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Off the Court: Meet Bridgton’s Assistant Basketball Coach, Paris Horne ’07
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aris’s talented career has included competing in both the Big East Conference as well as overseas. For the past two years, this Wolverine has brought his love for hoops to Bridgton students, working side by side with Whit Lesure, who coached Paris during his year at the Academy. Along with his deep passion for all-things basketball, this valued faculty member lends his expertise in academics through his work as a focused academic coach, individually steering students to reach new goals. And while North Bridgton may not be the place where he got his start with “the game,” Paris will be the first to tell you that the impact his year at Bridgton had on his life endures to this day. Please describe a bit about yourself— where you are from, your interests, your family, past work experience? I was born and raised in Philadelphia but moved to Delaware at the age of 15. I come from a fairly large family with three brothers and one sister. My interests are...basketball! I’ve always played for fun. I like lots of other sports too, including track and football, which I played in high school also. Basketball became the most important sport to me in late elementary school and still is today. I am a family and friends guy. I have a four-year-old son, who I spend as much time as possible with. Most of my family lives in Delaware, but my dad still lives in Philly, so I spend some time there.
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I also like to travel, which I was able to do a lot of while playing basketball. Some of my favorite places I’ve been include Thailand, Greece, Morocco, the Turks & Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, and Istanbul. In addition to traveling, I enjoy trying new foods and I like to shop, which is so easy to do these days online! Tell us about your time on the court. After Bridgton, I played at St. John’s University. In 2011, the same year I graduated from St. John’s, I was a free agent in the NBA draft. Due to the NBA lockout that year, my rookie year was spent overseas in Germany with the Euro League. By the following year, I enjoyed a brief time in the states with the Charlotte Hornets before going back to Europe to play in Greece. I also played for teams in Turkey and Finland up until 2016. In 2015, I had the exciting opportunity to play for the Overseas Elite in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) on ESPN, a winnertake-all tournament. We were undefeated that year and walked away with the prize. I played again in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and am now the General Manager of Overseas Elite, working to put the team together and serving as an assistant coach. Why did you feel called to come back and work for Bridgton Academy? I was recovering from an injury when Coach Whit called me. I was excited to see if Bridgton had changed from when I
was a student, although I discovered the foundations really haven’t changed at all. There are things that feel different, such as the renovations in Cleaves Hall (I lived in Walker in 2007), new technology, and other adjustments to keep with the times. The important things are the same—Bridgton is still a school working to make a real difference in the lives of our young men. I was really excited to bring my basketball experience back for today’s students. I feel as though I can connect on a different level because I attended here and the guys feel
