Horner Keeps His Perspective After Cancer Battle

Former Iowa guard was coach of Truman State team that won 23 games and made it to the NCAA Division II tournament.

Jeff Horner missed the first two games of Truman State’s men’s basketball season because he was finishing his 12 weeks of chemotherapy.

So he figured he would make it to the next two games in Grand Rapids, Mich., in early November.

That didn’t work out as he planned.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to make the trip. I’m going to coach,’” said Horner, a former guard at Iowa who is now in his second season as Truman State’s head coach. “My wife was like, ‘You’re stupid, you shouldn’t do that.’”

On the way from Truman State’s campus in Kirksville, Mo., to Michigan, Horner became ill with what he called ‘a huge ear infection.’ Instead of coaching the Bulldogs, he spent all of his time at the team hotel.

“I should have listened to her,” Horner said, laughing. “I pretty much drove to Michigan for no reason.”

It’s why Horner is taking the precautions during the coronavirus pandemic seriously. His immune system, doctors told him, would be weakened by the chemotherapy he underwent for testicular cancer.

That means Horner has played it safe since the Bulldogs’ season was canceled in early March.

“I’m doing good right now,” Horner said. “It’s best to stay away from as many people as possible. I haven’t been around friends, or anything like that. The immune system, they say it can take from six months to a year to fully recuperate. I’m trying to stay away from people as much as possible, because I can get sick so easily. In that sense, it’s one of those things where I don’t want to drive myself crazy.”

The Bulldogs went 23-8 this season, winning the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament after sharing the regular-season title. They were on their way to the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional in Indianapolis when the tournament, like all of the other NCAA winter tournaments, was canceled because of the coronavirus.

When Horner and his team left for the tournament on March 12, it was a day after the NBA suspended its season and other sports were starting to do the same.

“I’m like, ‘Why are we even leaving. They’re going to shut it down,’” Horner said. “So of course, we’re about four hours on the road, past St. Louis, and they cancel it.

“It was brutal, because we were playing so good (the Bulldogs were on a six-game winning streak). We were definitely upset. We could have had a chance to compete for it all, which kind of stinks. But, it is what it is.”

Horner wasn’t sure how the season would go. He announced his cancer diagnosis in late August, and when practice started in the fall, he was still undergoing chemotherapy in Columbia, Mo., but would try to make it back for workouts.

“Basically, I would have chemo 5 days in a row, from about 9 in the morning until about 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon,” Horner said. “And then I would try to get back for as much of practice as I could. I wanted the guys to see the effort.

“I think the guys took from that, took the energy and put things in perspective.”

Truman State lost three of its first four games, but responded with a four-game winning streak. The Bulldogs won six consecutive games twice this season.

“I think the guys played with a different perspective after those early games,” Horner said.

Horner scored 1,502 points in his four seasons with the Hawkeyes from 2002-06. He is the program’s all-time leader in assists with 612, and ranks second all-time in program history with 262 three-pointers.

Horner began his coaching career as an assistant at Grand View University in the 2008-09 season, then spent three seasons as the head coach at West Des Moines Valley High School.

He moved on to work as an assistant to former Iowa assistant Brian Jones at North Dakota for four seasons before taking the job at Truman State.

“Brian Jones really gave me the opportunity to coach at the college level, and I’ll be forever thankful for that time,” Horner said. “It’s kind of one of those things where it was time to be a head coach again. Once you get a taste of it, it’s one of those things you love being a head coach, you love being in charge of your own time.

“I love being a head coach, and really being in the game. People can say I’m a control freak, but it’s really fun to be able to call the shots and that type of thing.”

Horner appreciates coaching at the Division II level.

“It’s really good basketball,” he said. “I don’t think people realize how good it is. Some of the really good D-II leagues, I think, have the same talent level like the smaller D-I leagues. It’s just as competitive, and I enjoy it.”

Horner has to undergo cancer scans every three months for the next year. For now, he’s focused on his players.

“I’m more worried about my guys, making sure they’re staying safe and staying with their academics,” he said. “That’s really all I can do right now.”