From the podcast: Hopkinton’s Dan Norton on learning the craft of coaching

On the latest episode of Chasing the Goal, Hopkinton, Mass., head coach Dan Norton talks about his coaching journey.

On this episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Owen Hart talk with Hopkinton (Mass.) head coach Dan Norton.

Norton played his high school lacrosse at Ashland (Mass.) High School before playing college lacrosse at Springfield. As a 2010 graduate of Springfield College, Norton became a physical education teacher and coached in multiple roles at his high school alma mater for a few years before taking over at Hopkinton in 2015.

Since then, Norton has guided the Hillers to double-digit win totals in all but two seasons and developed multiple players for the college level. Recently, Norton also founded the 495 club team with Tom O’Rourke. Norton is entering his 10th season as the head coach at Hopkinton and hopes to make a longer run in the MIAA playoffs.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Kyle Devitte: You’re a Springfield guy, which I forgot before we fired the podcast up and had some fun choice words before we started recording, but give me a little bit of your background and how you ended up at Springfield and how you transitioned into being a head coach at Hopkinton.

Dan Norton: I grew up in Ashland, played there for four years. I started with the youth program. The youth program was not around very long at that time, but it was still growing, so I hopped into it. My older brother played and he needed someone to play catch with so I joined up early. Then played in high school and went on to Springfield College. From there, I got a phys ed degree, started teaching in Hopkinton at the elementary school, and then was hired at Ashland, actually, my alma mater for a few years to be the head coach, and then the Hopkins job opened up in 2014 and I went there, but my first season as the head coach was 2015.

Devitte: Having that longevity at a public school program that you grew up next to, but maybe weren’t in that same town. I think we see a lot of coaches just stay at one school forever. I actually like that – I don’t think that’s bad at all.

I think giving back is part of being a coach. I’m not the coach at my alma mater, but I’m a coach at a school that was a mile away in New Hampshire, that’s rare because everything’s 10 miles away from each other.

How did you approach it at first? What were some of your earlier years compared to what you do now in terms of preseason scheduling, how you run the team, and things like that?

Norton: Early on, I got hired at 23. So, as a 23-year-old, I said I was ready, but looking back, I was not ready.

With X’s and O’s, that’s one thing, but, just dealing with everything, from the youth program to dealing with parents to the in-school type of stuff. So, I think over the years, just trying to learn from other coaches as much as possible was huge. I think the day you stop trying to learn, is, is the day that you probably should stop coaching.

So, hopefully, five years from now, I’m a different coach than I am now. 

I think that’s a huge part of it — growing as a coach.

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