Kelsey Robinson Cook (center) of the United States celebrates with teammates during a match against at the Paris Olympics last Sunday in Paris, France. CHICAGO — A college volleyball coach might only get one chance to watch a former player compete in the Olympics. Just 12 players make the team, and it's only once every four years.
With that in mind this summer, Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield and Illinois coach Chris Tamas each traveled to Paris to attend a few matches of the Olympic women’s volleyball tournament. Wisconsin has setter Lauren Carlini and Dana Rettke on the U.S.
team. Illinois has Jordyn Poulter. She’s the setter who helped lead Illinois to the NCAA Final Four in 2018 when the Illini played Nebraska in the national semifinals just two years after Tamas was an assistant coach at Nebraska.
Tamas went straight from Paris to Chicago without returning home to attend Big Ten media days on Monday. He got in on Sunday night and then had several rounds of interviews on Monday. “Lots of coffee, and fine,” said Tamas of how he was feeling.
In addition to Poulter, Tamas coached U.S. libero Justine Wong-Orantes when she was at Nebraska.
And Tamas’ wife, Jen, played with the national team when Jordan Larson was beginning her national team career. “You've got so many players that are from the Big Ten that are there competing,” Tamas said. “It's no surprise to us that are in this conference because we're used to those environments, and in those arenas, it was.