Beyond the Horizon: Liz Hornberger
Kobe Mosley
Ten years after being one of the inaugural recipients of the Horizon League Post-Graduate Scholarship Award, Liz Hornberger still remembers all the emotions that rushed through her when she learned about her selection.
Surprise. Relief. Gratitude.
Just a few days before, the Youngstown State women’s basketball student-athlete voiced her growing concerns to her parents about pursuing graduate school and if she would be able to afford it. Fast-forward to Hornberger sitting inside the office of her academic advisor, Marilyn O’Bruba, and she is receiving the news that all her worries had been vanquished.
“I remember crying, it was just so overwhelming,” Hornberger said. “It made me feel more comfortable about going out and pursuing my dream.”
Most importantly, Hornberger added that it was a nice reminder that hard work pays off – a recurring theme in her journey to Youngstown State and the stops she has made since.
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Ironic as it might sound, Hornberger knew she could call Youngstown home once she got lost on campus. She was on an official visit with then-coaches Bob Boldon and Tavares Jackson, both recent hires, and took a few wrong turns trying to get around the university. Once they finally made it to the Beeghly Center, though, Hornberger was sold.
“I remember I walked into the gym and my heart just filled up … in high school, I never got to play on big stages like that,” Hornberger said. “I remember thinking, ‘I will be so lucky if I even get to walk on here.’ They offered me a scholarship and I immediately said yes.”
The Penguin guard would go on to have an exceptional career, ending her senior season in 2014 as the all-time program leader in three-pointers made and minutes played.
For as much time and effort Hornberger poured into basketball, she poured just as much into her education. It has become tradition that the Penguins women’s basketball players excel in academics. Since Hornberger’s freshman season, Youngstown State has ranked among the top 25 Division I programs in the nation in average team GPA.
Hornberger’s academic interest rested in criminal justice, a passion she has fostered since the days of watching “Law and Order” as a kid. Initially studying the corrections path of the major, she soon realized the policy and law track gave her more options and fit her personality better.
“Accountability is a really big staple in my life for anything I do,” Hornberger said. “That has obviously come from being held accountable in college and doing what I had to do to play basketball.”
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Holding herself accountable, among several other skills she learned by being a student-athlete, proved to be useful once she started attending law school at Case Western Reserve University.
The course load of a law student was rigorous, but Hornberger never let things trouble her too much.
“Kids were freaking out about scheduling and the amount of work and things like that,” Hornberger said. “I remember sitting there, like, ‘Hold on a second, I would have to do 6 a.m. workouts, go to three classes, go to practice for two and a half hours, then lift, then go back to night class and still do all this work.’ Law school is nothing.”
Though she was finished playing collegiate basketball, Hornberger did not want to completely give up the game. So to stay close to the sport, she reached out to the university’s women’s and men’s basketball coaches, asking to help out wherever was needed. Though the women’s coach never got back to Hornberger, the men’s coach, Sean McDonnell, immediately scheduled a meeting with her, and that meeting turned into an assistant coaching position.
Hornberger would continue to coach throughout her four years in law school, an experience that she says helped her realize her love for coaching. Though she coached men’s basketball, a space that lacks female representation, Hornberger felt like she had the support of her fellow coaches and players to grow.
“Even (during) my first year at Case, they always treated me with respect,” Hornberger said. “I never felt like I was ‘the woman coach.’ They all talked to me like they talked to their male coaches and the head coaches … so I've been really privileged with the experiences I've got as a coach, too, on the college level.”
Hornberger has continued coaching men’s basketball after receiving her juris doctor from Case Western in 2017 and beginning her career in law enforcement. She is now in her fourth season as an assistant coach at Stevens Institute of Technology.
As she continues to be a leader for student-athletes, she wants to be a helping hand for those pursuing a tertiary education like she did by reminding them just how much they bring to the table.
“Student-athletes don't realize how much success they're going to have after college and after athletics, because of the organization skills and the accountability that you have to have.”
She also wants to make sure everyone who helped her along the way understands the role they played her success.
“Thank God for the Horizon League … and for the people at Youngstown that thought of me and offered me these opportunities,” Hornberger said. “Thank God for my coaches who never let me quit, even though there were days I wanted. Thank God for my parents, obviously, who I'll always be grateful for.
When you put in the work, I like to think there are people who recognize that and who look out for you for these kinds of things and that's why it works out. So the hard work clichés are kind of numerous, but they're all true.”