“Experience comes first”: Morristown High athletic director ‘Smitty’ Horton retires after 34 years

By April Stelle

When Chester “Smitty” Horton, 59, began his collegiate football career at West Chester University, he thought he wanted to become an athletic trainer. That was until the university told him he would have to stop playing football two years early to work with athletes off the field.

He was back to square one.

Then his roommate and teammate, Kenny Chu, suggested teaching.

“I remember his words to this day. He said, ‘Think about your high school phys ed teacher. Could you do his job?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I could do that,’” Horton said.

Those few words led Horton down the path of a 34-year career. He started as a physical education teacher at Woodland Elementary School and worked his way up to Morristown High School’s athletic director. After 11 years in the role, he is finally hanging up his education cap for good.

“He’s definitely left the school much better than he found it. Now, I’m an alumni, so I went to school here. My kids all came through Morristown. We have a lot of history here. We live in Morristown. You wouldn’t know that he was not a Morristown alumni because of the way he’s treated this school,” said Rose Piccolo, secretary to the athletic director.

Horton grew up on the outskirts of Northeast Philadelphia and attended Bristol High School as a multi-sport athlete. Although his basketball and track and field teams were more successful overall, he especially appreciated his time as a running back on the struggling football team. He went from losing almost every game in high school to winning almost every game in college.

Win or lose, the most important thing to Horton was loyalty to his program, something he hopes is passed down to MHS athletes, especially as transfers between high school and college become more common.

“Division One athletes are going to be found wherever they are,” Horton said. “Unfortunately, we have gotten to the point where you know even in your college athletes, ‘If I don’t like it here, I’m just going to go somewhere else next year.’ You have athletes who played at four or five different schools in college.”

Horton accepted a job at Woodland Elementary School right out of college, believing it was the mature decision to leave his college town. Little did he know that choice would lead him to his wife, Lisa.

The two met at Woodland, where Horton taught physical education and Lisa taught 2nd grade. They have four children — Danae, 26; Jamie, 24; Nicollette, 22; and Corynn, 19 — all of whom attended Morris School District schools. Lisa now teaches kindergarten at Woodland. Danae works as a lifeguard instructor at the high school, and Jamie is an athletic trainer at Frelinghuysen.

Horton moved to Morristown High in 1998 as a physical education teacher. After earning a master’s degree in educational leadership from William Paterson University six years later, he became dean of students and eventually vice principal. In 2015, he stepped into the athletic director’s role.

During his teaching and administrative career, Horton remained involved in athletics, coaching track and field, girls lacrosse and football. Most notably, he served as running backs coach when the football team won its last state championship in 2010. As with many of his accomplishments, Horton downplayed his role in the victory, but Vincent Phinn, an MHS counselor and the current flag football coach, praised his coaching.

“Smitty was a very caring and knowledgeable coach. As the running backs coach, his players rushed for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in the championship win at Giants Stadium. The players loved him and respected him,” Phinn wrote in a statement to Morristown Green.

GROWING PROGRAMS, OPENING DOORS

Horton and Phinn continued working together to bring flag football to the high school in 2021. The idea came from the New York Jets front office, with whom Horton developed a relationship in 2019 after the organization offered to renovate the weight room. When the Jets later approached him about starting a flag football program, Horton quickly signed on.

“Mr. Horton got us in on the ground floor and kept us abreast of state rules, regulations and guidelines as they evolved. He has even driven the team to numerous games throughout his time as AD here at MHS. His leadership and support were invaluable as we worked to establish clear guidelines for the league to play by. Mr. Horton always shies away from the spotlight but works very hard in the background,” Phinn wrote.

During Horton’s tenure as athletic director, Morristown High added flag football, girls golf, girls ice hockey, bowling and, beginning this fall through a co-op with Randolph, gymnastics. But the addition he is proudest of is Special Olympics Unified sports, where students with and without intellectual disabilities compete together as teammates.

“Through Special Olympics Unified Sports, students with and without intellectual disabilities compete together as teammates, creating meaningful opportunities for inclusion, leadership, and friendship. It reflects the values that Smitty has championed throughout his career,” Superintendent Anne Mucci wrote in a statement to Morristown Green.

Horton partnered with Special Olympics New Jersey soon after becoming athletic director to establish Unified teams, beginning with swimming. Morristown High now offers Unified swimming, track and field, soccer and bowling.

“The thing that excites me most about unified track or unified sports in general, every parent of every athlete cheers for everyone. So it doesn’t matter if they’re on your team or not on your team, they cheer for those athletes, and you know it’s something that really touches your heart. That’s why I really have a special bond and a special feeling for our unified teams,” Horton said.

BUILDING MORE THAN FACILITIES

Along with expanding athletic opportunities, Horton upgraded numerous facilities to improve the experience for athletes and coaches.

Some projects were born of necessity, including replacing the 80-year-old concrete bleachers after a hole developed shortly after he became athletic director and resurfacing the aging track after it outlived its lifespan. Others fulfilled long-held goals, including installing stadium lights and a jumbotron on the football field.

Installing lights required balancing the benefits of larger crowds and extended field use against concerns about nighttime security and longer hours for maintenance staff. Horton ultimately decided the advantages outweighed the drawbacks, a decision Diego Salas, bilingual social studies teacher and fifth-year varsity boys soccer coach, said paid dividends.

During the team’s 2024 division championship season, the Colonials went undefeated under the lights.

“It became a running joke with him (Horton) and me about trying to get more games under the lights, as much as we could,” Salas said.

Although scheduling those games wasn’t easy — with girls soccer, football and field hockey all competing for the same field — Salas appreciated Horton’s willingness to accommodate the requests, even though Horton often joked that soccer wasn’t his favorite sport to watch.

Perhaps Horton’s proudest facilities project is the new turf field at Frelinghuysen Middle School, a project 10 years in the making. Once complete, the high school will no longer need to rent Central Park of Morris County for practices and will have additional turf space, something athletes value, particularly in sports such as soccer and field hockey where grass can affect ball movement.

“The facilities would be more on the back burner, but the ability to start new teams and have those teams fill their rosters and enjoy their time that’s what means the most to me,” Horton said.

That philosophy was evident to Nick Vena, fifth-year track and field coach; Brian Martin, fifth-year varsity boys basketball coach; and Joseph Componile, science teacher and golf coach, all of whom developed close working relationships with Horton. Together with his secretary, Rose Piccolo, who joined him in 2015, Horton maintained an open-door policy that made every coach feel heard.

Vena, a former Morristown High shot put standout, first knew Horton as a student before later working for him as a coach.

“He’s always had a real positive impact on me and the other students. Just always been there, and even as a coach, he’s always made sure I had the resources I’ve needed to make the team successful and to allow me to push forward towards goals,” Vena said.

As a full-time basketball coach, Martin stopped by Horton’s office almost every day to catch up on what was happening around the school. Horton also encouraged him to become part of the broader MHS community by attending other sports.

Martin said their priorities always aligned: creating the best possible experience for student-athletes while building successful teams.

“Some guys I feel like just do the option, ‘Oh, okay, I got it done.’ Checking a box. We always made sure that when we talked about stuff that we were doing it like the best possible way, which I think was great,” Martin said.

Componile began teaching science at Morristown High in 2010 and immediately felt welcomed by Horton, who encouraged him to become involved in athletics. He started coaching junior varsity baseball in 2012 before making the difficult decision to switch to golf, a move Horton encouraged.

“I remember talking it over with Smitty (Horton) and saying something along the lines of ‘I will stick with whichever role you need me in.’ He immediately dismissed that notion and told me that he wants me to do whatever would be best for me. It just affirmed that Smitty cared for what was best for his coaches. Knowing that he trusted me as a professional made the decision so much easier to make,” Componile wrote in a statement to Morristown Green.

Componile also credited Horton with helping launch the girls golf team, one of many accomplishments he attributed to Horton’s mentorship.

“If it weren’t for him and others like him I do not think I would have extended myself as much as I did early on and make a point to make an impact on this community,” Componile stated.

THE ROAD AHEAD

All three coaches also pointed to one unusual aspect of Horton’s job: He regularly drove buses to away games, something they said underscored his commitment to Morristown High athletes.

“I’ve never heard of that before. That’s amazing,” Martin said. “It’s something he could easily not even try and do and not worry about it in the slightest.”

“It’s definitely a rarity. You wonder who your bus driver is, and you open the door, and it’s like, ‘Oh, hey, what’s up, Mr. Horton? Welcome to the team,’” Vena said.

Horton has held a commercial driver’s license since joining the high school and began driving buses as a way to connect with coaches and athletes while seeing other schools’ facilities firsthand.

Retirement won’t mean putting that CDL away.

Instead, Horton plans to drive a tractor-trailer across the country with his Bernedoodle, McQueen. He calls it “trucking for tuition,” with the money he earns going toward paying off his four children’s college loans.

“I’m done with the education world for now. I’m done with email. I never pictured this job, the job of the athletic director, to be 85% email. You sit behind a desk a lot, and I’ve just never had that vision in my mind of sitting behind a desk,” Horton said.

There were other stresses.

Every year, Horton tried to make coaches’ desires come to fruition, as much as his budget would allow. Satisfying everyone was rarely possible – not just in his role as athletic director, but throughout his time in the Morris School district.

“In this kind of career, you will not be able to please everyone, no matter how hard you may try. Unfortunately, there will be times when people do not get the answer they want to hear,” Horton said.

The search for Horton’s permanent replacement is ongoing, with interim athletic director David Doty serving in the role for now.

“We plan to conduct a thorough search for the permanent successor. We are committed to finding a leader who will continue the tradition of excellence that Smitty helped build,” Mucci stated.

Horton said he has full faith in the future of Morristown High athletics, confident in the foundation he leaves behind.

He has been involved in two additions to the Gallery of Honor, the hallway between the pool and gym that recognizes standout Morristown High athletes, including Vena, Olympian Christina Epps and New York Red Bulls defender Connor Lade. Horton hopes the display inspires today’s athletes to believe they, too, can accomplish great things.

More than anything, though, he hopes students leave Morristown High with memories that extend beyond wins and losses.

“My team wasn’t good in high school, but I had a great experience at my high school. My basketball team was phenomenal, but my track team, my football team, we struggled, but I had a great experience, and I hope that for all the student athletes here.

“You’re not going to win every championship. It would be great if you do. I just hope that you’re competitive and you enjoy your experience at the high school,” Horton said.