A Role Model On and Off the Track Coach Kim Horning impacts young athletes By Nick Robbe A phone call. That’s what brought track and field coach, Kim Horning, to The Summit Country Day School. “I’d been in Cincinnati for about a yearand-a-half,” the coach says. “I was renting in Hyde Park and would run by this beautiful school. I missed being involved with a team, so I called (Cotton Family Varsity Head Coach) Kurtis Smith to see if he needed a jumps coach or something like that.” Coach Smith responded by saying he would take any help he could get. After four years as an assistant for track and field, Coach Horning took over head coaching duties in 2015 while remaining an assistant with the cross country and indoor track teams. She’s played a major role in helping Summit’s running programs become a powerhouse. Under her direction, Summit runners, across the sports seasons, make frequent trips to Columbus for state races. “Kim has the great skill of seeing the abilities athletes don’t see in themselves, and she gives them the tools they need to realize those skills and talents,” Coach Smith says. She also knows something about getting to Columbus herself. As a student at Granville High School, Coach Horning was a four-time state qualifier and two-time state champion in long jump and 4x100-meter relay, 46
Spring Magazine 2022
respectively. She was also a three-time state qualifier in swimming and played soccer in the fall. She is an inductee in the Granville Athletic Hall of Fame. After high school, Coach Horning attended Miami University on scholarship and ran track there. She was all-conference in long jump and was a team captain her senior year. Despite majoring in political science and journalism during her time in Oxford, a
