1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Husker Tennis Head Coach Peter Kobelt: February 5th, 11am

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Coach Kobelt gives us a glimpse into his background, why he chose tennis, and even gives us insight on how Ohio State and Nebraska football are similar!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought to by Canopy Street Market. Boom! Ah! Let's get it. You know how we do one-on-one? Winston.

And you can be a person. Part of what we're doing, Sartner-Hammer text line, 402, 464, 5685. If you've got questions, comments, opinions, and you want to meet the guest. This is another one I keep telling you. Jump live on the video streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, and Allo Fiber Cable, Channel 961. If you want to see what's going on, put a face to the name. Because today, we're going. I've made a point in my time here that in giving an explanation of how amazing Nebraska athletics is,

that sometimes we miss the layup in that these programs bring some of the great young minds to Lincoln, Nebraska, but it also brings the world, the world's best athletes, to Lincoln, Nebraska. and it doesn't always get told because I know the majority of media time is spent on football. God bless them. But the Olympic programs are exceptional and they're winning. And it's being done in silence and in the dark and we're going to break that. That has to change. That would be my mission for 2025 is to give the Olympic sports as much exposure as possible

here in Husker Nation. In the middle of it, this is the mother's, and we understand it. They have 18 hours a day, we have time. And today it is a blessing. We finally get to bring him in. Listen, Nebraska tennis has gone through a transition. And I think we've missed the layup in that the country's best athletes and coaches decide to coach it, Nebraska.

This has happened again. Let's welcome Peter Colwell, co-belt, head tennis coach for the Huskers to 90s. 3-7 the ticket coach thank you for doing this d p thanks for thanks for having me this is cool first time down here it's uh you got an amazing place down here it it's amazing in that a part of the move from 48th to o street was access and giving coaches and athletes the freedom to just walk down the street and tell their story and there's so many great stories first of all each of these programs is a great story all of the coaches who coached there are great stories. Like nobody gets the University of Nebraska without going through some stuff.

Right? And having successes. And so we want to take time. And today we're going to do several things in this hour. An introduction to the head coach, an introduction to some of the players and tell their stories of where they are from every corner of this earth. And then we're going to push you and drive you to go see them live at one of the better. facilities in the country. You may not know that because you may not have been there yet. Well, we're going to fix that. We're going to get you down to watch this tennis program. And it's a winning program and folks don't know.

So coach, let's go through. I always ask people, no coach gets here without going through some stuff. You got to have some people who supported you and kind of clear the path. And whether it's parents or coaches, you have people who loved on you to get you here. So who are those people for coach Cobot? For sure, yeah. I mean, I think it starts with my parents, my family. My mom, she's a nurse, now a doctor, and she was always at the hospital as a kid.

And luckily, my dad, he's a tennis coach. So it was super easy to go to work with dad. I didn't want to go to the hospital. That's for sure. I went once and that was enough. She had a tough job in the hospital. So I was like, yeah, it's more fun going to work with dad. So, you know, you go to the club and you play tennis all day.

So that's, you know, that's more or less what I. I did all summer and I grew up playing a lot of sports. My parents were super open to me playing a bunch of sports. I played basketball all the way until I was 18. I started on my varsity basketball team in Columbus, Ohio. And yeah, tennis is just in our family. It's been in our family. We grew up playing tennis.

My sister, actually, ironically, she's the women's assistant coach here at Nebraska. So this is a family affair here. I came and I was like, hey, she was asking about it. I was like, this place is great. And she got the assistant. job here and my parents are coming in town this weekend. They love Lincoln. It's starting to turn into home for the entire family now. So I see a Cobalt family show in the future. Let's do it. Yeah. Like I absolutely see telling those stories to not bury the

lead, but Peter is six foot seven. And it is a legit six seven. So when you tell me that you play basketball. So was that an option too? Was that one of your real loves? Well, I growing up, I loved playing back. I love the team environment. You know, you high school tennis, you get you maybe get your best friends to come out and watch it, but you play high school basketball and you're playing in front of all, you know, a crowd, you got your away fans, you got all your home fans, you got a student section, you know, they dress up for each game differently, like different, you know, crazy environments. I loved that part of basketball. I loved being a part of a team And there was a point where I just knew I wasn't going to be able to play at the highest levels of basketball.

And I was able to do that in tennis. And I love tennis too. And I think that's what drew me to college tennis and ultimately college coaching was that team aspect, being a part of something bigger than yourself. And, you know, at the end of day, you know, you play to win and you want to win. And you love playing in front of people in front of the biggest crowds and the biggest environments. And that's what we're trying to build here at Nebraska, trying to build that Nebraska tennis. program up to that height. Most people would, when thinking of collegiate tennis, would think of the individual.

And you speak of this fully in team. And that's got to be a huge bridge to cross and to get athletes to buy into that it's not just about me. It's about we. And we use it as a cliche. But I would think that that is a big part of it. And you grew up in what some people would say is a triangle of death. Right? That Columbus, Ohio is for Nebraska fans, there's a visceral reaction to that.

But I would ask you to tell the benefits of growing up in a college town because Lincoln and Columbus are both college towns at heart. Yep. And both want and inspired to think of themselves as a big city. But that university did things for you. Tell me about the positives, the things, the wonderful things that Ohio State did for you. It was amazing. Obviously, I was born in Cincinnati. We moved up to Columbus when I was like two years old.

And I lived in Columbus. And, you know, my parents still live there. Just a ton of friends, a lot of family in Ohio. But I learned a lot there. Obviously, growing up as a kid, I was obsessed with Ohio State football and Ohio State basketball. You know, my mom, every time Ohio State lost, I would cry. And my mom, you know, my mom stopped telling me when the basketball game. to be on because he didn't want me to ruin the night again. So I'm at Scooney Penn, Michael Red,

you know, Greg Oden, Michael Conley. You know, I used to try and bounce the ball behind my back. Like Schoonie Penn did when he was at the free throw line. He'd throw it like backwards around his head between his legs. And, you know, it just shaped my life, you know, for for so long. And then going, being able to go to Ohio State accepting a scholarship there, being able to play at the school that I grew up loving. Like it sounds like cliche, but you know, that's, that's, you know,

what you dream about doing when you're, when you're that age. So it was, it was a huge role. It played a big part in what I'm doing now. So you've watched football games in two of the great football mecas. Yep.

Right? To come here to Memorial, going, the horseshoe is its own vibe, its own universe. Mm-hmm. Right? What are the things that those two places have in time?

The people. 100%. It's the fan. Band base. They're both extremely loyal. They're both crazy. They both want success. They both, but at the end of the day, they love Ohio State and they love Nebraska. And it doesn't matter if it's 10 degrees outside. It doesn't matter if it's 100 degrees or if it's raining or if it's snowing, like the stadium's going to be full and the people are going to be passionate and they want to win. So I mean, those, but really it's about the people, both, you know, when you're when you're, when you're, I feel like when you're in a college town and the weather is not great and there's, you know, there's this and there's that. There's the passion comes through the universities and both schools have that. We are in a first sit down with Nebraska's head tennis coach, Peter Cobalt,

and full disclosure, I often say this when coaches and athletes come in, there's zero chance that we can cover everything we want to cover in the course of an hour. So it's the building of relationships, they're letting people know. that, first of all, this incredible young man is leading this program. And you did a thing with this program, and we'll get back to your own personal journey. But to take a program that was struggling and lead it and flip it into a 17 and 10 program is a monumental, epic amount of work. What was it? First of all, why did you choose Nebraska?

And then two, what was the thing that you had to determine, first to change this into a winning program. Yeah, so I think my journey was unique. Obviously, I'm 34. I think I'm the second youngest head coach in the Power 4. And I came to Nebraska, obviously the previous head coach, Sean Mimey. He was a, you know, I considered him more of a mentor of mine, and I knew him well. But he took me in and I was like, look, I took a visit here and I saw the facilities.

I saw the passion. I saw the people here, the community here. And I was like, this is, you know, this is a, you know, a diamond in the rough tennis program here, sleeping giant. And I was like, there's a real opportunity here. And not every coach that I spoke to said that about Nebraska. And I got here. And I was like, why?

Like, I don't get it. I see it. Like, what don't people see here? So I don't know if it's just people that haven't been here. They don't see it or they don't know. But that was the real thing that drove me here. I was at the University of Kentucky before here. I was the volunteer assistant coach,

and we had a lot of success there. My last year we lost in the finals of the NCAA tournament. So obviously my time at Ohio State, we were very successful there. And then that was from a player's standpoint, but also now having the experience as a coach to see what it takes as from a coaching staff standpoint at Kentucky to play at the highest level. I feel like I really truly understand what needs to be done. and the path that we need to go down to have success.

And obviously as a coach, you learn new things every single day. Your players are learning new things every single day. But I feel like we have endless opportunity here. We can do anything that we want to do. You mentioned the facility and the facility matters. We often talk like the difference, the kind of balance between facility and athlete,

that there has to be a balance. One is required to get the other. No point of having a great facility if you can't fill it with winds and production and development and all those things. And it's really hard to recruit to that. You recruit to the entire world. Let's go a little bit into where these athletes,

where the current Husker roster comes from. Because they, you have brought the entire world to Lincoln, Nebraska. Sure. Yeah. I mean, we, we, we, We, tennis is, I think it's a second or third largest sport in the world. So, you know, a lot of schools are looking all over the planet to try and find players. And college tennis presents an opportunity where you can continue to study and play tennis where, you know, overseas you have to pick when you're 18 years old, whether you want to be a professional or if you want to go to school.

So college tennis kind of gives you both the best of both worlds. So, yeah, we look everywhere. One of our captains, Anton Shepts, from Hamilton, New Zealand. And I just finished up an individual lesson with a boy from Moscow, Russia. We have a boy from Finland, two guys from Germany, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Spain. And, you know, obviously that's all, that's all the corners of the world. But, you know, there's a lot of great players here in the States. And, you know, I think you have to continue recruiting both.

but international piece is a big part of tennis, and not just here, but all over college tennis. You're like, you don't understand how goose bump friendly I just got. And the idea, trying to imagine the pitch, the sales pitch and recruiting, it's one thing to get a kid from, from Council Bluffs to come to Lincoln.

It's a whole other sales marketing pitch to get somebody from Australia, New Zealand, in Russia to come to Lincoln, Nebraska. How is that happening? Yeah, so the first thing you have to do, which most people don't know, is you have to convince that athlete to go to college tennis first. Because unlike college football or basketball,

where you have to play college for a little bit of time in order to get drafted, you can just choose to go pro whenever you want at any age in tennis. So you don't have to play college tennis to be number one in the world. world. Carlos Alcaraz, Raphael Nadal, Roger Fetter, all didn't play college tennis. So you don't have to. So there's that. And then you also have to convince them that Nebraska is the right spot for them. And that's not easy either. Obviously, every school has their challenges of recruiting. But, you know, that's where we lean on our facility.

That's where we lean on our academics and our athletic department. That's where, you know, we're the eighth largest athletic department in the country. Like, this is big time college athletics. Like, this is the real deal. This is the University of Nebraska. There's history. There's people. There's everything here. And my job and our job as a coaching staff is to figure out how to get that out there when we're talking to recruits. So I think it starts with your passion. And I think it starts with work ethic and talking to as many kids as you can, agents, all the above. But it's not easy. It's highly competitive. But that's the part I love. If it wasn't like that, it wouldn't be any fun. So coach, what's the pitch to get? these athletes who a lot of tennis programs are coastal, right? It's good weather. Good weather matters. When it comes to that, baseball and softball struggle with some of the same issue. What's the pitch and sell for you to get people to come from all over the world to this little place in the middle of the country with weather that isn't always ideal for the sport that you play? Yeah. So one of the first things I do. I'm very upfront with her recruits. I'm a lot.

like, hey, if you're looking for the beach and the parties and the nice weather, Nebraska's not the place for you. We play indoor tennis half the time of the year. So let us know right now if that's what you want. And then if it is, then we just, we don't, that's the end of the recruiting pitch. So we kind of, we kind of try in our recruiting process, we have parameters and we have things that we're looking for in each recruit. And then we, once we start communicating with them, we start to kind of like work our

way through the recruiting process. And then once we find a couple guys that we really like, we know it. And we push, we push hard into those spots. And I think I have a pretty good idea of what we're looking for here. This is a, you know, this is Lincoln, Nebraska. This is the University of Nebraska. Everything that's here comes from hard work, blue collar people, you know, agriculture, out, out there, farming, working with your hands, you know, hard work.

So those are the types of kids that we want to recruit here. And I think once, you know, we talk to them, they, they, they, hear the passion from the coaching staff, they starting to see how we're doing better with our results, and then we get them on a visit and they see everything here. They're like, okay, like, I can see myself coming here. So you have the blessing of playing at a high level and then continuing forward. How much of that is a part of the pitch and sell to get folks here? Sure. I think when you're talking to kids from the other side of the world and you're on that first FaceTime call, you know, you, there's a sense of trust already.

that like, hey, I'm 34 years old. I played professionally against some of the guys that are top 100 in the world right now. And I know exactly what you need to do to play at that level. So I think there's a sense of like, okay, like before that kid jumps on the call with me, he's like, okay, like whatever this coach is saying, like, he probably knows because he's been there. So there's a sense of trust or connection, a small one. I think there's a lot that goes on top of it, but it opens the door at the beginning of the recruiting process.

I think through all of it, and this is part of why you and I were talking before we went live, and a part of what I think we can help you with is just getting these stories and getting this information out here, because I can guarantee you these aren't conversations that most of the listeners have heard. They don't know the process for tennis. They don't know the athletes.

They may not know you. They're going to know you because you're worthy of it. And there's so much gold to what you're saying that it's going to help explain some of the other sports as well. Plus, he's a sports fan. And that certainly that, you know, that certainly doesn't hurt. Peter Cobalt, head coach, Husker, tennis will throw it to break when we come back. I want to go up and down this roster to do it. To give people some insight about who these young people are, where they come from,

and where they're going, what the, what the ceiling is for them. And then we'll talk about the facility and then there's a date coming up that we need to get busy. And Actavon, we'll figure how we're going to fill up that arena so that, you know, it, it shows what Nebraska is really about. They need 500 fans. I think we can, I think we can get there. DP, one-on-one, the ticket. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket in your. App Store. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937 the Ticket and the Ticketfm.com.