“They said they liked me,” said a 14-year-old Lexi Rodriguez in 2017, after attending a volleyball camp for middle and high schoolers in Nebraska. By the time she wrapped up her collegiate career in 2024, that fondness only grew, we’d wager. Under head coach John Cook, Rodriguez flourished as a libero and left the Lincoln campus as a legend. In many ways, she was one of the best signings by the iconic coach. But the credit wasn’t his alone.

In a recent post by Hurrdat Sports on Instagram from October 14, former Nebraska volleyball star and assistant coach, Kayla Banwarth, spilled the beans on how she played a key role in Rodriguez’s recruitment in her first year as part of Coach Cook’s staff. “She was in eighth grade…I just saw something in her. I thought the way she saw the game, the way she commanded the court, her touch on the ball, she was doing things that other 14-year-olds just weren’t doing,” the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist for Team USA said how she was mesmerized by Lexi at first glance.

“She was doing things I struggled to do as a professional,” Banwarth admitted without deliberation. Talk about making your mark on your mentors! “There were things in her I thought were really special, and he (John Cook) wasn’t quite convinced. I was like, ‘John, she was at camp.’ I was like, ‘Do not let her walk out that door. We have to grab her before somebody else does.’,” Kayla went on about how she nudged the head coach to drop the ball.

“I finally convinced him, and she committed on the spot,” she said with a smile about how Lexi Rodriguez gave Nebraska her word to join the Class of 2021 before heading home from the summer camp. Little did Coach Cook know he had just signed a future legend. With 1,897 digs to her name, the former Huskers’ libero holds the program record.

Lexi, too, had her eyes on the program as the next chapter of her volleyball career after high school. “The volleyball program has always been at the top for a long time. They’re always down to the (NCAA Tournament) Final Four and close to winning, and I really want to win, and be a part of a team that can win,” she had said after her commitment, on how watching Coach Cook guide his players stood out from the rest. Coincidentally enough, Rodriguez also remembered Banwarth’s role behind her recruitment.

“The coaches said they value that (libero) position a lot, and the assistant coach (Kayla Banwarth) was a libero at Nebraska and she was in the Olympics, so I think they know what they’re looking for,” Lexi said. While the coaching staff did know what they were looking for, Cook hardly had the idea that his new recruit would bring a whole lot more to the table than he had hoped for.

John Cook and Lexi Rodriguez: A story of mutual respect

Lexi was given the libero duties as a freshman, not exactly standard procedure. But she proved to be more than capable of shouldering the responsibility. In her first year with the Huskers, the #8 bagged six Big Ten weekly honors and averaged 4.33 digs per set. Her 524 digs in her freshman year were the fifth-highest in school history. Thanks to these incredible stats, Rodriguez was awarded the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and was a first-team All-Big Ten and Big Ten All-Freshman Team honoree. John Cook couldn’t have asked for more.

“She’s really brought a lot of attention to the libero position,” Cook said in 2024. “I tell all of our passers, ‘Just watch Lexi. We don’t even need to coach you. Just watch Lexi,’,” he stated further about Rodriguez, almost making the job easier for the seasoned coach. In her final match with the Huskers, she surpassed Olympic gold medalist and former Nebraska star Justin Wong-Orantes as the player with the highest digs in the program’s history. From a thunderous freshman to a volleyball phenom who came inches close to winning the NCAA title twice, Lexi’s rise under John Cook was stunning. And Cook was justifiably emotional when it was time for Lexi to play her final game.

When Cook announced his wishes to step down from his Nebraska duties in January, the fans were shocked. Rodriguez, while having already moved to LOVB Omaha as a pro, was also hit with the blues. “Nebraska will miss you,” the former Husker wrote in an emotional message on social media, not long after Cook’s announcement, once again underscoring the special bond she shared with the storied coach.

That’s the exact kind of mentor-mentee relationship we’ve all been looking for all our lives!