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,

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

career in law enforcement always held her interest.

“When I was a teenager, I would create murder mystery parties for my birthday,” she says. “I liked that detective work aspect.”

After college, she applied to both the Cincinnati and Columbus police departments. Her paperwork with Cincinnati got processed quicker and she joined the police academy. She was eventually transferred to the homicide department and now works as a criminalist, analyzing evidence found at crime scenes. Think “CSI: Cincinnati.” When she comes into work each day, there’s no telling what she will encounter, a facet of the job she enjoys.

“Day-to-day in the lab is meticulous,” she says. “I’m analyzing evidence very carefully. At a scene, it can be chaotic. You must think on your feet and do the best you can in that moment to bring the victim and their families justice.”

Odd as it might seem, Coach Horning can draw a parallel between coaching and being a criminalist.

She competed in and is the coach of a sport where an individual’s success plays a big part in team success. At the police department, her work contributes to the overall success.

“It translates so well,” she says. “You gain so much from being on a team. I thoroughly enjoy being part of a unit that has one of the highest solve rates in the country.”

Her two full-time jobs, as she considers them, bring balance to her life.

“There are days when I have one of the worst jobs, seeing the most negative aspects of our community,” she says. “Then, I come here and it’s one of the best jobs.”

Coach Horning also does a lot of the training with the team. When her athletes run, she runs. She believes they appreciate that level of commitment. “Misery loves company,” she says with a laugh.

“Everyone on the team either calls her Coach K or Mother, which I think goes to show what she means to us,” senior Reagan Sutton says. “Coach K taught me two lessons. The first is to have an open mind, and the second is to invest in the communities for which you care. She inspired me to ask Coach Smith to be his assistant coach for the Lower/Middle school track and field teams. She is the best possible mentor, and I’m grateful for her constant advice and encouragement.”

Coach Smith says, “Kim is a tremendous blessing to our programs and overall Summit community. We are much better because of her presence here every day.”