Bartlett native Robinson Cook is the MVP of League One Volleyball in year one
Her daughter has had a crazy year, Sue Robinson said, speaking from her home in Georgia.
An indication that three-time Olympic volleyball player Kelsey Robinson Cook has ridden a whirlwind is the 9:46 p.m. time stamp on an email to the Daily Herald.
By itself, not crazy. But the St. Francis High School graduate and Bartlett native was sending it 12 hours ahead of Central Time.
She preferred email to phone. Things may be crazy, but she’s not nuts.
“Currently, I am finishing a four-week playoff in Indonesia and will play an all-star game in Seoul, South Korea, after. Then I will travel and enjoy my first-ever offseason,” Cook wrote in her April 30 email.
On April 11, Cook — married to Brian Cook, associate head women’s volleyball coach at St. Mary’s College of California — finished play with Atlanta in the inaugural season of League One Volleyball, or LOVB. On April 13 she went overseas.
Kelsey Cook is one of 11 Founding Athletes whose input and commitment helped shape LOVB.
Fans voted the outside hitter as a first-team “Icon,” and on April 9 she was named LOVB most valuable player.
“It is a nice honor, but I think I am most excited about our team’s improvement and success this season even if it didn’t finish the way we wanted,” said Cook, first in the league in passing efficiency, second in digs and aces. Atlanta led the league at 13-3 but lost in the semifinals.
“I think there were a lot of unknowns and to start something from nothing comes with a lot of extra weight than just playing. I am proud to be in it with so many incredible women,” she said.
West Aurora graduate Lauren Carlini, a fellow Olympian and founding athlete with the LOVB team in Madison, Wisconsin, also was an Icon and named setter of the year.
Sue Robinson said Kelsey will work some Michigan State University summer volleyball camps with Spartans head coach Kristen Kelsay, another St. Francis graduate. Cook also has her own training business, The Passing Lab, which will hold clinics in California, Michigan and Nebraska.
She eventually will return to the Atlanta franchise for Year 2 of LOVB.
“Like any start-up there will always be things to improve and change. However, it is exciting to see where LOVB is in its inaugural season. I am looking forward to its growth and excited to see where it will be in the next 5-10 years,” Cook said.
Change in the water
It’s a momentous time in Naperville high school pools. Both Naperville Central boys water polo coach Bill Salentine and Naperville North girls water polo and swimming coach Andy McWhirter are retiring as head coaches.
Both are inductees into the Illinois Water Polo Hall of Fame. They brought into Wednesday a combined 1,125 victories, five state titles and 22 sectional titles since water polo earned an Illinois High School Association state series in 2002.
“We’ve known each other for a very long time,” said McWhirter, once an assistant Naperville Central swim coach who also started the Naperville Summer Suburban Water Polo League with former Redhawks girls coach Jeff Plackett, now athletic director.
A science teacher at Naperville North from 1988-2023 who also earned a second-place boys swimming trophy for the Huskies in 2012, McWhirter will continue as an assistant water polo coach.
In 2015 he won Illinois Water Polo’s Phil Stelnicki Award for contributions to the sport, getting youth involved — like his own son, Mike, the Waubonsie Valley boys coach.
Salentine, the active Illinois boys water polo wins leader and fourth all-time with 582, also produced his share of players and coaches, such as York girls coach Mark Giuliani.
“I don’t know whether I had anything to do with it or not, but the fact that 10 years later or more they’re still giving back to the water polo world, that makes an old guy feel good,” said Salentine, who started Redhawks water polo in 1993.
Of course he had something to do with it. “Sal” otherwise wouldn’t have been a National Federation of State High School Associations national coach of the year finalist, as in 2018.
These coaches are not done yet. Salentine’s Naperville Central’s boys are ranked sixth by illpolo.com, McWhirter’s Naperville North girls ranked second. They’ve got goals.
“In a perfect world,” Salentine said, “a state title.”
doberhelman@dailyherald.com