In the case of Tim Horsmon, the truth of the trope depends on if you’re talking about where he grew up or his volleyball home, the place that gave him comfort and support and the kind of success few other college coaches have known.
Horsmon has come back to the University of Dayton after leaving for six tough years at the University of Maryland — “a decision I made more with my heart than my brain,” he says — and now he and UD are looking at their latest pairing as sort of a family reunion.
“So I guess you can say I’ve come home twice,” Horsmon said with a shrug and a smile.
He initially came to UD in 2003 after guiding Robert Morris to the NCAA tournament each of the four years he was at the suburban Pittsburgh school. In his five seasons at Dayton, he took the Flyers to four NCAA tournaments, won four Atlantic 10 titles, coached four straight A-10 Players of the Year, had his team ranked as high as 12th in the nation and saw the fan base grow bigger and more passionate as the seasons went by.
All that made Horsmon — who compiled a 128-43 record at UD — a hot commodity following the 2007 season, and when Maryland came calling, he listened.
The school was replacing Janice Kruger, who had coached the volleyball team for 20 years and Horsmon seemed like a good fit. He was born in Baltimore, raised in Prince George’s and Calvert counties and graduated from Frostburg State in the western part of Maryland.
“My mom went to school at Maryland, so did my aunt, and I grew up a Maryland fan,” he said. “I’m still a big Orioles and Ravens fan. There’s a lot to do there and I had been away from family and friends for 10 years at that point, so the chance to go home was pretty special. It felt great.”
Add in the fact that Maryland was a BCS school in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the salary was considerably higher and you see why he made the jump.
But while the school’s field hockey, soccer and lacrosse teams had had great success over the years, they were more regional sports to Maryland than was women’s volleyball, which has deeper roots in the Midwest.
Horsmon didn’t initially understand the scope of the challenge he was facing. He admits he was impatient at the start and, for a variety of reasons, things never really jelled.
In six seasons, his teams went 79-114. There was some player and assistant coaching turnover and last year the 13-19 Terps finished 5-15 in the ACC, their 14th-place finish worst in school history.
With a year left on his contract and Maryland heading into the Big Ten, Horsmon resigned.
“Professionally it’s one of the first times I feel like I failed at something,” he said. “Some of the things were controllable, some were not, but at the end of the day, if you are a good coach, you take ownership of what happened in your program. You have to get past making excuses and admit we didn’t get it done.”
As he was deciding to leave, Horsmom said his girlfriend, Krista Valdivia — who had been a former All-American player and successful coach at Michigan Tech before joining his Maryland staff three years ago as a volunteer assistant — asked him on several occasions what he might want to try next.
“I’d say, ‘I don’t know what I want to do, but if there’s one school I want to coach at, it’d be Dayton,’ ” he said.
“I didn’t regret leaving UD, but it had been really hard. I missed the school and the administration. All the people had been so good to me and we had a ton of support. And over the years at Maryland, I had caught myself so many times comparing my situation there to where I’d been. I’d say, ‘Well, when we were at Dayton…’ ”
After Horsmon left, the volleyball success at UD continued under new coach Kelly Sheffield, who took the Flyers to five straight NCAA appearances and saw his team ranked No. 10 one season and No. 12 in another.
“Over the past 10 or 11 years, the program has been one of the best in the nation, minus the top four or five BCS schools, places like Penn State, Texas and Nebraska (who the Flyers play tonight at the Frericks Center),” Horsmon said.
When Sheffield left for Wisconsin, his assistant coach Matt Affolder took over for the 2013 season, went 16-13, finished fifth in the A-10 and was let go after the year.
Soon after, Horsmon — who had stayed in contact with UD athletics director Tim Wabler — was on his way back to Dayton with Krista, their 2-year-old son Tanner and Krista’s older boys, 14-year-old Parker and 12-year-old Mason, from a previous marriage.
“I’m just really grateful the people here believed in me and gave me the opportunity to do this again,” Horsmon said. “I think I’ll be a better coach than when I was here the last time.
“Six years ago I was getting a lot of phone calls from different schools and I felt like I could take any situation, any program, and no matter what, make it one of the best in the country. I’m different now. I’m humbled by the experience I’ve just gone through. I’ve matured and grown and realize what all goes into success.
“At Dayton we have a tradition and a commitment to volleyball that is second to none.”
He said the support goes all the way up to UD president Dr. Dan Curran, who has gone out of his way to talk to top recruits visiting campus. Horsmon said the other day Curran stopped by practice just to see how the team was doing.
Although the ranks were thin when Horsmon took over this year, he thinks the Flyers can again be a power in two or three years.
Opening the season at a Bowling Green tournament last weekend, they went 2-1 and now — as part of the two-day Flyer-Raider Invitational — host Nebraska tonight at 7, play Wright State at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Nutter Center and then return to the Frericks Center on Saturday for an 8 p.m. match with CSU Bakersfield.
It’s a good bet the crowds tonight and Saturday will eclipse most of those that watched his Maryland teams the past few years.
“You couldn’t have a better sports community than Dayton,” Horsmon said. “That’s the thing I missed the most. We have the Red Scare and the other groups that support us in droves.
“I want to get us back to being in the Top 25 consistently and get us into the second weekend of the (NCAA) tournament. We’ve never done that here. My goal is to be in the Sweet 16. That’s when you’ll really see what can happen here. Look at what the basketball program did last year and how the Dayton community rallied around it. That was pretty special.
“I appreciate all that so much more now. And like I told Tim, ‘You couldn’t have hired a better guy to have that conversation with other coaches when the time comes that they’re looking someplace else.
“I’ll tell them they better take the right job for the right reasons, and if you don’t, you can put yourself in a really tough place. Just because a school’s name is out there doesn’t mean it’s a better program and you will be more successful.
“The grass isn’t always greener.”
He said he not only learned that, but has come to realize something else that was there all along:
“The truth is, I never stopped loving this place or the people.”
Home, as they also say, is where the heart is.
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