Horinek thrives at Salina Ortho

By Keegan McCullick, Staff Writer

Dr. Jeff Horinek is a key member of a team at Salina Ortho that strives for excellence in orthopedic care, a fitting scenario for a Kansan with a long history of working with a team.

Horinek grew up in Atwood, where he stood out both in academics and athletics, both areas that Atwood High emphasized, according to Horinek.

The three-sport athlete maintained a 3.8 GPA and set school records in both the discus – with a throw of 186-4 – and on the wrestling mat with a record number of takedowns, but football would be his path to a Division I athletic scholarship and the corresponding education.

“I had a wonderful experience growing up at Atwood,” Horinek said. “I think I had a great childhood, great family. The town was really into excelling in academics and athletics. I had a great coaches and mentors with Dan Lankas and John Terry and I had a big brother that excelled and did well in sports as well, and really it was just a great experience and I felt like I just was really blessed to have it and to get to grow up in that environment.”

That big brother is former Colorado State punter Deone Horinek, an All-Conference punter for the Rams in 1998 and 1999, who played a big role in his younger brother Jeff’s decision to join the program after graduating high school in 2004.

“(My decision had) almost everything to do with my brother,” Horinek said. “I think that he went out there and they had a lot of success in the late nineties. I got to meet the coaches and experience the town and the environment, and I think that when I was getting closer to the end of high school, I think when Colorado State offered me, I almost wanted to say ‘Yes!’ immediately, but I ended up waiting a little bit and thinking about it. But I think I ended up committing before the beginning of my senior year.”

After redshirting his freshman season Horinek saw lots of field time over the next four years, playing 11 of 12 games as a redshirt freshman and finishing fifth on the team with 61 tackles, upping his tackle total to 69 as a sophomore, before going on to earn All-Conference honorable mention in his junior and senior season with 182 total tackles in that span.

The Rams made two bowl appearances during his time there, first a Poinsettia Bowl loss during his redshirt freshman season against Navy, and then a New Mexico Bowl win against Washington State in his senior season. Perhaps what is most impressive about Horinek’s college career, though, was how successfully he continued to balance the classroom and the football field. His highlights in that regard include receiving the Rams Head Academic Excellence Awards twice, getting named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in 2007, earning three Academic All-Mountain West nods, and being named the 20072008 Merrill Gheen Male Student-Athlete of the Year at CSU.

“I think it was just setting priorities and making the right priorities important,” Horinek said. “Part of it was I was just being told to do what I’m expected to do. And I really think that I didn’t have any special unique talents, I just did what I was supposed to do. I showed up to class every day, I studied for tests, I did the homework and when you do those things you can go a long way just by doing what you’re responsible to be doing and I think that’s how I got on the field. I showed up to work out, I worked incredibly hard, I did extra stuff too, but, you know, at the end of the day, if you do what is expected of you, you can have a lot of success.”

After wrapping up his college football career, Horinek initially intended to enter into the coaching ranks, like his older brother, who returned home to coach in Atwood, but after working with the Colorado State team that spring he realized that a coaching career was not the right fit.

“The summer after that I got a construction job and I remember at some point I was thinking I was kind of selling myself short and this whole time I’d always been interested in medicine, but I just didn’t have the confidence to do it.”

Lucky for Horinek, his hard work in college paid off in a big way. Due to being a finalist for the Academic Heisman during his playing days, Horinek had scholarship money available that he used to his advantage.

“I think between just getting that increased confidence and just being willing to take a risk along with having a little bit of financial incentive,” Horinek said, “I just decided I was going to return to Kansas and start the long journey.”

Specializing in Orthopedic Surgery, Horinek went on to earn his Doctorate at KU School of Medicine-Salina, and in his third year had a fateful experience that again changed the course of his career path.

“I was planning on returning to Western Kansas and being a primary doctor and delivering babies,” Horinek said. “And Salina medical school was so good, I actually got the chance to deliver a baby, which is pretty unique, and I did it and I knew almost immediately that that was also not going to be my calling.”

After briefly reevaluating, Horinek ended up finding his fit during his next rotation.

“I was with Brad Daily and Herrenbruck and Johnson and Grauerholz, and all these guys, and I fell in love with it almost within the first week,” Horinek said. “It felt like it really fit my skill sets, and it was a way to still be involved with keeping people active and sports and things like that for the whole lifespan. Those guys were really important mentors for me in medical school and also through residency. So it was a natural fit for me to return home or return to Salina to join them.”

Horinek went on to join the Salina Ortho staff in June of 2022 and says it has proved to be an ideal fit.

“Since I’ve been here, I feel it’s just incredible, Horinek said. “The surgeons that I work with are amazing partners, and then really the staff, the administration at Salina Ortho, I just feel like I’m almost spoiled getting to go to work every day. I get to really focus on my job and taking care of patients, and they really facilitate every step of that, and I can’t be happier with where everything’s going so far.”

Keegan McCullick is in his third year as the staff writer for Kansas Pregame and completed all of the athlete features in this year’s Spring Edition, starting with the piece on Aria Pearce on page seven.