Cook “walking a path you were meant to” as he leaves Washington for Minnesota

OMAHA, Nebraska — Keegan Cook left his home in Seattle at about noon Monday. 

By 10 the next morning, he was here in Omaha. 

In between? Enough time to officially become the Minnesota volleyball coach, get some warm-weather gear with the “M” logo, meet his new team, and get a little bit of sleep.

Very little.

Finally, once here he got himself some breakfast, his first meal since leaving home, and then headed to an AVCA board meeting. Cook is also the president of the coaches association.

“There are a lot of mixed emotions,” said Cook, for the past eight years the highly successful head coach at Washington. “Heavy hearted, but also feeling like you’re walking a path you were meant to. That’s the best way to describe it. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but the moment I got to bring my family into that space and introduce them and meet the players, that was special.”

Cook, 37, replaces Hugh McCutcheon, who announced that during the season that the 2022 campaign would be his last. The former USA men’s and women’s Olympic coach, who took over at Minnesota 11 years ago, is becoming is becoming the school’s “Assistant Athletics Director /Sport Development Coach,” a new position. 

Minnesota finished 22-9 this season, 15-5 in the Big Ten. The Gophers’ season ended with a loss to Ohio State in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Washington, which made the spring 2021 national semifinals, lost in the third round in the fall of 2021. This season, the Huskies, decimated by injuries, finished 20-11, 12-8 in the Pac-12, and lost to TCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Cook was offered the Minnesota job this past Sunday night. 

“Everything that Minnesota is, who’s there, the history of the coaches who have been there, just called out to me,” Cook said. “And they’re in a position of a space that I’ve been before. I’ve been through a transition like this and I felt qualified to make that move.”

Cook, who is from Pleasanton, California, graduated from St. Mary’s and coached club for NorCal. His college career started at his alma mater, first as a volunteer, then as a full-time assistant. 

He was hired by Jim McLaughlin at Washington and when McLaughlin left for Notre Dame two years later, Cook was promoted. He won four Pac-12 titles and made the NCAA Tournament round of eight four times. 

In Seattle, it rains and can be chilly,…