1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Men's Tennis HC Peter Kobelt - July 10th, 2025

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Nebraska Men's Tennis HC Peter Kobelt - July 10th, 2025Advertising 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 couple Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. On 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Wednesday double boom. Respectful. Respectful.

Live on a Wednesday night. Appreciate you hanging out with us. The. and text line is 402, 464, 5, 6, 8, 5.8, 5. You want to be a part of what we're doing? You can, and you should. Please, you know, I have to keep reminding folks. Download the ticket app, so we go wherever you go.

It doesn't matter what your device is. Phone car, otherwise, have the ticket app so that we can go with you and you don't have to worry about, oh, my goodness, the Royals run, the freaking mortar, what do we do? Just hit the ticket app. It's on your phone. It's on your laptop. It's everywhere you want to be. Harrison, It's constant.

It's essential. We even had someone come in for pictures the other day, and they're talking about the app's nice to have because he's not the biggest MLB guys. We appreciate the ticket app being able to tune in. Especially right now for the Royals, unless they've picked it up as late. I don't think their playoff chances are super great.

They really are building this on Bobby Witt, Jr. and Jace Caglione bringing people to the party. But it's that time, right? From playoff to not playoff is tough. but we will carry through it. And, of course, you know, July means we're a few weeks from Hall of Fame game in the NFL and NFL preseasoning.

The ticket will be all over it. And then, of course, a full season of NFL football here on the ticket. Thursday night, all the Thursday night games, both daytime and afternoon NFL games, the games of the week, we'll have the Sunday night games and the Monday night. night games plus plus we killed it on the college football game day of course we focus on the huskers pre and post game but we have a collection of live game college games this year uh nice nice i love i love

love being able to drive around because even after work heading home i still get to hear the nfl games that's phenomenal nice nice we have a special guest and it's always a good time when the head coach of Huskers tennis shows up. Peter Cobalt, coach, what's happening with you? BP, how we doing? Everything's good. Can I say how impressed it, is Harrison, I get a little notice on Facebook and it's Peter Cobalt just posted. And he and his lady looked like the cover of every magazine you and I would never would never get on. Like it was it was beyond that. It was like super, like if he was British, I would have went. Okay.

Like he looked like he was going to the princess wedding. Like, yeah, that's what it looked like. And I just went, would you look at this model looking, dude? Coach, what are we doing? You're setting a tough standard. First of all, look, we're not all giants. Like, we don't all have the perfect build. We're not like, come on, you're making it tough for the rest of us.

Well, I'm definitely out kicking my cover. I don't know what it is, but, you know, yeah, we actually, we met about a year, year and four, five months ago at a yoga class just down the street at Fly Fitness. So we kind of met organically, which isn't super common these days. But yeah, she's amazing. So she's tall. She's six one. She played volleyball at Peru State.

She's an athlete. She loves the workout. She's got two dogs. So the two dogs keep us busy, golden retrievers. Oh, that's dogs. Yeah, those are dog dogs. Uh-huh. Those are dog dogs.

Well, if you ever need, you ever need a puppy sitter. There we go. Yeah, we're always looking for dogs. You ever need a puppy sitter. Uh, just bring them down here. Yeah. Just bring them to the station, a bag of food and a, and a squeezy toy, and we will cover them for the next few hours.

You'll be able to handle one of them. I'm not sure about the little puppy. I am the puppy whisper. Are you? I am the puppy. Listen, that puppy, that puppy comes back. It's going to be different. Well, we might need to take some notes to me.

too. Yeah, Becky and I were, you know, we, we spent a lot of time fostering dogs across the country and whether we were in Virginia or Texas. The only place we ever foster was here just because we were on acres in the other places, and it just made more sense to have the animals. And I just feel bad living in the haymarket. Of course, my neighbor has a gigantic dog, and it makes me feel bad every morning. but then I want a dog 300 days of the year.

There are those other 65 days when it is over 100 and under 15. Yeah. That I am grateful. It's true. You know, it's like, oh, it's snowing and it's zero degrees. I don't have to get up and take a dog outside to get the bathroom. Exactly. Yeah.

So, you know, we figure that out. What's going on? You have had quite the journey. And we've been talking about recruiting. And then I get the notice that you guys have had it. Somebody to the program. Another international. Yep, another international.

So he technically committed. And then we were waiting for some of his, you got to get the transcripts. You got to get them translated. You got to get them from his, you know, how each country does it takes a second. then there's a bunch of other things you have to do in order for them to officially sign. Well, I know you're limited in what you can say, but I wanted to ask about the process.

Yeah, no, it's a, you know, it's a process getting them to verbally commit, and then it's another whole thing getting, getting all their paperwork in the States is pretty easy because, you know, you don't have to translate anything. The high school system is pretty easy to navigate, but each country has its own, you know, sometimes the kids graduate when they're 17 years old. sometimes they graduate when they're 18 years old, sometimes they're graduate when they're 19 years old, so you kind of have to sit down with the compliance office

and the NCAA, you know, tutorial and you have to like go through everything. And it all just takes time. You know, we've done it a handful of times now, but it's, it can be complex and this last one was a little bit more complex. So it's finally good to get him signed. Then we've got to get his visa.

There's a whole host of stuff. And then with everything going on, the appointments haven't been super easy to get for some of the countries overseas. so you kind of hold your breath a little bit you kind of hold your breath a little bit but luckily I think we're in a good position with all three of the guys coming in we're waiting on a we're waiting on a commitment potentially tomorrow uh so we'll see about that one we really like the recruit that we may commit tomorrow but um we'll have to get back on the show next week to find the answer

out about that but absolutely but uh but yeah I mean that's that's how it's kind of going right now other than that it's a relatively slow all you know we don't really have uh anyone in town None of our players are here right now. They're all either playing or they're back home overseas. So it gives me a chance to hang out with the lady and the dogs from a little bit more. Yeah. Hanging out of the ticket. And I keep, I keep, it's funny too.

I was talking to Austin Ormond about it. And it was, I grew up, especially watching the majors. Yep. I it was such it was so ingrained in in if you were a sports fan look Saturday Sunday morning Wimbledon sat these weekends especially this weekend oh yeah was so prominent and I'm like I'm old enough to have watched Arthur Ash Rod Laver Ily Nistazzi um baby Connors and young McEnroe right to watch billy Jean King Margaret court the evolution of the game,

the ice princess, you know, Chrissy coming through, Martina, absolutely changing the game, and you watched it, and then all the pageantry of Wimbledon. Have we lost some of that now?

I don't think so. Not with Wimbledon. Wimbledon's still this timeless event. You know, you still go there and I was there last year, and it's just remarkable. I would say the most, comparable sporting event would be Augusta National for golf. But you go there and all the,

all the, you know, the flowers are perfect. Everything's upkept. There's no weeds. There's no dirt. It's everything's pristine. You know, you go there and nothing's expensive either to. It's amazing. They don't upcharge you kind of like what they do at Augusta. It's so you kind of go there and it gives you this old school feeling and it's just beautiful. You know, you get off the, the tube in London and you kind of walk through Wimbledon the Wimbledon village and it's just you know it's you know it's it for me it's the best sporting event in the world that you know outside if you're not in the tennis world you don't really know about it but it's honestly remarkable and if anyone ever has a chance to go like it's just one of those sporting

events that you really have to go see because it's that special well the community of it the village oh yeah is probably underrated because we always think of center court we think of that pageantry. But the first time you walk through, and there is a, you're right in that it's, it's special, it's unique, because you feel the ghost of that place. 100%. Right? Like, you just, you have to stop. There's several places on the tour. We, you know, did the tour. And you just stop. Sure. And you, you consume. And when they show you the outfits, the previous uniforms worn, and the evolution of tennis rackets, tennis shoes, and then the people. And you're right, the fact that they haven't priced it to the moon.

Yep, everything's reasonable. You know, what's also cool is in Wimbledon Village, you have all the players usually renting out someone's house there. And the way it works is you go, you know, there's Queens a week or a week and a half before Wimbledon starts. So a lot of these guys will rent a house in Wimbledon Village because, Queens isn't too far away. And then they'll just commute and they'll live in a house there in Limelan Village for

a month, which is cool. The players really enjoy it because they're not in a hotel. And that's kind of how the tour works. You're in a hotel every week in a new place. So you get to be in the house and a lot of them travel with their families and stuff. So it's nice for them to kind of feel normal, somewhere, somewhat from, you know, away from your house. But, but yeah, the all whites, the pristine grass, you know, it's just, you go there and it's

just different. I don't know. It's just different. you ever think for the Huskers for a particular matchup, just going all white. We haven't, we haven't all white uniform. Yeah, we can, we can do that for sure. Like a women in tribute and have, have your guys. I mean, the weather's interesting. You could do like the half sweater vest. Yep. No, I don't know. I think college tennis is a little more rambunctious than the Wimbledon

semifinals. Oh, that would be, I could just see Kid Rosewall in his little sweater vest. And it just, it seemed to me like it, it just made it more majestic. Yep. You know, and to go through that, I've asked you that before about the men, but for the women, that Mount Rushmore, go through it again for me. Because this is when it becomes a little bit more, there's a little bit more clarity to it. Sure. So I think I had, I put Strina there. I think I put Navratel over there. what were my other two?

Man, I think maybe I put Billy Jean King. And then I think looking at, I think I looked at the results. I think Margaret Court would have had to been the other, the other one that's one the most grand slams, I believe. So I'm a big, tennis is one of those sports where you know kind of who the best players in these team sports. You know, there's so many different factors. but in tennis it's literally just you playing.

And if Serena wants to win Wimbledon, she has to go out and win Wimbledon, not our coach, not a substitute, not, whether she's feeling good or not that day. Like she has to go and figure it out, you know,

over a course of two weeks. With, you know, a lot of things can happen and go on. So I don't know. I'll probably say those are my top four. I don't know if there's anyone playing on the women's side. Like today,

that's at that level, I think, for the women's side, there's a little more variability than the men's side. I think the guard is starting the switch on the men's side. Jokovic is kind of the last, he's holding on. The last soldier here.

Yeah. But yeah, he's in the semi-finals. And, you know, for me, like Wimbledon and Roland Garros, one other thing I love about both of them as a kid. Like, I didn't like getting up early in the morning. But, you know, you wake up at six in the morning, seven in the morning, you flip on ESPN or one of these channels, and you can just watch tennis.

Like you just sit there and I'll just stare at the screen. And even now, like it's, you wake up, it's fun. You know, not everyone's watching. So ESPN, you get the ESPN coverage. You know, a lot of these other sports get the main TV covers, but who's watching TV at 7 in the morning? So you just put on, they put on Limelden, and it's boom, you get the amazing television first thing in the morning.

It's always interesting that, especially in the majors. And I have a problem because I like the style of play at the Australia, at the Aussie Open. Yeah. But it's just the time is so weird, and you're always playing catch up to what the process is. And then for anybody who hasn't been to the U.S. Open, that is such a unique freak show of human culture. Yes. Right?

Yes. Like, one, the space, but being in New York City, and there's a different level of celebrity and culture. Yep. How would you describe the difference between U.S. Open and Wimbled? they upcharge you with foods it's New York City New York City's not going to play with your wallet man but I would

say it's just it's a different place it's the jungle it's New York City you take you know you take the train you take the 7 from Manhattan straight up and to right up you get off right before Mets Field there in Queens and you hop off the train and you walk in

and it's a zoo there's people everywhere there's people everywhere everything's expensive but it's really unique event I would say you don't get as much up close attention to like some of the bigger players. You do and you don't, but it's a really cool event. Obviously, you know, you're in New York, you get to go for, you go over the weekend. There's a long weekend, I think it's Labor Day weekend. Yeah, yeah.

So you go over Labor Day weekend and you spend a couple days in New York City, you check out the U.S. Open. You get some tickets into Arthrash Stadium, one of the coolest stadiums. It's the largest stadium in tennis. But yeah, it's a really cool event. I actually played the U.S. Open 2014. I played the doubles in the main draw there, which was really cool for me. All my friends and family came out to the match and stuff. We ended up losing.

We got a tough draw. We played the eight seats. They're the eighth best team in the world. So I wasn't too picky, but it was a really cool. cool experience how do you qualify for that how how how what's the process so i lost uh we got the college uh wild card so i me and my teammate at oh house they we lost in the finals of the nc double a tournament uh really tough match seven six six seven seven six and uh the wild card only goes to the winning team but the winning team had one american and one foreigner on it so

i went out on tour right after that and i won like six or seven doubles tournaments in a row really quickly and the USTA called and they said hey like we're going to give you the wild card with the other American that you lost to from Tennessee to play and I was like all right let's go this is cool so we later a few months later I we you know I flew to New York and got to play so that was really cool it it's funny too that the scrutiny the financial scrutiny is a little bit different now the pay the pay days are incredibly different yes And it makes it a little bit easier for you to be a pro now than previous generations. I would say, yeah, but it's still not where it needs to be.

But I'll say this. The coolest part about the whole experience was after we lost, one of the officials said, you know, if you'd like, you can take some of your prize money out from the bank. And I'm like, what do you mean? The bank. There's in the U.S. Open, they have a bank that you can go to and you can take out some of your prize money. So I went out there and I was like, well, my family's in town.

Let's take out some cash. You know, I didn't, you know, at this point, I never had me cash before. So we went out in New York City. We had a steak dinner. Me and my friend, we went out for a little bit. But it was, it was great. So that was one of those like, oh my gosh, like I'll never do this again. So I might as well take cash out from the bank at the U.S. Open.

That is hilarious. Yeah. So you can, I think all the Grand Slams you're able to do something like that. So a percentage of what your show. Well, you can only take out X amount. But I, you know, I think I won eight or. nine grand so I took out like one and a half or two and we just we went up to New York City and had a nice steak dinner and didn't have to worry about anything for a night.

Well, and then you at that point, you don't have a coach or a manager that you're really paying fees to. So that certainly helps because that's usually a part of it, the expense, all the expenses of a pro tennis player. How does that set up by agent, training coach, nutritionist, how's that breakdown? So it's expensive. So if you're going to do the ATP tour the right way, you need help. Like you need to have a coach.

It's almost impossible to make it to the top without having someone, you know, helping you along the way. So, you know, if you're going to pay a coach, it's the going rate on the tours of $1,000 a week. So if that's just for practice, that's just for practicing. So if you're, say, like I lived in Tel Aviv, Israel and I paid my coach $1,000. a week to practice there. And then if I wanted to bring him on the road, it was still $1,000, but then you have to pay for his flights, his food, his hotel,

any expenses that he needs. So depending on where you go, you know, as determines, as you get better and better, the tournaments you go to our further and further away, and you're spending more and more money. So, you know, if you're just getting onto the tour and you have a coach, you're probably spending between 40 and 60 grand a year at the, at the very least, if you're really cutting it tight and then as you get better you know these guys that are playing wimbledon right now are they're spending between 250 and 500 grand a year just on the coach easy

like real easy so that's that's the hidden thing about tennis is it's expensive not just not just for you to play but it's also expensive for you to continue moving up the food chain and that's where a lot of guys get stuck because you don't get the chance to to win a lot of money either. So really, if you're not in the top 100 in the world, you're grinding. Because if you're in a top 100 in the world, you make the main draw of the grand slams. And that's where you get your big checks. Okay. That's where you make. What's the, what's the field of 64 make at one? Well, it's a, it's a, it's a 128 draw. So you get, you get some qualifiers that come in. So the first, if you lose in the first round, I think the first round, uh, prize money is, uh, 80, 80,000 pounds. Just, just.

for showing up and losing. So that's like a little under $100,000 before tax. You get taxed in the country that you play in. So whatever the taxes, the taxes aren't great in England. So you get dinged a little bit more. But so whatever that is. So if you play all four of the grand slams,

you're making, you know, 200 grand a year. And if you're, that's if you're ranked in the top 100. That's guaranteeing you entrance into the main draw. So if you're 110 and, the world, you don't get granted that main access and you don't make that 200, you're not guaranteed to make that 200 grand. So that's the fine line with tennis and that's probably the biggest issue with tennis is that you, like for me, I was 300 in the world and I was 25 grand in debt. You know, when I stopped, I got to the university in Kentucky and I was teaching lessons and

sending money back over to my coach overseas paying him off because that's what I had to do. But so that's the hard. You'd think like someone 300 in the world in the world and profession would be, you know, sitting pretty. But in tennis, that's not how it works right now. Is that partly why, especially on the women's side, that it's dad coaching, right, that it actually helps the process. It helps you financially, helps you with control. Yeah.

So my dad was up. My dad was my coach and my sister's coach and my brother's coach growing up. He was a tennis pro. So that helped a ton. All the, you know, tennis, you got to have private lessons. You got to have the rackets and strings. You know, there's a lot of, you know, shoes. You go through shoes like crazy.

All the tennis parents out there are laughing for sure right now. But it's expensive. So if you, if there's any way you can save money with tennis, it's a big, it's a big deal. So it was, we were super lucky to have our dad as a coach and we didn't have to pay for clinics or lessons or, you know, we also got some free, free rackets and stuff because he, you know, his position at the club. And so there was some, you know, it was better off for us than it is for, for, for, for, for, for, for, most but yeah i mean it's tough and this is tough we're going to go to break uh but coach i want to ask how that translates and transfers to the huskers there right because odidas is a big partner but that doesn't necessarily fit all of the tennis needs and maybe there's a way like i don't know

if if there's a shoe deal if you get shoe deals like you do in basketball i don't know if you get uh tennis rackets uh like you do in in some of the other sports for equipment we talk to the bowlers and they talk about all the different things that they walk up and there's Harrison what was the number how many how many bowling balls do they take oh my lord I mean they're bringing I want to say like a set of clubs it's like eight bowling balls are taken up on the planes I mean you got your driver putter like that's the way that think about it almost yeah insane so we're asked coach uh when they when they hit when they hit the tour how many rackets are you taken what are you taking with you and it's it's become a thing now on social media like what's in the back so we'll ask coach Peter co. about what's in his bag and what's in his players bags. Here, on one-on-one. We'll be right back. You're listening to One-on-One with DP, sponsored by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul, on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com.

Welcome back one-on-one with Huskers tennis head coach, Peter Cobout. And it is fascinating, right? That athletes, we do have a different sort of. mentality about the things that we wear, the things that we carry. Like, do you have those things that, you know what, I have to have in my back? Yeah. What's in coach's back? What do you, as a player, what did you carry with you?

So when you went to, when you went to the U.S. Open, what did you have in your back? You got everything in your bag, man. You got a spare change, you got a couple spare changes of clothes because, you know, Tennessee play outside. It's hot, especially in U.S. Open time. and hot and humid you go through a shirt after you know one set of the match easy so you got a couple shirts you got a couple pairs of spares changes of clothes some socks you might have an extra pair of shoes if you sweat a lot on your feet and then you got oh you know all your tennis equipment you know most guys

it's very rare to have less than four rackets and usually they have three or three of them or four of them strung for each for each match so you know because you're going out there playing for, you know, a lot of these guys are going out there playing for big money. They're like, well, I'm not going to skimp on, you know, stringing a racket. So a lot of the guys playing right now, they'll string, you know, 12 rackets. Some of these guys have eight to 12 rackets. They go out for Wimbledon, these matches, and they'll just change whenever it gets a little bit loose. Then the ball that every time they hit the ball, it feels exactly the same.

But you have string in there. You have grips in there. Then you got, you know, your electrolytes and your, in your, you know, Gatorade, like, the power bars and stuff that you eat. And the health side of things in tennis, I think, was more prominent in sports before it wasn't a lot of other sports, making sure you get, you know, Djokovic and some of these guys really redefined what it means to be an athlete. And a lot of it came from the nutritional side of things.

I think tennis was one of the sports that really got that moving in all of sports. I think just, you know, Djokovic really made a big deal of it. and now everyone eats super clean in the tennis world. You're really, people really look at you strange if you're going down and eating a hamburger every night. But, but, uh,

I mean, what else is in the bag? Uh, I would say that's pretty close to everything. But, you know, uh, everyone's a little bit different.

But for me, you got to have, I wouldn't go on the court without having two or three rackets freshly strung, some grips, you know, and, uh,

um, some of the nutritional stuff. Do you string them yourself? No. I wouldn't string up myself. So you have to have somebody. Yeah, you go there and you have to, you know, you go, it's like 20, 25 bucks a racket. So you get two or three done a match.

And if you're going to go win a tournament, you got to win five matches. So you do the math real quick. You know, just that bill alone, you're spending a couple hundred bucks easy. Well, what's, so what about your players? Well, the, yeah, same. When we travel, when we travel, we like to string our rackets here for, we play Friday Sunday. We like to string the rackets here for the first match because that's less of a, cost, you know, $10 or whatever.

But when we're, when we're there, we're, you know, we're there to win. So we're going to string our rackets. Is there somebody on staff who? Nope. So we don't travel with this because a stringing machine are these big clunky things. Yeah. So that's real tough to travel with. But so a lot of times the opponent's team's manager or the club that will play out,

we'll string them for us and it's 20, 25 bucks a pop. That's risky. That's risky though. Yeah, there's a little bit of a, you know, Most of the time you don't have to worry about anything, but there's every now and then where you're like, hey, you know,

like, you guys are going to string a rackets or what's going on here? Rivalry weekend. Yeah, that's just college sports. And, you know, ideally you'd bring your someone,

someone that would string rackets. But at the end of the day, it's me, our assistant and our graduate assistant, and, you know, we're trying to do other things than stay up all night and string rackets.

Save a little bit of money. So we're, you know, it's, if we can give them to someone, else's string, that's what we're going to do so we can get ready to play the match the next day. What's your travel roster look like? What does it look like when the husters go on the road? Not all, sometimes you're on a bus, right? Sometimes, or do you fly everywhere that you go?

We fly the majority of the places that we go just because there's not a lot of other men's tennis teams in our, in our vicinity, you know, within six hours. That's kind of the range of when that's probably as far as we'll drive. And we just hop in some minivans. don't do the bus. We'll just, we'll just run a few minivans, the man bands. You are much cooler than some. Yes. No, my coach. Oh, no. Me and my assistant, we'll just jump in a van and we'll load the guys in the back and we'll drive. So anything within six hours, you can make it, you can make it almost to University of Wisconsin and Illinois. You can, we'll drive down to Tulsa and

Oklahoma City. And you play Oklahoma State and some of those teams on there. But other than that, we're flying. We're flying. So how many trips do you get on the big bird the big husker bird was that the the private yeah but we a couple years ago we got one to ohio state pen state which was helpful because that's a that's a beast of a trip you got to fly in the pittsburgh or or a billy and drive that's not easy but uh they don't reserve that you know they don't reserve that one for the tennis team too often well that's why i ask is uh mr dan which is okay i'm all right i'm not sitting here complaining at all but i get it but it will Get to. Like, they can get to it. Like,

I mean, I understand. Well, we are traveling a lot more and, and there's the, with the way everything's changing with the conferences and the alignments and stuff, travel is just tough. So,

I mean, one of the things that Troy's asked us to do is to try and play more regionally if we can. But there's just not a lot of teams, you know, Iowa State, Iowa don't have a team. Minnesota doesn't have a team. You go to Kansas doesn't have a team.

Kansas State doesn't have a team. those are a lot of and playing down doesn't really help you well it it's kind of like football where you be throwing a few of those games at the beginning of the year to you know just to get out some of the nerves and to you know figure out kind of what your guys look like and stuff you play a few doubleheaders and you'll play some double headers but you at the end of day you got to get above that 500 rule you that 500 line in order to make the tournament so sometimes coaches will you know if you're ranked high enough but you're under 500 you might throw in a few of these extra matches at the end of the year just to get a few wins so you can make the tournament.

But yeah, there's a lot that goes into the scheduling nowadays. So there's more than, and then ultimately you got to get the other coach to agree. And then you got to find the weekend to play on. And then you got to make sure it fits in the budget. And then, you know, there's always someone on the team that complains that we're up too early for a flight or something. So you're like, hey, man, we're doing our best here. We do what we got to do. What's you're thinking?

What's the belief on playing local, smaller universities and programs. I think it's great. I think, you know, we're lucky that we have. There's two programs up in Omaha. The University of Omaha has a team, and so does Creighton. So we try and play those guys every year. I'd like it if we had like a Nebraska tennis day where everyone came down to Lincoln.

I know Carney has a team, a women's team. They just brought back their men's program. So trying to get the lopers maybe to come into Lincoln. I don't know if we would play them, but to have like a big Nebraska tennis day. that's kind of one of my goals in trying to grow tennis here is to get people from Omaha down here

to get people out from Carney and over here to Lincoln and kind of just grow it slowly. So we're lucky that there's two programs up there that are good that want to play us. If we're losing to one of those teams year after year,

then you might not be talking to me too much longer. but we're usually favored at it against both of them but they're they're great tests and it's we try and play them at the beginning of the year and they kind of get us ready for what's coming and and both of their head coaches are young and hungry and they want to win so I think it's great great for tennis here in the state so what what's in your players bag so you know with all the goodies and let's say that it's a one-off trip so you're going to Wisconsin yeah what are your players carrying with them a lot of the same things a lot of the same things a lot of the same

things we usually if it's a longer trip we'll have them bring two pairs of shoes because they just go the guys just go through shoes like you won't believe um and then we you know the coaches we have like a travel bag where we put all the string and the grips and the snacks and stuff like that the electro lights all the the the stuff that so they don't have to worry too much about that so they just bring their you know their match clothes their practice gear um and then whatever makes them you know comfortable when they when they travel some of them have like little notes that they have in their bag that they have that they can read on the changeover some of them uh you know they have like a little device for someone's a bugging

them they'll bring like a stem device yeah there's there's always that are the surfaces pretty consistent no that that's the hardest part that's what people don't quite understand is like if the day before a football game you know games on saturday practice on friday you're really not doing anything just a walk through you go through the last minute films but on what you're actually doing physically is very limited. But in tennis, you know, if you're, we're an indoor team and our courts are, say we're courts are medium to medium fast. And then we go down south and we play at Arkansas and the weather's nice.

We got to play outside. And then, you know, those, those courts are slow and bouncy. So you have one day basically to prepare for those conditions, which is hard. So because you ultimately don't want to practice too long. But you also want to go places where you're familiar. You know what kind of court. You know. So this is also what the scheduling part, too, is you have to be smart with how you schedule.

You don't want to go, you know, you don't want to go down in February to Florida and play outside in Florida. Because that's just, you're, you know, it's tough for anyone to go down there and do that. That time you haven't played outdoor tennis and I don't know how many months. So there's a lot of factors that go into it. But, but yeah, I mean, that's why for me, it's all. coaching is all about toughness and resiliency and doing the basic things really, really well because you're not going to go and travel to USC and UCLA and you're not going to, you're not going to go out there and play your best because you just, they've practiced on those courts and those conditions,

thousands of hours and we've got two and a half maybe before we play them. And they have the advantage. I mean, whether the climate matters. Yeah, for sure. But I mean, it also matters when they come here too. So it goes both ways. You know, we beat USC at home. year and then we were you know five minutes away from beating UCLA at home this year's that was the closest match we played out of all of them I think and we played a lot of close ones but you know we were we were right there in that you know both of those teams made the sweet 16 or far I think UCLA made it one round farther but but yeah

it's just it's just hard it's just hard so but yeah and then you're trying to travel and find flights that are affordable and hotels where you know that are good decent breakfasts and stuff. There's a lot that goes into it and that stuff that we try and take care of early and make sure that our guys are set up. But things happen and that's just kind of how sports go. But yeah, I mean, in the travel side of it, sometimes it depends on where you're going. The per diems that have to be paid are different per state. In the CBA, we had to deal with that. Our per diems that we gave going to My Not North Dakota were different than the ones when we were going to Vegas, when we're going to Southern California.

So you had to budget that in, the hotel, they give you some number of what you had to spend on hotels, which if you've ever gone to Las Vegas or Los Angeles, you know, that it costs a lot more than it does in Lincoln, Nebraska. Sure. But the administration knows this. Like, Troy's done it, you know, we had our budgetary meetings and he's kept us right where we need to be budget-wise. you know they haven't i don't think they made any cuts from a budget standpoint for any of the programs which is which is which is say that again for folks i don't think i don't know i can't say for sure but i i don't think he made any budgetary cuts for any of the sports at nebraska which is

truly phenomenal in a time like this like and i think these are the little small things that you know everyone looks and says this or that but like those are massive things for for a coach and for a program just to know that it's not all just a about football or volleyball here. Like, Troy wants to win in every sport. And he's made that clear to me and all the other head coaches. And he's backing it up with his actions. So he's giving us all the resources.

He's asking us to be as diligent with them as we can. And that's something that we're no problem. We have no problem doing. And our guys are extremely grateful. But, but yeah, in a time like this where you're seeing a lot of universities and conferences, Crumbo, I think, Tennis that now has the most cut programs since everything's changed. I think there's 17 tennis programs, men's and women's that have been cut since the

revenue share thing all started, which is the most. And out of every sport, I think the next highest is gymnastics at four. So for Troy to double down on the men's and women's program from a financial standpoint, and I think every other program at the University of Nebraska, I think speaks volumes to where the university is and where we're trying to go. There's a lot to it. And again, you're right. The social media communication with athletic directors and the departments

and the athletes of these cuts, it's been pretty scary in some places. The fact that it isn't happening here, shout out to Troy Danin for pulling that. You mentioned a couple things. We're going to go to break. But you mentioned a thing about nutrition, and you have international players. but you also have a new facility over here that feeds your athletes at maybe the highest level in the Big Ten. I want to talk about that. How do you handle that?

Because dietary needs, nutrition of international players a little different. They are used to different things. And it's pretty interesting sometimes to see how it plays out. And I'll ask you what the typical diet is for a Husker athlete, Husker tennis player. What are they consuming? You know, they're burning calories like that. And nobody's short of swimming. and divers. So we'll talk about that with

head coach Peter Cobalt when we come back. You're listening to one-on-one with DP, sponsored by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul, on 93-7 the ticket and the ticket FM.com. Welcome back, final segment with head coach Peter Cobalt, Huskers, tennis.

And it's always informative and enlightening when you stop in. And my plan was just to ask you about sports in general. We weren't going to go deep in tennis, but I always say there's no chance I can ask you everything I want to ask you, which is a sign you should be on here more. I'm here, baby. You know, especially while we can.

And I'm going to get you on for football. Like I need the weekly co-belt report on football. That'd be a lot of fun. I love the crossovers from different sports and coaches. Right. Well, I'll give you a little sneak peek. When I was at Ohio State, my senior year, I lived with the two captains of the Ohio State football team, the year that they won the national title under Urban Meyer.

I got who were those cats who were they Jeff Heyerman he played five years with the Denver Broncos and then Evan Spencer Tim Spencer's son yeah Spencer's a bad assort a family of dudes man Evan was the wide receiver that threw that touchdown pass to Mike Michael Thomas against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and then he was the one that blocked made those blocks for Zeke Zika leight to run urban was my guy

urban's crazy urban was I'm glad you said it. I'm glad you. I tried to explain to people. So when I was in Utah, Urban came in. He took over the program. And his first, and literally in the first group of media, he identified, look, I need to find a dude in the media that's going to be my guy. And so he asked me to host his weekly show. And so we would have, we had a little cafe right off of campus. And me and Urban would go and Ron Boone. And we would sit and talk football every, every, every, um, Friday morning. And it was amazing. But I saw his work. And that's when you know, oh, okay, there's a reason why he's Urban Meyer. Right.

Like this is not just luck. No, this dude's a machine. He thinks differently. He works differently. And yeah, it was a process. As a matter of fact, I said, he recruited a couple of my guys. So I left from Virginia coaching to go to Utah.

And two of my players, AJ Alexander, ended up playing tight in for urban in Ohio State. Matter of fact, he might have been there right about when you were there as well. AJ Alexander, yeah, he blew out of knee. He started as a freshman and sophomore and blew out his knee and that was the end of his career. It's tough. It's tough.

Nutrition for tennis players, specifically Husker College tennis players. What is your, what's the common thing that you say to your players about eating and refilling, fueling, not eat this, not that. You got the training table as well. What's the nutrition plan for Husker tennis? The only rule I give the guys is 24 hours before the match. There's no dairy. Not allowed to have any dairy.

I think the way the dairy is made here in the States isn't great. And it takes too long for your body to digest it correctly. So 24 hours before the match. Cheese included. No cheese, no sour cream. no yogurt, none of that. We can figure out other ways for them to get their protein. You are punching right.

You were punching right in the gut, man. Yeah, I know. There's some of the, like our Spanish wine, our Spanish wine, the team loves cheese. Same with the Argentinian boy. They love it. And every time they're like, please, I hopefully forgets this. I'm like, nope, 24 hours, no cheese boys.

And like, oh, my gosh, are you serious? But yeah, I'm serious. So I think those little things make a big difference did for me. when I played but but I mean we're so lucky to have the training table that's good is the training that's stuff that the guys don't have to pay for either you know and that's a huge recruiting tool Monday through Friday they don't you eat as much as you want for free and then you get the guys get money on the weekends I think is 80 or 90 bucks to go shopping yeah Oscar bucks for the win yeah so I mean we recruit me like look here you're not going to spend a dollar on food while

you're here no matter what no matter what size scholarship you're on and you're eating at the nicest, you know, training, training hall in the United States. It's the best that anyone can offer. And it goes a long way because tennis has a unique relationship with nutrition, just because of, you know, it's so public in the tennis side, Djokovic. And like I was saying, there's so many athletes now that are so meticulous about their nutrition. So, you know, these athletes in tennis that are 12, 13, 14 years old,

where maybe in other sports it's just like, let's just eat. tennis it's like no like what are we eating you know do we have any allergies you know and then they come to the states and all the food all the seed oils and stuff so the training table you can basically order what you want it's clean it's clean there's no the avocado oil they use olive oil they don't use any of the seed oils

and stuff that make you feel like crap after you eat it so a lot of times it's harder when we leave when we leave the facility we have to go eat on the road you're looking for places that are somewhat healthy and quick and affordable so that's that's the tricky part but but yeah so we're we're one of the only schools if not the only school that can sit down to be like look what here's whatever you want to eat whatever your diet fits everything you're eating is clean too it's it's whole foods it's you know wild caught fish it's you know steak from Nebraska you know come on now it's it's you know and the coaches

somehow get in on it too we get 25 meals a semester which is unbelievable too so That's it? You only get 25? Hey, I'm not complaining. Man. I'm not complaining. Well, we'll work on that. No, I mean, it's good.

No, Tempty Taney's, we're, look, we're, we're setting that up, man. Look, yeah. Look, the wrestlers are figuring it out. The swimmers and divers are figured it out. Look, we can get the tennis team fed. We can get the tennis coaches, man. No, it's the players get everything. Yeah, I get everything.

Coach, we will do it again as soon as you're available. Literally, all you do to say, I'm open. Let's do it. Oh, coach, thank you very much for what you do. Appreciate you. the time i promise you uh you're you're building this this tennis thing here and it's impressive to watch and we're going to be rooting for you like crazy thanks d p more work to do baby hey man i'm looking forward to that next announcement uh fingers crossed there we go there we go don't go anywhere

ticket week nights harrison arins he's got the crew he's got a full crew back there uh to take you through till 10 o'clock level o'clock whenever harrison gets bored and decides to go home uh but he will take you through ticket week nights uh remember lincoln take care hear you. We love y'all and we want you to remember that. See you tomorrow.