An environment where you're doing it with others.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So you know, for me, yeah, coaching just is this
amazing opportunity and really a great way to go through life.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, you've done it at so many different levels the
coaching aspect of this, and your most recent stop, you
were the interim coach in the other professional league, Love Volleyball,
and I guess my question, I haven't explored that league
nearly as much. I know they kind of had more
(07:07):
of a youth up focus in the build of the structure,
whereas Major League Volleyball formerly Pro Volleyball Federation was more
of a traditional American professional league structure. And they're in
the midst of a pretty large expansion up to twelve teams,
trying to get into as many markets with professional volleyball
(07:28):
as possible. Now that you're getting introduced in an insider
perspective to this league, how would you talk about kind
of just the professional environments in both leagues from what
you know to this point, and the sustainability I suppose
of the because there's plenty of great volleyball talent around
the world that is playing in these leagues, But what
(07:50):
the sustainability is for both of these leagues, especially a
lot of them existing with two teams in the same
market like we have here in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, and let me first start by saying what a
great experience I had in love with the team down
in Austin, and you know, just again surrounded by really
really high quality people and the athletes there were wonderful
to work with. And so I think that more volleyball,
and you know, having these leagues more opportunities for our
(08:21):
athletes here in the United States is ultimately a good thing.
And you know, I think what's interesting to me is
I see the kind of expansion.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And growth of the League of MLV.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Is that the people you are seeing currently coming into
the sport are heavy hitters in the sports world that
they have experience in NBA franchises, in NHL franchises, and
so they're seeing the value of, you know, what it
means to be in women's sports, what it means to
be in women's volleyball at this time in this place,
(08:59):
and and so just you know, it's a really really
I think vote of confidence for MLV that such you know,
well experienced and well funded entities are signing on to
be a part of that. And so that's I think
where we're seeing the league going is these people are
(09:20):
you know, visionaries, but they're also funding things in a
way that they're in it for the long term and
they see just what this can become. And so you know,
I think a lot of really good things are happening
in volleyball right now here in our country. Obviously, two
leagues makes things a little chaotic, and the way that
(09:41):
it's going to play out, you know politically, from a
business perspective, all of that I think remains to be seen.
Both leagues I think have certain advantages but and also disadvantages.
But you know, long term, for the athletes and as
I mentioned, coaches here in the USA, I think things
are going in a really good direction.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It is exciting, and I know that there are a
lot of fans that love volleyball that try to go
to as many volleyball matches as they can, whether that's collegiate,
whether that's the professionals in either of the two leagues,
especially the fact that Omaha has two teams and there
are recognizable faces on all of that roster building is
so different at the professional level than it is at
(10:23):
the collegiate level, even with the transfer portal and all
the different elements that go into that. Now and a
guy who transitioned out of collegiate coaching is John Cook,
who now is the general manager and one of the
managing ownership partners of the Omaha super Novas. His first
season last year, you could really tell he took it
(10:43):
very seriously and building as good of a roster that
he possibly could. But it's now about trying to capitalize
on that momentum of making it to the championship match
last year, and that's where you come in. He talked
about in the press release that you know, you guys
go back quite a way, as you guys known each
other a long time. What is that relationship like for
(11:03):
you with him specifically, and what was the relationship like
with it came to the roster building, did you have
much of a say since you were being brought in
basically as free agency was announced and you know, players
were getting resigned to come back to Omaha or new
players were signed to come to Omaha. How much of
(11:24):
those conversations were you a part of as free agency began.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, So I got introduced to John, I want to say,
man back as far as maybe twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen,
right when they were making kind of that national championship
run back in twenty fifteen. And to John's credit, I
think he's always been you know, one of the models
that he had there at Nebraska was dream big, and
(11:50):
so he's always had, you know, kind of big ideas
for his programs. And one of the things I think
he did best and still does best, is consider outside
of pinion, and you know, he was always kind of
trying to innovate, trying to think of, you know, how can.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
We do this better here and what areas could we
draw from?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
And so I think I was back in men's volleyball
during that time, and that was one of the things
that he liked. He liked having a men's volleyball perspective
applied to women's volleyball. And so I got to consult
with him in the Nebraska program for over a decade
as he was there, and you know, he we'd go
back and forth about Hey, I think he could do
better here and this could be better there, and he's
(12:30):
you know, and then I'd sit and listen about all
the kind of visions that he had for his team.
And so I've always really really respected the way that
he approached the thinking about not just hey, we got
to be good at volleyball, but just what does it
take to build a bigger program and how do we
how do we make this a great.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Thing for the fans?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And and so I've really you know, like I said,
it's been it's been this really great relationship that we've
had for a long time. And when he talked to
me about the job, that was one of the first
things he is just, hey, this organization does it right.
The Suprinovas is you know, we're trying to take great
care of the athletes, We're trying to you know, take
great care of our fans. We're trying to make this
(13:11):
just a first class experience all along the way, and
in my short time here with the with the organization,
I absolutely have felt that.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And one of the things.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Obviously that you know, we're trying to do as a
first class organization is bring in the best possible roster.
And so I got I think I was pretty lucky
they'd signed you know, several athletes from the previous front,
from the previous roster, but we had a pretty big
gap to fill, and I got to be a part
(13:40):
of the conversations on almost all of those signings from
kind of an early start, and so I wasn't hired yet,
but I was consulted about a lot of a lot
of players, and we had help kind of figuring out, hey,
here's the people that are going to be the best
fit for what we're trying to do and and what
our needs are going to be. So it you know,
(14:01):
as we went about identifying what athletes were available and
then where they did a good fit, you know, I
had a I don't know what I thought was a
reasonable amount of input into that for somebody that now
has to go coach these athletes.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
So I really appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, this is a it's interesting to see the emphasis
that they also have with the supernovas of trying to
keep as many local names that are high quality players
in Omaha. You can just hear the energy when Merret
Beeson is introduced into the match or gets listed as
(14:41):
starting lineup every time that she does anything on the floor.
She's obviously a fan favorite from her time at Nebraska.
Same goes for Nora Tabrock or k R. Ryan Hart,
who are former Creighton Blue Jays, And there's something about
that homesness I suppose of people just loving to continue
to watch these players moving forward. And there's going to
(15:02):
be a huge amount of eyeballs on the Nebraska and
Creighton programs going into next season because they play in
the fall. Right as their season is wrapping up, you
guys are preparing for your draft. You will pick the players,
and you're in a competing league also of trying to
get players that are also potentially going to sign with Love,
(15:22):
so you have, you know, multiple elements that you're trying
to negotiate here. Oh, and then training camp starts basically
as soon as their college season ends. So from a
perspective of a guy who has been around the college
game and now has been around the professional game at
this level, right now here recently, take me through kind
of what the rest of the year looks like. Is
you're going to be taking a look at some of
(15:43):
these players around the country, deciding who is the best
fit and seeing who could come in and integrate with
this team very quickly ahead of when the season is
going to begin in the early portion of twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it's a pretty fast doinating study in contradictions and
juxtapositions and just variables that end up being a little
bit outside your control. And so we've got all these
curveballs that the NCAA is constantly throwing at, you know,
at their regulations, and so you know, we anticipate that
(16:19):
the fifth year what they're calling, you know, that age
related kind of standard that they're going to put in place,
everybody just has five years and off you go, that
that legislation will pass, but we're not quite sure to
which classes it's going to apply.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And so, you know, some of these athletes that.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Would be seniors at Nebraska for example, or at Creighton
for example, we don't know if they'll be available to
draft because they might decide that they're going to play
an additional year, and that creates a bunch of headaches,
of course for the teams that might extend them, because
what do you do with the incoming freshman class with
scholarship allocations. So there's some complicated calculus happening at the
(17:00):
university level with just that legislation in and of itself.
And then one of the things we're finding is that
athletes are starting to sign earlier.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
And earlier and earlier and earlier.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And what used to be kind of a spring signing,
you know, kind of as the season was winding down
that period in professional volleyball, it's getting increasingly moved up.
So spring kind of turned into late winter, that turned
into early winter that's now turning into kind of Christmas
time and moving into November.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And so the need to sign and kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Have roster decisions made is getting pushed sooner and sooner
and sooner and sooner, And of course, with the expansion
of both leagues, competition for the best athletes is only
getting bigger, and in order to attract those athletes, these
salaries are starting to you know, you're starting to see
(17:52):
salary inflation across the way, across the board for every
level of athlete. And so the salaries that you could
pay to you years ago are not the salaries that
you can can pay now.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And so it's just all of these.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Little variables and all of these little nuances are you know,
combining to make draft are really difficult and uncertain kind
of event. And so we're just doing the very best
we can to operate in what's pretty chaotic environment right now.
And so that's what you do. You just you make
the best plans that you possibly can. You of course,
(18:27):
are doing all the work you can behind the scenes.
In front of the scenes too, you know, lay out
a reason as to the athletes that are potential draft
candidates as to why this organization, the Super Hoos, is
going to be the spot for them, and that they're
going to be able to accomplish their goals, you know,
both as a professional and their personal brands and all
(18:51):
the things that go now into being being a professional athlete.
And then you know, when when when the stand starts
shift under your feet again, you do your best to
make those adjustments and continue forward. I think what we
find is we're incredibly well positioned in that chaotic environment
(19:13):
to achieve our goals just because of how the organization structured,
how the organizations funded, who's involved, how they're involved, and
so just the character and quality of the people in
the Supernova's organization makes all that chaos, I think, a
little bit more manageable.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, it certainly is going to be interesting to see
how it continues to play out, and I, for one,
as a big fan of Major League Volleyball in the
Omaha Supernovas, cannot wait to be in CCHI Health Center
and see all of these new teams and all of
the new athletes that are going to get a chance
to play in this league thanks to the expansion in
the organization that has built. But you know what, this
(19:50):
is going to be a lot of fun. Chris McGowan,
brand new head coach of the Omaha Supernovas. I am
hopeful that you and I will get a chance to
speak pretty regularly even throughout the offseason as you guys
are working toward what twenty twenty seven will look like.
Thanks so much for allowing us to get to know
you a little bit today, and I'm sure we'll be
chatting again very soon in the future.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Away. It's my pleasure, and yeah, thanks for the chance
to talk
It is the Emory Songer podcast on your radio, the
iHeartRadio app more specifically, and I am indeed Emery Songer.
Thank you so much for being a part of our
show today. Very special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You know me.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm a huge fan of the Omaha Supernovas. Went to
almost every single home game last season and just absolutely
fell in love with this team. And it was an
up and down season. Mid season there was a coaching change.
The coach had been fired. Lucas Leabee, who had been
coaching the team for the first you know, three quarters
(00:42):
of the season, was let go, and still with Thomas Robinson,
the young upstart as the leader and interim coach, the
Supernovas ended up making it to the Major League Volleyball
Championship match. Unfortunately came up short in that match, but
still plenty to be excited about. And then we found
out just a couple of weeks after the season wrapped
up that there was going to be a brand new
(01:03):
coach coming to town. His name Chris mcgownan, and he
is joining us here on our show today. Coach, thanks
so much for jumping on here. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Awy, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I absolutely am fascinated with volleyball culture in Nebraska. I'm
from Iowa originally, so trying to come to terms and
reconcile how passionate this community is about volleyball in Omaha,
in Lincoln, across the state of Nebraska is just so
(01:35):
crazy to me. So when I learned about this professional
league and we started going to the matches, I just
absolutely love the environment. But it is professional sports. You
have to have a certain level of expectation. And for
somebody like you, who has such great experience, what does
it mean to get this type of opportunity for you
(01:57):
to come here and be the leader of one of
the most passionate volleyball fan bases in the world.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, you know, it's been interesting. A lot has been
made I think, you know, in talking about these leagues
that have come up in the United States, about what
a great opportunity it is for the athletes to be
able to play in their home country, to be able
to live in the United States, to just to be
able to experience a professional career, you know, in an
(02:26):
environment where it's easy for most things to happen and familiar,
and I think, you know, not enough is being talked
about about what a great opportunity it is for coaches
as well, and so for me, if I've wanted to
coach professionally in the past, I've had to go out
of the USA to do it. And so to be
(02:46):
able to coach in my home country and to have
things be easy, and to be able to do it
again in front of a fan base that is as passionate,
that is as knowledgeable, that it is as enthusiastic as.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The ones in in Omaha and in Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
It's incredibly special and that was the biggest attraction for
me by far of the job of this particular job.
You know, I'm gonna be able to coach athletes that
are really high level athletes, so that's always fun. But
then just the level of you know, like we talked about,
of love for the game of volleyball and love for
(03:24):
this team that exists in Omaha, I think is unparalleled.
It's you know, it's for sure the best environment in
the whole country for you.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know, your background in history, volleyball is in your
blood as well, so for people who are you know,
listening in and trying to get to know you, what
would be the best way you would describe yourself and
your experiences in this sport that led you to this point.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
My dad is Carl McCallan, of course, and he was,
you know, a volleyball guy from the get go. He
grew up in Setting, California and playing indoor and beach
volleyball there, and then was part of kind of our
men's national team from the sixties into the seventies, and
then I think when when the guys really got it
(04:15):
together and started kind of being a force in the
world of volleyball. He went to every Olympics with the
men through I forget when but seven Olympics in a row,
and had a great career coaching the men at UYU
and and had been you know again around the world
as a volleyball coach. And so I got to play
(04:36):
for him when I was an athlete at UYU and
be in an environment where obviously you're getting coached by
these great coaches and being surrounded by other great athletes.
It was pretty special. But I left, you know, I
left university as an engineer. I didn't start out as
a volleyball coach, and at some point along the way.
(04:58):
Obviously I would follow the team and I'd be really
close to what my dad was doing there with the
men's program at YU, and just it was so evident
how I don't know how passionate you could be about
this job, how much of yourself you could give to
the job of coaching, and just you know, how emotionally
invested you could become. And obviously I love the environment,
(05:22):
the competitive environment. I love this trajectory of getting better
and seeing that in what you did every day. And
then you know, Courtney Thompson talks about how special it
is to be part of something where everyone is trying
to be their very best and you're trying to do
(05:43):
something that's really really difficult, and you're trying to do
that thing together.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That's what we're trying to accomplish, you know, in competitive athletics,
especially at this level of the sport, is we're doing
something that's incredibly difficult, trying to win championships and those
are really really tough to win. And when you get
to do it together with a group, it makes that
I don't know, just that goal that's striving that much
more I don't know, meaningful that you get to do
(06:11):
it with a group of people and you know in
whom you have to put all your faith, all your trust,
and here we go. We're going to go see how
good we can become. And so just you know, the
idea of you know, coaching for me is that it's
this activity in which you can become incredibly invested emotionally.
You can bring all of your passion, all of yourself
(06:33):
to it, and you get to do all that in.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
An environment where you're doing it with others.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So you know, for me, yeah, coaching just is this
amazing opportunity and really a great way to go through life.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, you've done it at so many different levels the
coaching aspect of this, and your most recent stop, you
were the interim coach in the other professional league, Love Volleyball,
and I guess my question, I haven't explored that league
nearly as much. I know they kind of had more
(07:07):
of a youth up focus in the build of the structure,
whereas Major League Volleyball formerly Pro Volleyball Federation was more
of a traditional American professional league structure. And they're in
the midst of a pretty large expansion up to twelve teams,
trying to get into as many markets with professional volleyball
(07:28):
as possible. Now that you're getting introduced in an insider
perspective to this league, how would you talk about kind
of just the professional environments in both leagues from what
you know to this point, and the sustainability I suppose
of the because there's plenty of great volleyball talent around
the world that is playing in these leagues, But what
(07:50):
the sustainability is for both of these leagues, especially a
lot of them existing with two teams in the same
market like we have here in Omaha.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, and let me first start by saying what a
great experience I had in love with the team down
in Austin, and you know, just again surrounded by really
really high quality people and the athletes there were wonderful
to work with. And so I think that more volleyball,
and you know, having these leagues more opportunities for our
(08:21):
athletes here in the United States is ultimately a good thing.
And you know, I think what's interesting to me is
I see the kind of expansion.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And growth of the League of MLV.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Is that the people you are seeing currently coming into
the sport are heavy hitters in the sports world that
they have experience in NBA franchises, in NHL franchises, and
so they're seeing the value of, you know, what it
means to be in women's sports, what it means to
be in women's volleyball at this time in this place,
(08:59):
and and so just you know, it's a really really
I think vote of confidence for MLV that such you know,
well experienced and well funded entities are signing on to
be a part of that. And so that's I think
where we're seeing the league going is these people are
(09:20):
you know, visionaries, but they're also funding things in a
way that they're in it for the long term and
they see just what this can become. And so you know,
I think a lot of really good things are happening
in volleyball right now here in our country. Obviously, two
leagues makes things a little chaotic, and the way that
(09:41):
it's going to play out, you know politically, from a
business perspective, all of that I think remains to be seen.
Both leagues I think have certain advantages but and also disadvantages.
But you know, long term, for the athletes and as
I mentioned, coaches here in the USA, I think things
are going in a really good direction.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It is exciting, and I know that there are a
lot of fans that love volleyball that try to go
to as many volleyball matches as they can, whether that's collegiate,
whether that's the professionals in either of the two leagues,
especially the fact that Omaha has two teams and there
are recognizable faces on all of that roster building is
so different at the professional level than it is at
(10:23):
the collegiate level, even with the transfer portal and all
the different elements that go into that. Now and a
guy who transitioned out of collegiate coaching is John Cook,
who now is the general manager and one of the
managing ownership partners of the Omaha super Novas. His first
season last year, you could really tell he took it
(10:43):
very seriously and building as good of a roster that
he possibly could. But it's now about trying to capitalize
on that momentum of making it to the championship match
last year, and that's where you come in. He talked
about in the press release that you know, you guys
go back quite a way, as you guys known each
other a long time. What is that relationship like for
(11:03):
you with him specifically, and what was the relationship like
with it came to the roster building, did you have
much of a say since you were being brought in
basically as free agency was announced and you know, players
were getting resigned to come back to Omaha or new
players were signed to come to Omaha. How much of
(11:24):
those conversations were you a part of as free agency began.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, So I got introduced to John, I want to say,
man back as far as maybe twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen,
right when they were making kind of that national championship
run back in twenty fifteen. And to John's credit, I
think he's always been you know, one of the models
that he had there at Nebraska was dream big, and
(11:50):
so he's always had, you know, kind of big ideas
for his programs. And one of the things I think
he did best and still does best, is consider outside
of pinion, and you know, he was always kind of
trying to innovate, trying to think of, you know, how can.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
We do this better here and what areas could we
draw from?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
And so I think I was back in men's volleyball
during that time, and that was one of the things
that he liked. He liked having a men's volleyball perspective
applied to women's volleyball. And so I got to consult
with him in the Nebraska program for over a decade
as he was there, and you know, he we'd go
back and forth about Hey, I think he could do
better here and this could be better there, and he's
(12:30):
you know, and then I'd sit and listen about all
the kind of visions that he had for his team.
And so I've always really really respected the way that
he approached the thinking about not just hey, we got
to be good at volleyball, but just what does it
take to build a bigger program and how do we
how do we make this a great.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Thing for the fans?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And and so I've really you know, like I said,
it's been it's been this really great relationship that we've
had for a long time. And when he talked to
me about the job, that was one of the first
things he is just, hey, this organization does it right.
The Suprinovas is you know, we're trying to take great
care of the athletes, We're trying to you know, take
great care of our fans. We're trying to make this
(13:11):
just a first class experience all along the way, and
in my short time here with the with the organization,
I absolutely have felt that.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And one of the things.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Obviously that you know, we're trying to do as a
first class organization is bring in the best possible roster.
And so I got I think I was pretty lucky
they'd signed you know, several athletes from the previous front,
from the previous roster, but we had a pretty big
gap to fill, and I got to be a part
(13:40):
of the conversations on almost all of those signings from
kind of an early start, and so I wasn't hired yet,
but I was consulted about a lot of a lot
of players, and we had help kind of figuring out, hey,
here's the people that are going to be the best
fit for what we're trying to do and and what
our needs are going to be. So it you know,
(14:01):
as we went about identifying what athletes were available and
then where they did a good fit, you know, I
had a I don't know what I thought was a
reasonable amount of input into that for somebody that now
has to go coach these athletes.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
So I really appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, this is a it's interesting to see the emphasis
that they also have with the supernovas of trying to
keep as many local names that are high quality players
in Omaha. You can just hear the energy when Merret
Beeson is introduced into the match or gets listed as
(14:41):
starting lineup every time that she does anything on the floor.
She's obviously a fan favorite from her time at Nebraska.
Same goes for Nora Tabrock or k R. Ryan Hart,
who are former Creighton Blue Jays, And there's something about
that homesness I suppose of people just loving to continue
to watch these players moving forward. And there's going to
(15:02):
be a huge amount of eyeballs on the Nebraska and
Creighton programs going into next season because they play in
the fall. Right as their season is wrapping up, you
guys are preparing for your draft. You will pick the players,
and you're in a competing league also of trying to
get players that are also potentially going to sign with Love,
(15:22):
so you have, you know, multiple elements that you're trying
to negotiate here. Oh, and then training camp starts basically
as soon as their college season ends. So from a
perspective of a guy who has been around the college
game and now has been around the professional game at
this level, right now here recently, take me through kind
of what the rest of the year looks like. Is
you're going to be taking a look at some of
(15:43):
these players around the country, deciding who is the best
fit and seeing who could come in and integrate with
this team very quickly ahead of when the season is
going to begin in the early portion of twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it's a pretty fast doinating study in contradictions and
juxtapositions and just variables that end up being a little
bit outside your control. And so we've got all these
curveballs that the NCAA is constantly throwing at, you know,
at their regulations, and so you know, we anticipate that
(16:19):
the fifth year what they're calling, you know, that age
related kind of standard that they're going to put in place,
everybody just has five years and off you go, that
that legislation will pass, but we're not quite sure to
which classes it's going to apply.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And so, you know, some of these athletes that.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Would be seniors at Nebraska for example, or at Creighton
for example, we don't know if they'll be available to
draft because they might decide that they're going to play
an additional year, and that creates a bunch of headaches,
of course for the teams that might extend them, because
what do you do with the incoming freshman class with
scholarship allocations. So there's some complicated calculus happening at the
(17:00):
university level with just that legislation in and of itself.
And then one of the things we're finding is that
athletes are starting to sign earlier.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
And earlier and earlier and earlier.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And what used to be kind of a spring signing,
you know, kind of as the season was winding down
that period in professional volleyball, it's getting increasingly moved up.
So spring kind of turned into late winter, that turned
into early winter that's now turning into kind of Christmas
time and moving into November.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And so the need to sign and kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Have roster decisions made is getting pushed sooner and sooner
and sooner and sooner, And of course, with the expansion
of both leagues, competition for the best athletes is only
getting bigger, and in order to attract those athletes, these
salaries are starting to you know, you're starting to see
(17:52):
salary inflation across the way, across the board for every
level of athlete. And so the salaries that you could
pay to you years ago are not the salaries that
you can can pay now.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And so it's just all of these.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Little variables and all of these little nuances are you know,
combining to make draft are really difficult and uncertain kind
of event. And so we're just doing the very best
we can to operate in what's pretty chaotic environment right now.
And so that's what you do. You just you make
the best plans that you possibly can. You of course,
(18:27):
are doing all the work you can behind the scenes.
In front of the scenes too, you know, lay out
a reason as to the athletes that are potential draft
candidates as to why this organization, the Super Hoos, is
going to be the spot for them, and that they're
going to be able to accomplish their goals, you know,
both as a professional and their personal brands and all
(18:51):
the things that go now into being being a professional athlete.
And then you know, when when when the stand starts
shift under your feet again, you do your best to
make those adjustments and continue forward. I think what we
find is we're incredibly well positioned in that chaotic environment
(19:13):
to achieve our goals just because of how the organization structured,
how the organizations funded, who's involved, how they're involved, and
so just the character and quality of the people in
the Supernova's organization makes all that chaos, I think, a
little bit more manageable.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, it certainly is going to be interesting to see
how it continues to play out, and I, for one,
as a big fan of Major League Volleyball in the
Omaha Supernovas, cannot wait to be in CCHI Health Center
and see all of these new teams and all of
the new athletes that are going to get a chance
to play in this league thanks to the expansion in
the organization that has built. But you know what, this
(19:50):
is going to be a lot of fun. Chris McGowan,
brand new head coach of the Omaha Supernovas. I am
hopeful that you and I will get a chance to
speak pretty regularly even throughout the offseason as you guys
are working toward what twenty twenty seven will look like.
Thanks so much for allowing us to get to know
you a little bit today, and I'm sure we'll be
chatting again very soon in the future.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Away. It's my pleasure, and yeah, thanks for the chance
to talk
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