The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Basketball Roots Run Deep In Norton Family
3/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Irvine, UABsports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Opening presents and filling your stomach with food are the conventional family Christmas.
"For 25 years, they always go to the gym (to play basketball) on Christmas Day," said Claire Norton, whose husband, Randy, is the UAB women's basketball head coach and son, Nick, is the starting point guard on the UAB team that will play in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on Thursday against Iowa State in Louisville, Ky. "Some of the kids are like `Oh my gosh, we're the only family that has to work out on Christmas Day' but it's sort of part of what we do. It's pretty much year round and we love it."
Saying basketball is part of the Norton family's life understates what the sport means to Randy and Claire and their four children. When it comes to athletics, basketball is their life.
*Randy, the son and grandson of high school basketball coaches, played basketball and baseball at the University of Iowa. He was a member of an Iowa team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament Final Four in 1980. He was also a four-year letterman as a pitcher on the baseball team and spent three years in the Montreal Expo organization. Afterward, he got into basketball coaching, compiling 230-95 record and winning two state titles as a boys' basketball head coach and serving as an assistant women's basketball coach at Illinois State and Missouri. He just finished his second season at the helm of UAB's women's basketball program.
*Tom, the oldest child, is second on the career chart with 263 3-pointers at Truman State, a NCAA Division II school in Missouri. *Carly was part of an Illinois state high school championship team and played in college at NAIA St. Ambrose in Iowa.
*Allie just finished her career at Truman State and leaves as the program's all-time leader with 277 3-pointers. As a sophomore, she led all of D-II in 3-point shooting percentage. She also was part of a team that won an Illinois state high school title.
*Nick, the youngest, burst onto the college scene this season, earning Conference USA All-Freshman honors and helping the Blazers win the C-USA Tournament title for the first time and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011. He is also a year removed from leading Central Catholic High in Bloomington, Ill. to a state championship.
Holding it all together at home is Claire, a former gymnast, who grew up as the only girl in a sibling group of five.
"We've always said if you don't want to play, you don't have to play, especially in college," Claire said. "I think deep down, they just love the game and it's part of their life. I don't think they ever thought about not playing."
Part of the reason for that was playing basketball meant sharing time with their father, which is the same way Randy grew up.
"I can remember being four or five years old and going to my dad's practices with him and riding the bus with him to the games," Randy said. "I just loved the memories that I had growing up because I was with my dad. I was hanging out with my dad and the players were always great to me. I wanted my kids to have that same experience."
The kids showed up for practices and games from the time they were old enough to walk. They served as managers and ball boys and ball girls. They hung out with the players. They soaked in knowledge and had fun. It became a way of life.
When they were home, they often were playing 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 games on the family court. It was the games which shaped their competitive spirit, probably most so for Nick, the baby of the family, who is five years younger than his brother.
"My sister, Allie, who is closest to me in age, she had me crying because I could not beat her 1-on-1," Nick said. "I was like `How does a girl beat me?' They were real competitive games, usually my brother would start something with my sisters and make them mad. Those were fun times."
Nick might have been the sibling closest to breaking the basketball tradition within the family. He also fell in love with baseball as a youngster and chose travel baseball over travel basketball. However, once he entered high school, Nick chose basketball.
Good choice.
Nick was a second-team All-State selection as a high school sophomore and first-team choice as a junior despite a late-season knee injury. He attended school in Columbia, Mo. while his father was as at the University of Missouri. Before his senior year, after Randy took the UAB head coaching position, Nick went back to Bloomington to finish up at Central Catholic, where all his siblings attended. He averaged 17.5 points and 6.3 assists per game and scored 25 points in a triple overtime victory in the 2A State Championship game.
He was committed to Creighton early in his high school career but reopened his recruitment before his senior season. He chose UAB and arrived affixed with questions from those who hadn't seen him play.
At 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds, was he big enough to play right away? Was he quick enough to chase college guards? "I've heard that over and over," Norton said, a small smiling creasing his face.
"My family has been there throughout it all, saying `You can do it, you can do it' and pushing me and not letting me let up. You know there are going to be people saying `Oh, he can't do it at the next level.' You just got to keep working and rely on the people you love."
He certainly proved himself this season, averaging 7.6 points and 3.9 assists while leading the Blazers in 3-pointers with 58. He hit big shot after big shot and made key plays throughout the season. On Sunday, with his family in the stands, he helped UAB earn a trip to the Big Dance.
Most have family reunions in a park. Fittingly, the Norton's family reunion came in an arena.
"It's cool because his siblings were all there," Claire said. "I feel like we all had a little bit to do with him getting there. Everybody in the family kind of put in their effort and it culminated with him. We're very excited for him and the team."
Obviously, Nick still has a lot of time on the court ahead of him. He also already has a plan for the future. He wants to follow in his father's footsteps as a college coach. Nick knows his days as a head coach are well into the future but he already has part of his plan.
"A dream of mine is to become a head coach and get my dad out of retirement to come be my last assistant or something like that," Nick said. After all, it is the family business.
