Entering the 2026 season, Gregg Horner is in his 33rd year with the Valley City State University football program, once again serving as Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator. He was named the NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year in 2012, an honor recognizing excellence in coaching, student-athlete success, community involvement and leadership within the profession.
Horner has been a key figure in one of the most successful eras of Viking football. He has helped lead VCSU to seven conference championships and five NAIA national playoff appearances. Since taking over as defensive coordinator in 1996, his defenses have set more than 20 individual and team school records while regularly ranking among the NAIA’s top defensive units.
In 2025, Horner’s defense recorded three shutouts. Defensive lineman TaQuez Chatman earned Frontier Conference East Division First Team All-Conference honors, while defensive lineman Gavin Gerhardt was named to the second team and Aiden Russell received honorable mention recognition.
Horner’s defense was instrumental in VCSU’s 8–2 season in 2021, when the Vikings climbed as high as No. 15 in the national rankings. The unit set a school record with 21 interceptions and allowed just 12.9 points per game—the program’s lowest mark since 1996. Numerous players have earned national recognition during Horner’s tenure, including Riley Gerhardt, Marshaun Jones, Nicholas McBeain, Sal Avila and Jahidi West, who led the nation with eight interceptions in 2021.
Horner’s defenses have consistently excelled in the national rankings, including:
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Top-10 finishes in scoring defense in 2014 and 2015
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Top-15 finishes in total defense and passing defense in 2016 and 2018
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Top-25 finishes in scoring defense in multiple seasons
Earlier in his career, Horner played a major role in four consecutive conference championships from 2011–14, five NAIA playoff berths and several seasons in which VCSU fielded one of the NAIA’s top defensive units.
A Fargo, North Dakota, native, Horner graduated from VCSU in 1990. He was a member of the Vikings’ 1988 NDCAC championship and NAIA playoff team and served as VCSU Student Senate president in 1989. He began his coaching career as a student assistant under former Viking head coach Jim Dew.
Horner spent two years coaching at Gardner-Edgerton High School in Kansas before earning his master’s degree while serving as a graduate assistant at South Dakota State University from 1992–94. He returned to Valley City State in 1994 and has been a foundational leader within the program ever since.
In addition to his football responsibilities, Horner is a lecturer in VCSU’s Health and Physical Education Department. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children, Iain and Maren.
