OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) β The Omaha Supernovas made a coaching change ahead of their third season, bringing in Luka Slabe, who has international playing and coaching experience. This preseason, he's hoping the focus on the basics will lead the Novas back to championship weekend.
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Before accepting the Supernovas head coach position, Luka Slabe knew how much the sport of volleyball means to the state of Nebraska.
"Just in general what Nebraska gives you in terms of experience, as a coach, as a player, knowing that volleyball is stacked way up there among all the sports," Slabe said. "So why not experience that if you have the opportunity?"
He comes to a team that's been at championship weekend for two straight seasons. This year, things are different with 13 new faces on the preseason roster and everyone adapting to his coaching style.
"It's on us coaches to make sure we don't over-coach," Slabe said. "That's so easy to do, to overwhelm them because if we coach everything we coach nothing."
And that means keeping things simple.
"Every single drill we're really breaking things down and going back to the basics, and just working on the connections with all our hitters, what tempo, what route, all of that," setter Sydney Hilley, who is back with the Supernovas after a season playing in Indianapolis, said. "So I'm just really excited to see where we're at for our first match in January."
Slabe is all about unity. So much so, he's doing pushups and situps with the players during practices.
"If we lose, we lose together," Slabe said. "If we win, we win together. I want to also make sure our women, our players see that. That it's not like the staff is separating themselves from us. No. We lose, we do pushups and situps. Flights are cancelled, it's cancelled for all."
He hopes that togetherness, plus discipline, will lead to success on the court.
"Be very, very patient when we need to be patient, but when we don't have to be patient, go get it," Slabe said.
The Novas open their season Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.
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