University of the Cumberlands Athletics

John Horton joins the Patriots for his first season as the Jumps and Multis coach, entering his 5th season of coaching. He arrives after serving as an assistant coach for Texas A&M Corpus Christi, three schools at the NJCAA level (Coffeyville, Iowa Central, and Fort Scott; fostering a total 30 NJCAA All-Americans ) and having quite the display case for his accomplishments as a student-athlete at the University of Houston.
 
With Texas A&M Corpus Christi, he coached Sean Majors to breaking the outdoor school record in the long jump while earning SLC All-Conference First-Team recognition twice, one indoor and once outdoor. He coached him to qualifying for the NCAA First Round as well during the 2023 season. Coach Horton also led 13 student-athletes to top-10 School history marks. Horton took a 2 year break following this season with Corpus Christi due to the birth of his daughter, Jazlyn, July 23rd 2023.
 
Just before arriving on The Island, Horton worked as an assistant coach at Fort Scott Community College where he coached jumps and multi-events from August 2021-August 2022. With the Greyhounds, he coached three different athletes to breaking seven different school records in only one season. Among the achievements of his athletes, Horton helped bring his best jumper to earning 2022 Region XI NJCAA Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year honors. His assistance helped foster 6 All-Americans during this tenure at FSCC.
 
Before heading to Fort Scott, Horton was an assistant coach at Iowa Central Community College during the Covid-19 shortened season. Despite the challenge, he helped the men's team to an NJCAA Indoor National Championship with the women finishing as NJCAA Indoor National Runner-Ups. Ten of his athletes set Top-10 All-Time Indoor Performance records with six of them earning Indoor All-American Honors.
 
Horton kicked off his coaching career as an assistant at Coffeyville Community College in 2018. Most notably, he coached two different athletes to combine for 2019 Region XI NJCAA Indoor Field Athlete of the Year, Triple Jump Champion, Long Jump Champion and High Jump Champion. Three of his student-athletes went on to break five school records. During both the Indoor and Outdoor seasons, Horton oversaw 16 All-Americans with eight coming in each season. One of the athletes broke an Outdoor Junior College National and Meet Record in the long jump.
 
As a student-athlete at Houston from 2012-2015, Horton excelled, qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships three of his four years of eligibility. Ending his career after career-ending injury at the Texas Relays his senior year. He earned recognition as an Outdoor First Team All-American in the triple jump in 2014 and Second Team All-American in the same event a year prior. As a freshman, he was named to the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll while winning the C-USA Indoor Triple Jump title, following it up with another first-place finish in 2013. While competing in the American Athletic Conference, Horton was named to the All-America Conference team for both Indoor and Outdoor in 2014 and Indoor for 2015.