Nebraska Men's Tennis coach Peter Kobelt in studio: March 31st, 2026, 11:00am

Tuesday.

Glory.

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11-4 in the city that is, Lincoln.

51 degrees on the way to mid-six.

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Before we get into today's.

Conversation first.

The weather is nice today.

Find your way over to tipsy teams.

Get out on the patio.

The patio is great weather for it.

The tacos are exceptional.

Of course.

And then they may have an adult beverage or two.

Prepare for you to serve.

So.

Find your way over to tipsy team is.

Bach kind serve.

How the heck are you?

Hey, can't complain here.

We are another.

Another day at the end of a great great month that we had here.

So looking forward to the next one.

Yeah.

And.

And there's such a positive movement amongst the athletic department.

And in the group tonight.

You know, some people kind of asked the question about what we were.

Highlighting what the focus was with the priority was and I said everything.

Everything.

Because you've got local high school sports that.

Are in full flow.

And you should we should be highlighting those those great young people.

We have some great nonprofit workers things are going on.

We should be talking about that.

Men's tennis top 50 ish.

For the space that we're in women.

They're moving up in the in the top.

I think they had two top 25 wins along the way.

Bowling heads to Pittsburgh.

As a as a as a top seed.

For their national they've got their regionals in Pittsburgh.

Softball, of course, top top five baseball moved into the top 20.

I just through all the things that are in play.

There's so much good going on and we have to remember to shout them out.

We have to remember to say that Nebraska wrestling is number three in the country.

Number three in the country.

Hey, I'm all for basketball.

Men's and women's getting there.

Get your brother well done.

But my goodness gracious.

The athletic department has some things rolling.

And it's good to have that to talk about.

Instead of the opposite.

There is a thing that is near and dear to me.

I've often said it in sports and in life.

Two things have to exist in the same space.

In order for a thing to move forward enough.

Whether it be progress, advancement.

Improvement, betterment.

Those two things and for an athlete and for coach.

Love of self and the game is required.

Love of self.

You have to love yourself enough to drive yourself.

Move yourself.

Be considerate of.

And then you have to love the game in what it does for you and others.

And all of that has to be inclusive.

And then there is the active part.

Where you have to love it enough to put in the work to honor it.

You can't say I love it and then not work it.

You can't say I love it and then not have it mean enough for you.

To go and put in the work where nobody's watching.

For you to do the right thing in those dark corners were not so many eyes are on.

For you to figure out and have positive conversations to yourself.

In those difficult moments.

That's high level coaching.

That's leadership and it's fullest.

And as a coach years ago I came up with this concept and he said well.

What do you want your legacy to be.

As a man as a human and I said well.

We have a carbon footprint.

Everybody thinks everybody knows carbon footprint and it's what you consume.

It's the impact of what you do in your time on earth.

What you consume what you what you produce all of those things.

I said that's wonderful in theory but that's not.

You mean enough it's not human enough.

So I said if we did it right instead of carbon footprint it would be a love print.

That wherever you are in whatever situation you engage whatever intersection you reach at.

If you reach it with love and then you cover it in love you work from love in that space.

A better thing will happen.

It will be left better than you found it.

And I've found it as a coach that if I covered my athletes in love.

In the real kind of authentic coaching love which is tell them what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear.

To be there for them in the toughest moments not just the good moments.

That if I do those things.

I'm making it better than I found I'm leaving it better than I found it.

And that's what a love print should be.

It should be that you as a person when you leave a thing the people will say.

That that dude left it better.

That dude cared about this that dude loved us.

He shared with us. He made it better.

So I.

What we figured was the two things together.

That love by itself you're not busy you're not accomplishing anything.

Being busy is great but if there's no love tattoo you're not accomplishing anything good.

Every great human moment especially in sports.

Especially in sports is when love and action meet.

And the more consistent they meet the more consistency consistently good positive things happen.

And so I created this foundation and I created this movement and I put the logo is a handed in a heart together.

Love and action together is a love print that if you as a parent as a partner in life that if I cover my partner in so much love.

But if I cover my child in love when they leave the house when the other thing shows up and it will.

That it won't stick.

That's how simple this is.

And once every three months or so I give this testimony just because I want to remind myself.

Of why I do this.

Is that I have to love radio after love link and after love the Huskers.

I have to love the people who work for me after love the people who listen enough to be active in it and the constantly say.

The three words that I use the most are love out loud.

That you see something good say something good.

And that's important.

So the logo as a placement.

What I would offer people is when I offer my handshake or fist pump that.

My love print leaves with that person.

And that each show that we do that they take something from it.

And Peter cobalt was a guest as he always is on Tuesdays head coach Husker men's tennis.

He comes in and he just simply leaves listeners smarter, more informed, better informed.

They're entertained more than they were prior to they know more about tennis.

They know more about athletes.

They know more about Husker life than they did before he got here.

I was doing so I wanted to do a thing.

I went back into the lab had some new stuff some new swag me.

So coach.

I want to bring you into the love prints family.

Well.

It was all colors all inclusive.

Bach, Kinser.

I know you have the shirt.

But now you have the skull cap with it.

Thank you. It's a nice meeting.

It listen.

It comes a hard for people.

And you never know what people's hard thing is.

Sure.

I like this because what it says is what I ideally when you see this that people will know that one that love exists in you.

I love is welcome.

Love lives here and it's welcome here.

And anytime you see this I want you know that that somebody thought you were good enough person.

You know what I mean.

It's a bad signal.

It's like where the Husker is.

It makes a statement the branding behind it.

The pride that you can take in wearing Nebraska tennis.

The pride of wearing the Husker colors.

The statement that it makes that.

If people do not know you what they know.

you're good to your core, you think of your brother,

you think of your sister, you're considering others,

all those things, that's the brain.

And I say that because that's what you've done

with this tennis program.

Because as I start to see the grounds wall

of people starting to pay attention, right?

That when you don't get a win, they go,

man, tough battle for coaches week.

But then when you get it done, I have to tell you,

I got five different texts from people

who don't talk tennis.

And it's like, tell Coach Cobalt at a boy.

A thrilling grinding, four, three win over Oregon.

That has to be exceptional, but that's what you're building.

You're leaving this program, this athletic department,

this town better, when it comes to tennis,

you're leaving it better than you found.

You're making it better than you found it.

And you have to say that to people.

So well done, Coach.

Well done for you and your guys.

Well done.

Thanks, DP.

Yeah, I mean, that's always the goal.

To I think tennis is the greatest sport on the planet.

It does so much more than what you see on the surface.

It's the healthiest sport in the world.

It's a lifelong sport.

It's a sport that you can play with your family.

Friends, you just walk down to the park

with a racquet and some balls.

And you know, there's tennis courts all over the world.

Doesn't matter where you travel anywhere in the world.

You'll be able to find a tennis court.

And I think it does a great job

of doing multitude of different things.

And yeah, I mean, here in Lincoln,

there's a community here is, it's a small tennis community,

but it's a very strong one.

And I think part of my job was to reconnect

the tennis community here with the tennis programs at UNL

and then also introduce more people to tennis here.

Because I think one of the things I noticed when I first got here

was that tennis wasn't really a sport

on many people's radars, you know, a lot of, you know,

just going through the high school system too.

Like most of the high schools only have three courts,

which I was kind of surprised by.

And I don't know why that is still,

but in Ohio where I'm from, there's six, eight, 12 courts

at all the high schools and here there's only three.

So I think it's just a dynamic here.

And Nebraska that tennis hasn't been one of those major sports

like it might be in other states and other countries.

And part of my job is to let people know how awesome

and special the sport is not just at the pro level

or the high school level, but especially, you know,

in the college realm.

So it's a challenge.

But on Sunday, we had some rowdy fans come out.

I don't know if that was all you guys,

but we had some fans that they're talking some trash.

I was like, let's go.

Let's go about time.

Let's go. I like it.

So well, I mean, it's the process.

We always say in sports, trust the process.

And growth requires the planning of seeds,

the maneuvering, getting, making the environment friendly

to growth, right?

You can't grow on bad soil and you can't grow if you don't feed it.

Well, you have to feed it and you're feeding it.

You're letting people know that in this athletic department,

and I don't want to bury the lead.

It's the athletic department in its full.

For all the things that it has that people want to question

about it, in one particular pocket and vacuum,

if you look independent of all other things,

if you look at the wrestling program,

softball, baseball, basketball, men's and women's, bowling,

rifle, tracking fields, gymnastic, men's gymnastics,

women's gym, if you look at those spaces,

there's high levels of success.

Very high. Very high levels of success.

So it's not everybody in the house.

It's somebody in the house that's struggling.

But everybody out in the house is prospering.

There's a reason you have a really good perspective

on this athletic department that you often share.

I'll ask you to share it again.

What's going right in hospital athletics?

Well, the men's tennis program still got a lot of work to do.

So that's what keeps me up at night.

There's a lot of, like you said, a lot of the programs

are, I mean, you look at baseball.

One loss or two loss?

Was it one loss still in the game?

Yeah, one loss in the last 18 games.

Softball is unbelievable.

Wrestling's had an amazing year.

Both basketball programs were great.

You know, bowling's always amazing.

Rifles doing great.

I mean, you just, I mean, you lose track of all the success

because everyone's having success.

And you look at yourself, and you're like, I don't know,

49 in a country is going to cut it here.

So, you know, that's what we are.

But compared to where it was.

Yeah, yeah, you know, that's what keeps me up at night.

That's what, you know, that's why I get up

and give my best effort every day.

That's why I try my best to connect with the community every day.

That's why I, you know, push the guys hard,

push my staff hard, push myself hard.

Because I know what the standards are here.

And they haven't been met yet with the tennis program.

And I think we're moving in the right direction.

Like he said, it's a process based thing.

But just because we have a good win on Sunday,

doesn't mean we're going to have another one this Saturday.

So we got to get back to work and, and, you know,

try and go one and oh again this weekend.

So take us through Oregon.

And, and let's start with doubles and how that went.

Because I know that to hear.

Henry and the tennis players talk about the importance

of that doubles point.

Psychologically, it often changes everything.

That doubles point.

How important is the doubles point?

Well, I think for new, for new listeners or for listeners that aren't super

familiar with college tennis, it's that the winning team has to get the four

points four out of seven total points first.

So the doubles point is worth one point.

So after the doubles, it'll either be us up one zero

or the opposing team up one zero.

So just from a terms of math, you know,

if you're playing singles and you got to win three out of the six singles matches

or four out of the six singles matches, that that's a way different feeling

when you go out there as a coach.

Everyone's got to be that much better on their on their court.

And, and it's just hard.

So anytime you can go up one zero and start with a lead and and position

yourself great.

You know, every, I think in every sport every coach wants to get off to a great

start, but in tennis, like it's very much, you know, a problem if you don't.

You know, it actually impacts the rest of the match as opposed to like,

oh, we can maybe come back and win it.

You know, like you can in tennis too.

But when you're at the score is actually, you know,

and affected by the doubles, it's a huge deal.

So the momentum of the doubles is huge.

Sometimes you lose the doubles and but you got the momentum from the doubles point,

which I think is also kind of a hidden, a hidden aspect of it.

I think that's kind of what happened with us a little bit on on Sunday.

We didn't win the doubles point, but I thought we competed really well.

And we were the we were the more aggressive team and the tougher team,

but we just didn't go our way.

So I could, you know, I think the result from Sunday started on Friday night, though.

On Friday night, we lost to a Washington team in a really tough way.

You know, there obviously a great program.

I have a lot of respect for their head coach and everything that he's done there.

I thought that was a game that we were probably favorited and especially at home.

And we were winning some matches and singles.

We were up some up pretty significantly on some courts where,

you know, nine out of 10 times, you think you're going to get those matches.

And they didn't go our way.

And we ended up losing.

And it was really tough.

We came out on Saturday and we worked really, really hard.

We got back to some of our fundamentals.

We had a meeting before the match on Sunday to try and clear the air a little bit.

I think I could have been a better head coach on Friday night as well too, looking in the mirror.

And we went out there.

We lost the doubles point too.

And I could, and I could see in that moment right there because we,

we emphasized that doubles point every day at practice, every match that we play.

And we didn't get it again.

I think we've lost seven out of our last eight.

So it was a moment of, you know, do or die right there.

And our guys strapped in and we just, we ended up getting down three zero.

We lost on courts one and two.

They have two very good players that play one and two for Oregon.

And we had to be perfect.

We had to go four and oh, the last four matches and one by one.

Each guy stepped up and I was really proud of our freshman, Niels.

Friday night, he was winning.

He was one of those guys that was winning that, that winning pretty significantly.

And he ended up losing to Washington.

And the match ended up coming down to him and he lost it after having some match points.

Ironically, the very next match, it came down to him again.

And, you know, as a coach, you're like, well, I really wish we would have got that one

on against Washington.

But at the end of the day, like I don't think Niels would,

what is going to grow as much from, from that situation as the one that he just succeeded in now.

So I think we're going to get a better Niels.

We're going to have a more confident team going down the stretch now because of some of the

tough times, you know, that we've been through.

The Big Ten has been brutal to us so far this year.

You know, we've lost a lot more than anyone in the locker rooms lost before.

And it's hard, man.

When you lose, it's hard.

It's easy to start pointing to fingers.

It's easy to start to start focusing on things that you think you need to change or do better.

And you've got to be really strong in those moments.

And that's where it kind of comes down to me back.

Where I got to be the, I got to be the leader.

And I think on Sunday, I did a bit much better job with that too.

But I think some of our guys and our team really buckle down.

Some of our seniors really stepped up in major ways.

And also a couple of our freshmen too.

So I'm, you know, just really proud of the guys.

It was a great win over a really good Oregon team.

That does a really good job outside in the heat.

Wind and heat.

And yeah, hopefully we can continue to build on this moment.

I'm going forward into a huge weekend next weekend.

Yeah, home match Wisconsin comes to town Saturday.

We'll talk about that on the break.

We do have a text that I wanted to get to.

It actually says this is what keeps me up at night, coach,

is getting more route events to your venue and support your program.

It's pretty exciting.

I would think about, I think about it every day.

How do we get more people here?

Tell me what you need and I'll get it there so you can come out.

They were paying attention.

Let's go.

For them to route that out.

We'll take a break.

We'll come back.

We'll talk about the doubles point.

Because in my mind,

there's some self-scouting that happens in the doubles play.

Like to find out certain players have a certain shot working today,

even in that space and the psychology that goes on.

If you're playing singles,

if you're playing doubles and you're playing singles later,

are you accumulating data that shows up in your singles match?

And what do you do with it?

What's the philosophy behind that Peter Cobalt?

Bach, DP, we'll be right back.