During a special school board meeting on Thursday, the retirement of legendary longtime Columbia High School head football coach Scott Horner was accepted. 

“We applaud Coach Horner and his staffs throughout his tenure for the success of Blue Pride Football,” the school district posted on its Facebook page. “The sidelines at Columbia High School won’t be the same.”

Horner, 55, will remain as the school’s athletic director through 2027, after which he will retire from that position. 

“The AD position has become increasingly more time consuming and with some added duties, I felt it was best,” Horner said as his reasoning for retiring from football. “It felt like the right time for some new leadership in the football program and it also will free up some more time for me to spend with family. My wife is retiring in June, and my daughter is headed to college as well.”

His daughter Ella was a key member of the Columbia volleyball squad that won a state title this past fall – a moment Horner cherished watching as a parent. 

In 25 years at the helm of the football Eagles, Horner compiled a record of 171-84 and his teams qualified for the playoffs 19 times. 

The Eagles had only three losing seasons under Horner, compared to five undefeated regular seasons.

Horner’s 2007 Eagles finished second in the state, losing to Plano in the Class 3A state championship game. To advance to that title game, Columbia outlasted Greenville at home, 40-39, in a double overtime thriller.

More recently, a notable memory in Columbia football lore under Horner was a 21-20 playoff victory at home over rival Breese Central in 2015.

Horner, who played quarterback for a state champion Carlyle High School football squad and also point guard for that school’s state champion hoops squad in his younger days, was elected last year into the Columbia High School Athletic Hall of Fame along with his twin sons Nic and Sam. Both of his sons were standout football players under their father.

He was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2024 and the St. Louis Metropolitan Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2023.

Horner has been involved in the game of football in some capacity for more than 30 years.

“I will miss the players, the staff and Friday nights the most,” he said. “It’s been a huge part of my life for the last 32 years but as I said, it was time.”

The annual Monroe County rivalry football showdown between Waterloo and Columbia next September will certainly feel different without Coach Horner roaming the Eagles sidelines. There are huge shoes to fill to match the intensity and leadership shown by this coach over the years – both during the season and the months of offseason preparation leading into each campaign. 

As evidence of this, just standing amongst the postgame huddle of the Columbia contingent following last year’s thrilling come-from-behind victory at Waterloo even made this middle-aged sports reporter want to put on some pads and tackle somebody.

“This validates everything that we do in the offseason,” a fired-up Horner told his players after that win. “Having enough left in the end to never say die and to keep fighting your butt off. It’s what we do all offseason.”