Alex Hornibrook began making lists when he was in ninth grade.
"I would go into my notes folder on my phone and write up a bunch of goals for high school," he remembered. "A lot of them that I wrote down were pretty big goals, so I would check them after the season. Or even a year after. It was fun to look back on them."
Hornibrook still carries those goals on his phone. Goals from his formative years at Malvern Prep in suburban Philly. "I remember my sophomore year," he said, "I wanted to go to a (summer) camp and get a Division I scholarship on the spot. Other goals were All-State, all this …"
All-Inter-Academic, All-Main Line, All-City … Hornibrook was all that and more. As far as the early offers, he got them from Akron, UConn, Rutgers. The summer before his senior year, June of 2014, he committed to Paul Chryst, then at Pitt. When Chryst took the Wisconsin job, Hornibrook followed him.
"It's pretty cool to look back on those goals," said the 20-year-old Hornibrook.
Especially the notation on becoming a Division I starting quarterback. Hornibrook realized that goal last season with the Badgers by starting nine games as a redshirt freshman in what turned out to be a winning partnership with Bart Houston, a fifth-year senior. Hornibrook has new objectives for 2017.
"There are a few that I don't like sharing with anybody, a lot of them are private," admitted Hornibrook, who went 7-2 as a starter and threw for 1,262 yards. "I had some goals in the weight room, I had some for my body and I had some on the field — things that I want to accomplish.
"This year, it has amped up a little bit with what we've been hearing in the weight room from our strength coaches. They've focused on a lot of things outside of just lifting. So they've helped me a lot with that (setting goals)."
Photo: Wisconsin Badgers
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