Chris Horton enters his second season at Warren Wilson after spending the previous four seasons at Willamette University as the Lead Assistant and Director of Player Personnel & Development. In his first season at Wilson, Horton and his galvanized group were able to lay the foundation of Leadership, Academic Achievement, Team Cohesion, and Character Development that the program will carry on going forward. Entering year two, Horton gets the chance to introduce his first recruiting class and the program looks forward to building success and continuity on the court with a dynamic, fast-paced offense and a switchable, slow-you-down defense.
In his previous stop at Willamette University, Horton became a standout for his ability to recruit, develop players, and coach high scoring offenses. Over the course of his tenure, Horton led player development for a 2020 Freshman class that scored three-times more points than the conference average; found and recruited Cedric Coward, 2022 NWC All-American and Region X Freshman of the Year; and helped two players transfer up to Division I teams.
Along with the individual success stories, Horton helped institute an offensive system that led his team to score more points than any team in the Northwest Conference over the last two seasons. In the most recent 2022-23 campaign, the team finished top 15 in the nation in Pace and Scoring, while ranking as high 11th in the nation in Assisted Points at various times during the season.
Horton also oversaw great academic success at Willamette. In each of his four years, Horton’s teams received NABC All-Academic Team honors, awarded to teams with a collective GPA of 3.0 or higher. The final season of academic success was highlighted by Jack Boydell’s standout on-the-court and off-the-court performance that earned him a spot on the Academic All-America Team.
Most uniquely, Horton comes to Warren Wilson with an extensive background in molding high character young men. Under the tutelage of Kip Ioane, Horton was an active participant in Ioane’s nationally renowned Teams of Men Character Development program. Teams of Men challenges its participants to examine themselves and commonly held notions of masculinity. With the pillars of Healthy Relationships, Victim Advocacy, and Breaking The Constraints of The Man Box, Teams of Men provides paradigm shifting formative lessons for young men standing in their power as student-athletes.
A longtime Floridian and graduate of the University of Florida, Horton returns to the southeast where he’s closer to his mother, Nicole, father, Scott, and sister, Montana.
