Beloved Coach Scott Horne Takes His Talents to the Georgetown Basketball Team

As a three-point champion in Evanston’s noted FAAM (Fellowship for Afro-American Men) basketball program, a star player at Evanston Township High School, a basketball coach at ETHS, and program manager at Chandler-Newberger Recreation Center, Coach Scott Horne is a household name across the Evanston basketball community. He is now making his mark with the Georgetown basketball team.

Mr. Horne was introduced to basketball at a very young age. He started playing on his Jordan Jammer (mini hoop) and in his backyard with his brother. He played his first organized basketball in a fourth-  and fifth-grade league at Chandler-Newberger. From sixth through eighth grades, he played in FAAM and won the three-point contest as a sixth grader in 1996 and seventh grader in 1997. 

He played on the ETHS basketball team and was a key member of the team that was top 10 in the State. He once made nine three-pointers in an ETHS game and was a celebrated shooter who held multiple three-point records at school. Some of his favorite memories of being a player, he said, were playing against New Trier and playing in the Proviso West Tournament. 

Coach Horne told the RoundTable, “We were a top 10 team back when I was in high school, and some of my best memories were my senior year playing against New Trier in packed gyms. Two thousand people couldn’t get into the game. That was a really cool experience – to play in those high-pressured games.”

The Proviso West Tournament was kind of like the “mecca” of Chicago basketball. Coach Horne remembers as a child watching future NBA superstar Kevin Garnett play in the tournament. Scott always wanted to play in that tournament, and he earned the opportunity during his junior and senior years at ETHS. He played against future NBA talent including Dee Brown, Shannon Brown, Luther Head, and Eddy Curry. 

After college, Coach Horne returned to Evanston and became the assistant sophomore basketball coach at ETHS. When he was a player, Coach Horne’s parents recorded his games and took pictures of him. As a coach, he decided to, “pay it forward.” He created an Instagram account, wildkit 10, which still exists today.

Coach Horne said, “In the early years, I was just taking pictures, but I kind of became the mixtape guy where I would take [high-definition] courtside videos of these guys.”

He said he wanted to give memories to the ETHS players to look back on just like his parents did for him.

While coaching at ETHS, Mr. Horne worked at Chandler-Newberger Center, eventually turning an internship into a job. Mr. Horne worked as a camp counselor, preschool teacher, program supervisor, and finally a program manager.

“I worked my way to be a program manager where I was managing a whole bunch of summer camps and running the league I actually played in as a kid: the fourth- and fifth-grade basketball league. It was fun to work at Chandler and give back to the community that raised me,” he said.

Coach Horne now works at Georgetown University as the Assistant Director of Basketball Operations. He handles the Jordan Brand responsibilities and is the equipment person for the team. He has created more than 10 shooting shirts and brought back the Allen Iverson throwback jerseys. He is also one of the camp directors at the Patrick Ewing Basketball Camp. He helps with passing and shooting drills during practice and is “like Coach Ewing’s right hand man,” he said.  

Coach Horne has developed friendships that have supported his professional growth. His friendship with Patrick Ewing Jr. gave him the opportunity to work for Georgetown Basketball. Additionally, he became great friends with Jeff Green, an NBA player and former Georgetown player. Mr. Green even debuted the “Irv Scottie Georgetown” basketball shoe colorway, which Coach Horne designed. 

Coach Horne said he thinks Evanston is a very special place that prepared him in many ways for life. He said, “Evanston is a huge melting pot. You grow up learning from different races and religions. I always say that I live the dream of Martin Luther King growing up in Evanston.”