Horn resigns as volleyball coach
5/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Horn resigns as volleyball coach
Coach leaves ACU after posting back-to-back LSC titles
ABILENE, Texas - Brek Horn, the most successful head coach in Abilene Christian University volleyball history, announced Wednesday that she is resigning her job as head volleyball coach and Senior Woman Administrator to spend more time with her young family.
Horn served as the Wildcats' head coach for seven seasons, posting an eye-popping record of 173-69 for a 715 winning percentage. The next-best winning percentage for an ACU volleyball coach is the .600 posted by Wes Kittley (30-20) in 1987-88.
But despite leading the Wildcats to back-to-back Lone Star Conference championships and back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division II Southwest Region tournament, Horn said she could no longer keep up with her coaching duties and her family.
"I told my team that I need to find something else to do that will allow me to spend more time with my family," said Horn, who has two children, son Jagger and daughter Aven, with husband Brandon. "My family has to come first, and right now my job is taking precedence over the three most important people in my life, and I'm not comfortable with that.
"My parenting load has doubled since the birth of my daughter just before last season, and I can't continue to work the hours that this job demands and be a good mother and wife," said Horn, whose resignation is effective June 30. "I'm not the kind of person who can be okay with being an average coach and an average mom. My mother said it best when she said that God will provide a new coach for my team, but I'm the only mother my kids have."
ACU director of athletics Jared Mosley said the school will immediately begin a national search for a new head coach.
"Coach Horn has done an outstanding job in leading our volleyball program to new heights in her tenure as head coach," Mosley said. "We are very sad to see her leave our program and certainly wish her and her family the best. She is leaving a very sound program and solid foundation for the next head coach."
Horn leaves the program in better shape than she found it after winning the only two conference volleyball titles in school history and leading ACU to its only two regional volleyball tournament appearances. The Wildcats are 59-12 over the last two seasons, including 19-1 in Lone Star Conference South Division play.
Last season, the Wildcats authored the greatest season in ACU volleyball history, and one of the great seasons ever put together by any Wildcat athletic team. After starting the season 0-3, the Wildcats reeled off a school-record 31 straight victories before losing to No. 1-ranked and national runner-up Nebraska-Kearney in the regional tournament championship match.
The new ACU head coach will be charged with continuing the school-record 34-match home winning streak, the longest current streak in the nation and the 12th-longest streak in NCAA Division II history. The 31-match winning streak of 2005 is the 14th-longest such streak in NCAA Division II history.
The Wildcats will return several key performers from last year's team, including junior outside hitter Abbie Lowry, who was named second team all-LSC South Division in 2005. Also returning will be, among others, senior setter Malia Plumlee, junior libero Liz Snoddy, sophomore middle blocker Lauren Leone, and sophomore defensive specialist Jessica Reyna.
Horn recruited and coached the first all-America players in ACU volleyball history in Amanda Slate, Lindsey Martin and Michelle Bernhardt. Those three were all named American Volleyball Coaches' Association all-America players last year with Slate earning second team honors, Martin third team honors and Bernhardt honorable mention honors.
"The hardest part about doing all of this is leaving the girls that are here and the girls that we (assistant coach Sarah Carthel) have recruited for next year," Horn said. "I sold all of them on coming to ACU and playing in our program. But when I told the girls I was leaving, I told them that everything that I told them when I recruited them still holds true. ACU is a great place to get an education and to play volleyball, and I'll always believe that.
"Hopefully the coach the administration decides to bring in will continue what we've started with this volleyball program," she said. "We're all in this together - me, Sarah and our players - and I feel like I'm letting them down somewhat by leaving right now. But I've got to do what I believe is best for me and my family, and this is what I need to do right now."
Horn came to ACU after serving as an assistant coach at Gregory-Portland High School in 1998. She was an assistant coach at Andrews High School in 1996-97. A 1992 graduate of Hereford High School, Horn graduated from Angelo State in 1996. During her collegiate playing career, she was named academic all-LSC in 1995 and was honored as the team MVP in 1994 and 1995. She led the Rambelles to the LSC championship as a freshman in 1992.
When she arrived in Abilene in July 1999, Horn inherited an ACU volleyball program that had never won a conference title or earned a bid to the NCAA post-season playoffs. In fact, in the three seasons before Horn became the head coach, the Wildcats were a combined 37-58 and had finished 1-11 in the LSC South Division in 1998.
But Horn proceeded to turn all that around in her first season when she led the Wildcats to a 23-12 record and back into the LSC Post-Season Tournament. The next season would produce one of the best records in ACU volleyball history when the Wildcats finished 29-6 with the junior class of Lindsay DeHoff, Misti Germany, Jennifer Purvis, Randi Kinzer and Nichole Brenneman leading the way.
After the departure of that senior class, Horn went to work with a freshman class that featured Slate, Martin, Bernhardt and Motola. Those four finished 102-37 in four seasons under Horn's leadership and helped the Wildcats to not only their first two LSC titles and first two regional tournament appearances, but also to the program's first national ranking in 2005.
"I've got so many great memories of being the head coach at ACU," Horn said. "But I think the thing I take the most pride is building it from the bottom of the conference into a program that people think about when they think of the top programs in our region. The experience of winning the first conference title (in 2004) is one I'll never forget, but the thrill of winning it in front of our home crowd (in 2005) was just unbelievable for our team.
"Taking our team to the regional tournament in 2004 and absolutely stinking was a low point," she said. "But then to see the resolve in that group to get back there and do what we were able to do last year was unbelievable. I was fortunate that I was able to inherit a good group, and I feel like I've left the program in better shape than it was in when I got here."
