Rose Shires thanks, in part, her father for what has become her long association with Omaha Athletics.

"He was back visiting my grandparents and was reading the newspaper one day and he saw the coach then, Janice Kruger, announced that she would be leaving UNO," said Shires, whose father is an Omaha University alum. "My father called Connie Claussen and said my daughter would be perfect for that job."

Shires, who was a standout player at UTEP, was hired as an assistant coach for two years for the Mavericks before being elevated to head coach in 1990.

It was a position Shires held for the next 29 seasons as she became the program's all-time winningest coach with 510 wins. For her accomplishments, she will be one of five individuals inducted into the Omaha Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The other inductees are Diane Ninemire (softball), Taiwo Onatolu (football), Sami Spenner Richardson (track and field) and Dhafir (Roy) Washington (wrestling).

"I'm in the company with some pretty amazing people who have done a lot for Omaha University, UNO and the University of Nebraska at Omaha."

When asked if she thought back in the 1980s that she would be Omaha's coach for three decades, Shires said, "Absolutely not.

"I started as an assistant coach as a way to get my feet wet in the college coaching world," she added. "Things just fell into place, it just clicked. The longer I was here, the more I knew this is where I was supposed to be. We had just such great support, from the chancellor to the athletic directors and the community."

Among the early memorable seasons for Shires' teams was 1996 when the Mavericks went 35-2 and won the NCAA Division II national championship.

"Winning the national championship is a huge highlight, but to me what I always remember is the building of the program," she said. "At the time, we were recruiting kids to no dorms on campus. That was a hard sell. We had to figure out what would sell our program, what would enhance our program and what would sell the university."

Shires later guided the Mavericks through their transition to Division I athletics. She said that transition was a challenge, adding that it took special athletes to come to Omaha knowing they wouldn't immediately be eligible to compete for conference championships.

Shires went on to be named Summit League coach of the year in 2015. By Shires' final season in 2018, Omaha went 17-12 and was second in the Summit.

Shires still follows Omaha volleyball from her home in Arizona.

"I'm a big fan of what Matt Buttermore does, in taking what we started and taking it to the next level," Shires said. Buttermore's squad reached the program's first NCAA Division I tournament in 2023.

And Shires is glad to see the popularity of the sport in general continues to grow. She was at Memorial Stadium two years ago when Omaha and Nebraska played a match in front of a record-setting crowd of 92,003.

"If you asked me if that number of people would watch a women's sporting event, I wouldn't have believed it. I was in awe," Shires said. "People in Nebraska have always loved volleyball."

The other individuals being inducted Saturday are:

Diane Ninemire, who helped the Mavericks to three Women's College World Series appearances. She went on to become a hall of fame coach, leading the California Golden Bears to 12 WCWS appearances and national title in 2002.
 
Taiwo Onatolu, who was a three-time All-American linebacker, including a first-teamer in 2004 when he also was the North Central Conference most valuable player. He had 371 career tackles, second-most in program history. He's currently an assistant coach at Kansas.

Sami Spenner Richardson, who owned eight track and field program records by the time her collegiate career ended in 2014 and her name still dots the program's record charts. She was an All-American in the heptathlon in 2011 and the 2014 USTFCCCA regional athlete of the year for both indoors and outdoors.
 
Dhafir (Roy) Washington, who was a three-time national wrestling champion in 1968, 1969 and 1970, competing at 145 and 150 pounds. He helped Omaha win the 1970 NAIA national championship. He finished his career with an 82-6-1 record.