Columbus North’s Cooper Horn, in black, reaches to try to catch a pass while being covered by Columbus East’s Kaeden Fields, left, and Devon Tekulve during a football game at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Aug. 26, 2022.
The Republic file photo
To watch Cooper Horn play football, it might be difficult for some fans to imagine that he has only been playing the sport for a little more than a year.
The Columbus North senior, who has been one of the Bull Dogs’ top basketball players the past three years, came out for football for the first time last year and made an immediate impact. Now, in only the third game of his second year, he broke a 22-year-old school receiving record and tied another.
“Last year was the first year I ever played football, so there was a lot to learn,” Horn said. “I’ve gotten more comfortable out there on the field. We have a great receivers coach, D’Andre Scruggs, and he’s taught me a lot like how to release off of press coverage, how to create space without extending your arms and how to use your body to catch jump balls.”
In Friday’s 47-14 win at Southport, Horn caught nine passes for 224 yards and four touchdowns. The four receiving touchdowns tied a single-game school record, and the 224 receiving yards broke the record of 210 set by Nate Frasier.
Frasier now is a chiropractor and trainer and owns MVP, where Horn has worked out.
“It’s definitely something else,” Horn said of breaking the record. “But it’s just another game, and we can’t get too high about it, and we just have to move on to (this) week.”
“I think it surprised everybody, how dynamic he was,” first-year North coach Logan Haston said. “It was one of those nights that things went the right way. Even throws that weren’t great throws or throws that were contested, he came down with the big plays when we needed them.”
Cooper Horn
For the season, Horn leads north with 18 catches for 357 yards and six touchdowns.
“I’m definitely real excited about how I’ve played at the start of the season,” Horn said. “It’s just a lot of fun out there. Our coaches make it really fun. With a new coach coming in, we didn’t know what to expect coming into the year. We have a lot of people in new roles, and the whole team is just having fun. Coach Haston trusts me, and the quarterback trusts me to come down with some balls, and luckily, the first part of the season, I’ve caught a lot of balls.”
That quarterback, senior Zac Horn, is Cooper’s cousin. Zac, who missed all of last season after having labrum surgery in both hips, has completed 60 of 85 passes for 698 yards and eight touchdowns this season.
Zac tied the single-game school record with five touchdown passes on Friday.
“He’s always tried to get me to play, and last year, he finally talked me into it, and I’m glad I played,” Cooper said. “Every family reunion, we’ll throw balls and talk about football, and now, it’s just fun to go out and compete against other teams.”
Cooper, whose father Will Horn was a receiver and punter at Indiana University, still is planning to play basketball at the collegiate level, but hasn’t closed the door on a possible future in football.
“I’ll still always be basketball first just because I’ve played my whole life,” Cooper said. “(Football) keeps growing on me for sure. Every Friday night, I want to go out there and succeed.”
Haston and the Bull Dogs, who are off to a 2-1 start, will need Cooper to come up big on Friday when they host Class 4A No. 2 Roncalli.
“Cooper is definitely one of our big-time playmakers,” Haston said. “You look at the weapons we have on offense with him and Damon (Edwards) and Tyler Blythe. We try to get them the ball as much as we can, and we try to get Cooper the ball as much as we can. As we’ve seen the first three games, good things happen when he’s getting touches.”
