Volleyball Renaissance

KIRSTEN BERNTHAL BOOTH’S BLUEJAYS ARE CREATING THEIR OWN MASTERPIECE

When the letter “s” is affixed to the word “decade” in one’s work bio, it may be hard for some to keep things fresh to stay hungry. Not so for Creighton University’s women’s volleyball coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth, owner of multiple records, and now, multiple decades at the helm of the increasingly potent Bluej ays program.

“If I had to say 20 years ago, ‘Are you pleased with where you’ve been, and where you’ve taken the program?’ to myself now, I’d be pretty stoked,” Bernthal Booth said, now in her 20th year as a Creighton head coach. “I want to go further. I love the student athletes. I just want to impact lives.”

Her rise to become three-time National Coach of the Year and an in-state powerhouse wasn’t preordained. In fact, she almost found herself doing an entirely different kind of volley.

Growing up, in Lincoln, Nebraska, it certainly seemed she was on nearly every court but the one she has come to dominate from the Omah a sidelines.

“I was a swimmer, did tennis, and basketball. I was kind of in everything,” she said, laughing at the glaring omission from her youth sports resume. “In 7th grade, one of my friends gave me a flier for the Lincoln Juniors, the top club in Lincoln at that time. And I’ll never forget, she said to me, ‘I don’t want to [play for them], but you might.’”