“It wasn’t anything besides open arms and welcome home,” said Coach Andrew Norwood of his return to Dublin ISD this year.
Norwood actually started his career coaching girls sports for the Lady Lions before transferring out to Ballenger, Comanche and Goldthwaite, where he spent the last two years heading the boys baseball program.
Norwood will be acting as defensive line coach for the Lions on the football field, heading the baseball team and coaching Junior High basketball. “I was raised in Anson which is a big baseball/ football town,” Norwood said. “It was kind of engrained in me. I’ve always really liked football and I love baseball. It’s been part of my journey.” After graduating high school, Norwood played some college football before going to finish his education at Midwestern State University.
Norwood cites his desire to be a coach to the impact that his coaches had on him when he was growing up.
“Coaches were a big part of my life growing up,” he said of the way they reached out to him. “There were a lot of times I wanted to be done, wanted to give up. They showed me not just how to play a sport but to be a man.”
Norwood said a big part of his goals for this year will be laying the proper foundation. “The biggest thing is our motto will be all glory to God,” he said, adding that the focus will be about building a family that works for the community. “Family means that I’m going to strive better for my brother every day. You have to think ‘how can I be a brother in the community?’” “If we’re not leading the right way, the kids aren’t going to lead the right way,” he added.
Norwood feels he’ll have the right support in the dugout from coaches Ian Newton and Hayden Hoerdemann.
He also feels blessed from the support he already felt from the school administration, staff and athletic director Greg Hardcastle.
When not coaching, Norwood will be teaching P.E. and Leadership classes.
Andrew and his wife of six years, Kristi, have two sons, Easton and Knox, whom they nickname the ‘bruisers.’