his coaching tree<\/a>. \u201cWhen you do what you love, it\u2019s not really work. I have the privilege to come to the university every day and serve and give back to the next generation through the sport of which I love that my dad instilled\u2026by the time the NCAA Tournament is over I\u2019m going to be over 40 nights not slept in my own bed, whether we\u2019re on the road recruiting, whether we\u2019re on the road playing a game.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Horodyski family got to enjoy the special championship moment together, including Bobby\u2019s wife and 18-month-old son.<\/p>\n
![\"Queens](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Queens-University-assistant-coach-and-former-Buchholz-basketball-player-Bobby-Horodyski-cutting-down.jpeg\")
Courtesy of Bob Horodyski Queens University assistant coach and former Buchholz basketball player Bobby Horodyski cutting down the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament nets on March 8.<\/p>\n
Bob\u2019s youngest son, Jonathan, was also there, along with Bobby and Jonathan\u2019s mom, MaryBeth Horodyski, and Zach Schmidt, a high school teammate of Bobby\u2019s who won a district championship together at Buchholz and on a Bobcats team that went\u00a0all the way to the regional final in 2009.<\/p>\n
Jonathan also played for Queens (2017 to\u00a02020) when the Royals competed at the Division-II level and was a part of an NCAA Final Four, an Elite 8 and a Sweet 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was incredible to watch,\u201d said Jonathan, who is currently the president of their collective and in charge of Queen\u2019s NIL. \u201cDuring my time at Queens, our team had the opportunity to cut down the nets twice in the conference tournament. Getting to see Bobby and this team cut down the nets for the first time at the Division-I level was a thrilling moment. I know the amount of work, discipline, and adversity that goes into something like that, so to see it pay off and now getting to see them play on the biggest stage in college basketball is really special, not just for them, but for everyone connected to the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it all started many years ago in Gainesville.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuchholz has a special place in my heart,\u201d said Bobby Horodyski, who moved to Gainesville shortly before his third birthday and met his wife in student government at Buchholz. \u201cAbsolutely love Gainesville. I literally grew up in Gainesville, so that\u2019s home to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonathan played for his dad from 2012 to 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many great memories of coaching Bobby and Jonathan,\u201d Bob Horodyski said. \u201cThey were two of the most unselfish players I ever coached. My assistant, Blake Golden, who did most of the subbing, would have to threaten to take them out because they would not shoot the ball enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two memories came to Bob\u2019s mind about their high school careers.<\/p>\n
The first was the second round of the regional playoffs when Bobby\u2019s team was in the second round at Spruce Creek (Port Orange).<\/p>\n
\u201cSpruce Creek had a 300+ pound wing who was pretty good,\u201d Bob Horodyski said. \u201cWith under a minute to go up one, Bobby took a charge on that player. You couldn\u2019t see him under the pile. We went on to win it by three and lost to Austin Rivers and Winter Park in the region finals. After the loss, (coach) Doc Rivers came up to me to say hello, and I asked him if he would say a few words to the team after the loss. Doc went in and saw Jonathan sitting on a bench crying, and Doc said, \u2018who is that?\u2019 I said, \u2018my youngest son, Jonathan.\u2019 Doc said \u2018I love it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A memory of Jonathan was the district championship game against Fletcher (Neptune Beach).<\/p>\n
\u201cOur best player, Bryan Chalifoux, was ejected for hanging on the rim in the first half,\u201d Bob said. \u201cAt halftime, I said to Jonathan, who did not score in the first half, that he needed to get selfish and take the game over and start scoring. He scored 18 points in the second half and hit six straight free throws down the stretch to seal the district championship. I recall you gave him the player of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonathan said some of his best experiences in Gainesville and at Buchholz stemmed from the \u201cstrong sense of community and family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my father serving as the head coach at Buchholz throughout my childhood, I had a unique vantage point to observe the success and culture he built over the years,\u201d he said. \u201cWatching my brother play for him added another layer of significance. In 2016, I had the opportunity to join the program myself, playing for my father alongside teammates I had grown up and competed with since elementary and middle school. Those years taught me lessons about hard work, accountability, and teamwork that I still lean on every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as the game tonight, Bob said he booked the flights and hotel five minutes after it was announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, being a 15-seed, it is going to be a difficult game,\u201d he said. \u201cPurdue\u2019s size inside is going to be a problem. Purdue has a history of losing in the first round as a high seed, so not sure if that history helps or hurts. Queens is going to have to shoot well from deep and needs to make 15-20 3\u2019s to have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queens may be a Cinderella team, but Bobby is totally fine with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess at the end of the day, all you want is a seat at the table, a chip and a chair,\u201d he said. \u201cGive us a poker chip, give us a chair to sit in, and let us go play our hand, let our guys go fight, claw, and scrap, and give it everything they have to represent our city, our university, our athletic department, our team, their family, and at the end of the day our guys are going to give it everything. I love our team and I love our guys and if we can get shots to fall, we\u2019ll have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March Madness has a special feeling for the Horodyski family. Tonight at 7:35 p.m. on truTV,\u00a0No. 15 seed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-169595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}