Success on and off the court: Lauren (Crump) Horton ‘09

Lauren (Crump) Horton ’09, head volleyball coach and associate athletics director at Earlham College. was named the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) 2025 Coach of the Year for the third time in her 12 years with Earlham’s volleyball program.
She also led the Quakers to the HCAC conference championship.

Besides volleyball, at Scecina Lauren played “a bit of everything”: basketball, track, tennis, and softball. She is another example of a former Crusader who learned great lessons about developing a work ethic and a sense of pride in her accomplishments while at Scecina, where she had a 4.0 grade point average, was Homecoming queen, and wrote for the yearbook, among other activities.

“I learned that you have to put in the work if you want to see results,” she said. “That is so true not only in sports, but in life.”

At Scecina, students are educated in spirit, mind, and body – words Lauren takes to heart now that she is a coach of student-athletes.

“These values live on in my coaching philosophies today. I tell my athletes, ‘I don’t want you to be a volleyball robot. I want you to pursue all your interests and feel fulfilled after your time with Earlham’ ,” she said.

With Scecina’s mission to motivate students to ““live as servant leaders in the inspiring footsteps of Father Thomas Scecina,” Lauren sees another valuable lesson in sports and life for students.

“Servant leadership is having the courage to do it first, do it tired, do it scared, do it because it’s right, do it because it’s hard, and so on,” she said.

Lauren’s parents, Joe and Rozanne (Smith) Crump, are both 1983 Scecina graduates. She also credits her mother and father for showing the value of hard work to her and her four sisters – Monica ’06, Samantha ’08, Olivia ’11, and Abigail ’15.

As a player, Lauren had a distinguished career at Indiana University East and has been coaching collegiate volleyball for 13 years. She spent one year as assistant volleyball coach at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., before moving on to Earlham in 2014. She was promoted to the role of Earlham’s associate athletics director in March 2021, with responsibility for directing the department’s NCAA compliance efforts.

With three Coach of the Year titles in hand, Lauren knows how to motivate her athletes to work hard for a goal. The Quakers finished with a 21-9 overall record and captured the conference championship with an 8-1 conference record.

“This team was special because we had a group of seniors who worked tirelessly over their four years to build a strong culture. Their leadership was genuine, passionate, and so much fun.”
What would she say to young people who are eager for a career in sports?

“My advice for anyone wanting to work in sports would be start young and do it all,” she said. “At our grade school, our mom had us setting up the gym, working the concession stand, and running the clock. It’s important to be familiar with all parts of the game day operations because having an understanding will also give you an appreciation.”

Lauren is married to Jeff Horton, “a wonderful husband who has sacrificed his own passions so that I can focus while in season,” she said. “He takes care of our three beautiful children, Zeta (8), Elias (6), and Jovie (1)”