It`s hard to say who will feel worse when John Hornacek leaves for college this fall, his parents or the coaches at Lyons Township High School.
For John and Sue Hornacek, it will be the first time in 26 years they won`t have a son around the house. As any empty-nester can tell you, that`s easier on the ears but a lot tougher on the heart.
The adjustment won`t be as wrenching at Lyons, but something nonetheless will be missing. That`s because for 12 straight years, at least one of John`s and Sue`s four boys has been dribbling basketballs and hitting baseballs at the La Grange school.
Each of the four has not only been a starter but also good enough to compete beyond the high school level. Jeff, 26, starts at guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. Jay, 23, is a minor-league catcher in the White Sox organization. Jim, 21, is a junior starting forward for St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa. And Johnny, as he is known in his family, is a 17-year-old starting guard for the 13-3 Lyons basketball team and a standout pitcher for the baseball squad, who hopes to play one or both sports at Iowa State.
Because of the age difference, none of the brothers played together on a Lyons team. But that makes their collective contribution to the school`s athletic fortunes no less impressive. It`s an unlikely contribution to begin with because since 1963, their father has coached baseball and basketball at St. Joseph High School in nearby Westchester.
Having a dad who coaches obviously pays off in helpful hints. But the Hornacek boys` athletic success owes as much to what they have seen as to what they have been told.
What they saw from toddler days on up was their father playing Amateur Athletic Union basketball and 16-inch softball for the better part of two decades. They saw his love for sports and his quiet, yet intense competitive drive.
”It looked like so much fun, you just grew up wanting to play sports,”
Jim said.
So the house in North Riverside and later the current home in La Grange became the scenes of an unending procession of games in an unending variety of sports.
”There was always someone to play against,” Jim said. ”It was very competitive. We`d go to each other`s games, cheer each other on. Even now when we`re together, all four of us go out and play basketball. We`re still competitive. We want to beat each other in whatever we do.”
The family still talks about the time Jeff jammed his neck on a light fixture while high-jumping into a stack of mattresses. Or when Johnny cracked his jaw sliding head-first into Jay`s knee during a Wiffle Ball game.
Thanks to their father, currently St. Joseph`s head baseball coach, freshman basketball coach and dean of students, a fair amount of teaching went along with the head-knocking. John Hornacek didn`t conduct clinics in the back yard, but he wouldn`t hesitate to correct mechanical errors and impart strategy.
”We tried to teach them how to win, to instill that when you compete, try to do the best you can,” said John, who`s also a respected basketball official. ”As long as you give 100 percent, that`s all anyone can ask.”
The result of those teachings is four athletes known as much-if not more- for their intelligent play and mental toughness as for any physical abilities.
”That`s a common thread among all four,” said veteran Lyons basketball coach Ron Nikcevich. ”Each has had instincts for the game that were obviously inbred. They each had perceptions and instincts that only could come from an athletic household.”
No son signified those traits more than Jeff, who has exceeded others`
expectations at three successive levels of basketball. He was so lightly regarded despite a great senior season at Lyons that he entered Iowa State as a walk-on.
Lyons has turned out better athletes than Jeff Hornacek, but none of them is playing in the National Basketball Association.
”Going through college and the NBA, everyone felt I had a good knowledge of the game,” he said. ”Being a coach`s son has got a lot to do with that. The best coach a son can have is probably a dad because he can start you early.”
Given the presence of a coaching dad and four athletic sons, one might suspect Sue Hornacek spent most of her time washing jeans and pouring Kool-Aid; but in her own way, she has been just as involved as John in her sons`
athletic careers.
It was Sue who gathered up the boys for all-day outings to John`s softball tournaments and later got everyone over to Jeff`s grade-school basketball games. And if one of the boys was out back alone working on his shooting, it was often Sue who would shag the ball for him.
”She was always there when Dad was not,” Jeff said. ”We`d come home after school and head for the shooting basket behind the house. She`d be back there rebounding for us. Sometimes she`d play one-on-one with us.”
Even now, it`s Sue who surveys west suburban bars looking for a place that will tune its satellite dish to a Phoenix Suns game. Last season, she hit three places in one night in a futile attempt to find the game, but she solved that problem by locating a cooperative establishment in Brookfield.
”We bring 10 or 15 people,” she said. ”The owner says he doesn`t care if we want to watch the Disney show if we bring 10 or 15 people.
”You want to be part of it, see how Jeff`s playing.”
Even more than NBA and minor-league baseball careers, John`s selection to referee at last season`s Class AA state basketball tournament, or 12 straight years of contributions to Lyons athletics, what stands out about the Hornacek family is that kind of closeness.
Sure, they all went to Hawaii in 1984 for the Rainbow Classic when Jeff was at Iowa State. But they also all piled in the car and dball. And they`ve already seen several of Jim`s basketball games this season.
Sue regards St. Joseph as part of her family, so she hoped the boys would enroll there. John vetoed that idea, however, fearing there would be extra pressure on them and that people would say they got special consideration in sports because of him.
Not that there wasn`t pressure at Lyons, especially for Johnny, who found that some people have had three brothers` worth of expectations for him.
”I get compared a lot by a lot of people,” he said. ”Wherever I go, people mention my family. It puts a little pressure on, but I don`t mind.”
Johnny also had to deal with playing against his father in baseball, an experience he shared only with Jim because John Hornacek didn`t take over as head baseball coach at St. Joseph until five years ago.
Both father and son say Lyons` 4-0 victory over St. Joseph last season was no big deal, but as might be expected in the competitive Hornacek home, Johnny takes pleasure in having pitched the shutout and having driven in the winning run.
After one more baseball season, though, the Hornacek era at Lyons will be over, at least for this generation. Sue and John Hornacek will miss it.
”Lyons has been good for the boys,” Sue said. ”They`ve run across some wonderful people who have influenced them. We`ve been going to Lyons so long, it will be strange not to go. But we`ll still go see Jim and Johnny.”
