Tufts hires Pat Norton as new hockey coach

After a 2013-2014 season in which it recorded a mere four wins, the Tufts hockey team resurged last season, ending the year on a high note with a victory over Trinity in the NESCAC quarterfinals and a close loss to Amherst in the semifinals. To ensure that their success continues, the Jumbos have brought in new head coach Pat Norton who boasts 20 years of coaching at the Div. I, Div. III and prep school levels, as well as a collegiate career at the University of New Hampshire. With decades of experience to draw from, Norton hopes to create a perennial powerhouse program.

The son of a hockey coach, Norton was exposed to the sport at an early age and fell in love with the game when his father's former players took him under their wing, helping him develop as a player. Highlights of his coaching career include a tenure as an assistant coach at Div. III Norwich University -- a team that won a national championshipand earned two additional Frozen Four berths during Norton's time there -- and assistant coaching jobs at the Div. I level, at the University of Vermont from 2000 to 2003 and Northeastern University from 2003 to 2004.

"[My long coaching career] allows me to bring patience," Norton said. "I’ve learned that where we want to be may not happen overnight and that we’ve got to allow this group of players to build a foundation. The second part of it is, I’ve got a lot of contacts and guys that I can go to and rely on as far as questions and experience -- guys that I’ve learned from, that I think will help a lot of the different situations...I’m going to face over the course of the year."

For the past 11 years Norton was head coach of the Tilton School in the New England Prep Schools Interscholastic Hockey Association (NEPSIHA) -- the highest level of prep school hockey. Norton's tenure as a coach in the NEPSIHA uniquely disposes him to recruit effectively for the Jumbos.

"There are probably about eight to 10 kids [from some of the schools that I am familiar with] that I don’t know would have been on Tufts’ radar [otherwise]," Norton said. "They are outstanding students [whom] I think are very, very good hockey players, and I’m planning on pursuing those kids and getting them involved in the process."

Along with assistant coach Matt Keating, Norton is also currently scouting players at the North American Hockey League Showcase in Minnesota.

After winning its first ever NESCAC playoff game last season against first-seeded Trinity, the team faces sky-high expectations this year. Rather than feeling the pressure, Norton embraces these heightened goals for the season as a means of getting the players to buy into their own success.

"I think it shows what the players are capable of," he said. "It’s now a question of putting that together with some consistency. I also think that one of the things that attracted me to the job...is [that there] are some very good players here. I didn’t feel like the tank was on empty. I’d like us to be hard to play against every single night. I’d like us to play an up-tempo style [of] hockey, but the most important thing is I want us to play and compete every single night and be disciplined. [I want] a competitive, disciplined hockey program every single night."

Because the Jumbos are currently in their off-season, Norton has yet to watch them practice but is currently meeting and getting to know his players before the season starts. Right now, what's exciting Norton the most is getting to see the players take the ice on Nov. 1, the official beginning of the preseason. Preparation for games is almost a second thought for the new coach, who is even more enthusiastic about the first practice. Norton hopes to build off of last year and compete for the NESCAC championship, but he emphasizes the importance of doing it the "right way."

“First of all, I want us to carry ourselves with a lot of class, and I want us to be a team that gets heavily involved in the community," Norton said. "I want to put a team together that’s successful, and I would say that I’m hungry to do that. And I’m putting together a staff that is hungry to do that as well. I think we are going to recruit...student-athletes that are going to represent the school in a positive fashion."

The Jumbos open their season on Nov. 20 by traveling to take on the Bantams for a rematch of last year's NESCAC quarterfinals. Trinity went on to win the national championship last season, so this match-up will be a good early test for Tufts. Before then, though, is a whole off-season and preseason -- opportunities for improvement and for the team to coalesce around Norton's vision for the upcoming season.