John Cook met Nicole Drewnick when she was a kid, and years later she came to

“I was really little, but if I look back I can see pictures of (her family meeting with Cook), and I’m over there just reading my book,” Nicole Drewnick said. “Coach (Cook) will always say, ‘When you were younger you always had your head in a book, and it’s cool to see that still today.’’’

One of the people who helped get the Drewnick family and Cook connected was Nebraska men’s basketball coach Doc Sadler. Sadler was an assistant coach at Lamar University when Eduardo played at the school.

So when Cook was in Texas on recruiting trips he would meet with the Drewnick family.

“I met with them at a Starbucks down in Dallas and helped them with how to start a club program,” Cook said. “So I was talking them through how it all worked and the system. And Nicole I remember was this little kid. She was just sitting over there reading her book at this Starbucks wrapped in a blanket. We met for like three hours and she just sat there reading a book and chilling. And here we go 12 years later she’s at Nebraska.”

Cilene played professional volleyball and for the Brazilian national team for many years. She made the Olympic team in 1988 and 1992, but was injured just before the 1988 Games and wasn’t able to play.

After she retired from playing, the family wanted to stay in the United States. Nicole was born in 2001, and several years later, Cilene started a club volleyball program.