Scott Horne learned a lot from his brother

By Drew Champlin

Published: August 26, 2008

There was the time that Todd Horne helped younger brother Scott devise a plan to beat Pike County in girls basketball, after the Bulldogs had beaten Scott’s Daleville team twice that year.

Or the time that Todd convinced Scott to follow his lead into coaching, although what eventually pushed him that way was a grade point average that was too low for pharmacy school.

Or when they were younger, when Todd, who was four years older, would take Scott with him everywhere he and Todd’s best friend, Terry Goodson, went.

“If anyone messed with the other, we always had each other’s back,” Scott said. “Just like brothers.”

If Scott Horne didn’t know how much his older brother, who would have turned 39 Aug. 14, was loved around the community, he sure found out at Todd’s visitation, just days after he was killed in a July 29 auto accident in Ozark.

Scott estimated more than 2,000 people attended the visitation, and about 1,500 individual lines on the guestbook were signed. It took about six or seven hours
just to go through the line.

“It was just amazing to see how many people cared that much about him,” Scott said. “It makes me feel a little bit better.”

Todd’s untimely death happened two weeks before his birthday and exactly a month before Dale County’s season opener against G.W. Long in Midland City this Friday.

On Friday, Scott will be on the other sideline. He’s G.W. Long’s offensive coordinator.

It sent shock waves across two communities — Midland City, where Todd was starting his third year as head coach of his alma mater, and Skipperville, where
Todd had spent 15 years as an assistant football coach, coaching other sports as well.

“He started off as a physical education aide,” Scott said. “He wanted to coach ever since he was in high school. He loved it. For the kids (at G.W. Long), he had been their elementary P.E. teacher, and he was just gone two years.

“Two schools have been devastated by this. Families, teachers, everyone.”

And most of all, family. Scott was set to go to pharmacy school at Auburn, but had been helping Todd out while he was coaching at G.W. Long. Todd urged Scott to go into education, and he finally did.

“He said, ‘Man you love this, you need to do it,’ ” Scott said. “Then I found out my GPA wasn’t high enough, so it seemed right for me to do it.”
Todd helped Scott get a job at Pike County “when no one was hiring.” After a year, Scott took a job at Daleville.

Twice in girls basketball, Todd put Scott’s Daleville team on the schedule. Maybe that was a bad move — Scott came out on top in both games.
When the two weren’t coaching, they watched film together, with each helping the other. Scott was frustrated with two early-season losses to Pike County while at Daleville.

“We watched tape, and he noticed that their point guard was the only one shooting,” Scott said. “He said all you need to do is run somebody out and throw it to them after the shot.

“I’ll be dog-goned if we didn’t beat them by 20 points the next time, in the area tournament. It was the first time Daleville girls made it to the area championship game in no telling how long.”

Scott and Todd’s family, as well as their parents, all live within a mile of each other in the Grimes community. At first, Scott lived 200 yards from Todd. The Dothan Airport then bought Scott’s land, and he moved about 100 feet from Todd’s house.

Every day this summer, Todd’s sons 11-year-old Colby and 8-year-old Cameron were at Scott’s house with Scott’s 3-year-old son Grant.

“We were moving in stuff to my house the day of the accident,” Scott said.

And in an instant, things changed. He’s had to become more of a father figure to Todd’s sons.

“I told them I won’t ever be your daddy, but I hope I can help raise you like I know he would have raised mine if the same thing happened to me,” Scott said.

Todd asked Scott to follow him to Dale County in the spring of 2006, when he took the job.

Scott declined, citing closeness to the good kids in Skipperville. He probably would have made it there, eventually.

“Of all the years, this was the closest I’ve came to going over there,” Scott said.

He’ll be there Friday night, facing the legacy that Todd had started to build. In Todd’s first game, Dale County beat G.W. Long 14-3.

“I hate to lose, but I wanted him to win,” Scott said. “He never said a word about it.”

Dale County won last year, too. Maybe that’s a little revenge for Scott’s girls’ basketball victories.

An even score. Fitting for two brothers as close as Todd and Scott Horne are.

“It wasn’t just losing a brother,” Scott said. “He was my best friend. We talked on the phone every day, our families were always together. I can usually hold up fine, but when I see a picture of him, I lose it.

“But I can hear Todd. He’d just say ‘Y’all go on and play ball.’ ”