Fourth-year coach Nathan Norman has Central football team on the rise

Take a stroll through Central High School with football coach Nathan Norman, and you'll notice a trend.

With each passing person -- coach, player, teacher or student -- Norman stops to say something.

That's the coach the people at Central have grown to appreciate over the last four years as Norman continues to shape the school's football program into a distinguished entity. But defeating the prototype of that vision will be the Tigers' next challenge.

Webb City has won four consecutive state championships, and the only thing standing in the way of its fifth straight title is Central, which will vie for its first state crown this weekend in its first state championship appearance.

The Tigers and Cardinals will square off in the Show-Me Bowl's Class 4 title game at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, bringing an end to Central's historic season.

"I'm super proud of the program, the school and my staff," Norman said. "... We're nowhere near where we want to be as far as developing a program, but we're on the right track. It makes you feel good."

Much of the Tigers' success is a credit to Norman, whose determination to win on the football field begins elsewhere -- in the classroom, in the weight room and in practice.

For Norman, that desire to succeed began only 15 minutes up the road, behind the walls of Jackson High School.

'Ultimate team player'

Nathan Norman (47) starred as a fullback at Jackson High School and later played at Arkansas. (Missourian file photo)

The son of John and Linda Norman, Nathan was born March 20, 1978. He has two older brothers, Brandon and Tyson.

Nathan is eight years younger than Brandon, who graduated from Jackson in 1988. He went on to play college football at Southeast Missouri State University before eventually returning to Jackson, where he serves as an assistant coach on the football team.

While in high school, Brandon was an all-state linebacker and a state champion in wrestling. His passion for sports left an impression on Nathan's younger days.

"I don't know, for whatever reason, I was always into sports. I guess it had to do with my brother playing high school football, and I would be at the games," Nathan said. "I think it's a prime age to follow someone. He's 16, you're 8. That's a big mark. What he's doing when he's 16, most little 8-year-olds want to do the same thing. ... I was always a big fan of football and always outdoors playing when I was a kid. I was always outside."

Like his older brothers, Norman went on to establish a football career of his own in high school.

He played linebacker and fullback for the Indians under head coach Carl Gross. In Norman's junior year, Jackson lost 12-6 to Excelsior Springs in the Class 4A state title game and returned the following year, only to come up short again at the title game, dropping a 20-19 decision to Camdenton.

"As a player, he was intense and played with a great deal of focus," said Van Hitt, who was Norman's defensive coordinator in high school and now serves on his coaching staff as Central's linebackers coach. "He was very coachable and would try to do what you asked him to do on the field. He was just a hard-nosed player."

Upon graduating in 1996, Norman went on to play college football at Arkansas. He turned down full-ride offers from Missouri and Ole Miss and a partial scholarship from then-powerhouse Nebraska, opting instead to play fullback for the Razorbacks.

"It didn't matter to me at the time what position I played. I just went where I felt more comfortable, as far as the coaching staff and the team," Norman said. "It just felt more like home, so that's why I chose Arkansas."

At the time, Gross referred to Norman as "the ultimate team player."

"If you looked up the picture-perfect football player in the encyclopedia, you'd find a picture of Nathan Norman," Gross said in a 1996 interview with the Southeast Missourian.

Norman was also a state champion in wrestling at Jackson. He finished runner-up his junior year and claimed a state crown his senior season, losing one match all season to Kentucky state champion Livingston Merritt.

On top of that, Norman competed in track and field his senior year. His 100-meter relay team reached state, where he also qualified in the shot put, finishing eighth.

But Norman's true passion was football.

He was recruited to Arkansas by former coach Danny Ford but spent his final two seasons under the direction of Houston Nutt. The Razorbacks were 17-7 combined in Norman's junior and senior seasons, winning the Citrus Bowl and the Cotton Bowl, respectively. Norman finished his career with a modest 136 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown on 22 carries, but it was the overall college experience at Arkansas that left the biggest effect on his life.

"Growing up in Jackson, I was naive to the world," Norman said. "Moving off to go to school was the best thing that happened to me because you just learn so many life lessons that you can't get unless you experience that. It was tough, hard. I was homesick, hated it at first, and then I loved it at the end like most kids do that hang in there and stick it out. It was a very, very good experience for me.

"I learned a lot about life and learned a lot about people, how other people live outside the community of Jackson."

Life after college

After receiving his undergraduate degree in kinesiology, Norman was signed by the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent. He played for the Panthers for one preseason but didn't make the cut, so he headed back to Arkansas to get his master's degree in education.

Norman eventually returned to Jackson, where he spent seven to eight years as an assistant coach in football, wrestling and track, until one day a new opportunity presented itself.

Norman's former strength coach at Arkansas, Don Decker, recently had accepted a job as Ole Miss' football strength coach. He offered Norman the opportunity to join him on Nutt's staff there as a strength and conditioning coach.

"I've always been a weight-room guy," Norman said. "... The opportunity was there. My wife and I made a huge, huge decision to both quit our jobs and move to Mississippi to try our hand at college coaching.

"Up until that time, going to Arkansas was the biggest risk I'd ever taken. We did it. We both quit our jobs. We had a 1-year-old boy and a 3-year-old boy at the time. ... I always felt like if I hadn't taken the risk, I would look back and regret it later in life, and I didn't want to do that. I felt like we had to do it."

The Rebels finished their 2009 season at 9-4 and closed it with a 21-7 win over Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.

But with his two young kids, Owen and Noah, and his wife, Audrey, Norman decided it was time for his family to return to their roots in Missouri.

"I loved that year and a half. ... It was a fabulous year. We had great kids," Norman said. "... I had an opportunity to come back to this area. Cape Central was needing an assistant coach."

A new era

Central football coach Nathan Norman addresses students during a pep assembly at Cape Central High School Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. (Glenn Landberg)

The Tigers had just ended an 0-9 season when Norman joined the coaching staff as an assistant but followed it up with a 10-2 record in 2010.

"It was a tough decision, once again. I'd only been [at Ole Miss] a year, and I was about to come back to my normal life, my wife and I. On top of that, I was going to work for my rival school," Norman said. "It was a tough decision, but hey, Cape Central welcomed me with open arms. It's been phenomenal. It was another great move. I truly believe going to Ole Miss set me up for being a head coach at Cape Central."

Rich Payne stepped down as the Tigers' head coach in December 2010. On Dec. 13, 2010, Norman was named his successor.

"I was blessed with unbelievable, phenomenal, tremendous high school coaches. Wrestling, track, football. Looking back now, they were unbelievable," Norman said. "... I just knew that I liked the life they lived, and I emulated that."

Many of Norman's former coaches paved the way for his ambition to become a coach. Former track and wrestling coach Steve Wachter; former football coaches Hitt, Bob Sink and Carl Gross; and former baseball coach David Gross were several people he cited.

"I have a great respect for all coaches," Norman said. "I walked into a good situation when I got here. We've changed some things that have helped, and we've been blessed with good kids. I've got great assistant coaches. This is the right place for me right now. I relate well with these kids. They know that I care about them. They know that my staff cares about them, and that's the most important thing."

The program already was beginning to undergo a new era in Norman's first season.

Central opened the gates to a new stadium Sept. 2, 2011, and Norman became the first coach to lead the Tigers in a football game on school grounds.

Despite graduating 24 seniors from the year before, Central finished its 2011 campaign with a 6-3 record. The Tigers were 5-7 in 2012 and lost to Hillsboro 28-20 in the district championship but opened some eyes in the playoffs. Central had knocked off top-seeded Sikeston 17-14 in the district semifinals before losing in the next round.

Improvement has been the key to each of the Tigers' last four seasons, which Norman credits to the school's willingness to invest in the program.

"Our administration supported us in our goal by helping us in the weight room. We've added equipment to the weight room and added availability to the weight room for our athletes. That's the No. 1 thing that happened. Our kids have bought in, and we're not even where we want to be. They're still buying into the weight room," Norman said.

"If you look at our games that we've won and lost this year, every game we've won, we've been more physical than our opponent," he said. "Every game we've lost, you could argue that they were more physical than us. You always talk about speed. Speed kills, and it does in football. But physicality kills as well. We want to be as physical as we can be, so this weight room is my No. 1 goal here. And it's helped."

The Tigers finished the 2013 regular season at 5-4 but advanced all the way to the state semifinals, where their season came to an end in a 46-0 loss against host Webb City.

Central was forced to start from scratch this season at each position on the offensive line, at quarterback and at running back, but struggles have been virtually nonexistent.

The Tigers are 12-2 and have won more games than any team in the school's history.

Central coach Nathan Norman talks to his team after their 34-14 victory over Affton in the Class 4 state quarterfinal Friday, Nov. 14, 2014 in Affton, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

Norman gives credit to his administration for allowing him to add coaches to his staff.

"Right now, we are equal to the number of coaches we have to the teams in our conference -- Poplar Bluff, Farmington, Sikeston, Jackson," Norman said. "Before I got here, we were behind in the number of coaches on the staff."

The members of Norman's 10-man staff are defensive coordinator Scott Schweinbold, offensive coordinator Tim McGuire, Bobby Haggerty, Kit Eifert, Van Hitt, Sink, Britt Mirgaux, Gary Lynch, James Hitt and Tatum Kitchen.

"I have great assistant coaches. They all, more than football, love kids. They love helping kids," Norman said. "They're genuine coaches that want to help kids, and these kids here see that. They want to play for us. That's one of the proudest things on this team and last year's team is that the kids know that we as coaches have their backs, and they know that we care about them. I think that shows. They play hard."

The coaching staff features a variety of individuals. Sink and Van Hitt both served as assistant coaches in Norman's high school days at Jackson and will coincidentally be honored along with Norman and the rest of the 1994 Jackson team during this weekend's Show-Me Bowl.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Tigers have several younger coaches, which Norman said allows his players "so many different personalities to pick from."

"Everyone has been through a lot of experiences throughout their coaching, and most of the coaches on staff have mostly been a head coach at some point in time or a coordinator at some point," said Schweinbold, who joined the Tigers' coaching staff in 2004 under then-coach Lawrence Brookins. "I don't know the exact number of experience that we all have, but I know that with the distinguished gentlemen on our staff, I'll bet we have over 100 years. That's been crucial because everybody's seen everything, and everyone's been through every kind of experience you can imagine with football."

In his four seasons, Norman has amassed a 32-17 record, but it's just the beginning of what he and his coaching staff envision for the program.

"We all have one common goal. That's the biggest thing. There aren't any egos involved or anything," Van Hitt said. "We want to do what we can to make our kids successful and win on Friday nights."