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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, Ja nu ar y 4, 20 18 | 34 312 GUELPH ST., GEORGETOWN 905-877-2296 www.georgetowntoyota.com Saturday Jan 6th, 2018 7:30 pm at Mold-Masters SportsPlex Georgetown Raiders vs. Buffalo Jr. Sabres Looking over the list of the 40 Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award recipients before him, Dennis Norton says he's either been mentored by or worked with "a grand majority" of those honourees. Norton, 63, was born and raised in Glen Williams, learn- ing to skate on the Credit River alongside brother Don before playing tyke under 1998 Hockey Heritage winner Walter 'Red' Asseltine. His father, Roy Norton Sr., the second Hockey Heritage re- cipient, in 1979, ran the Satur- day morning Legion Minor Hockey leagues and Dennis served as a timekeeper. "My family was always in- volved with hockey and it wasn't out of the norm for a lot of peo- ple we knew in town," said Nor- ton, naming 1999 award recipi- ent Bob Webster as his favourite coach. "There was a lot of great men- torship for me growing up from past recipients and it wasn't just about hockey, but in real-life skills as well. Of course, when my own kids got involved, you register and they remind you that coaches are needed and you step up to the plate. These pro- grams wouldn't exist without the volunteers, but it wasn't like work. It was enjoyable to see the smile on a kid's face. That was the payback." Norton played for the Legion minor Jr. A team and at the all- star level before catching the coaching bug as a teen, helping out with the Saturday morning American Hockey League for three years. When sons Brad and Ryan began playing, Norton followed their careers by coaching or as- sisting, winning house league and Tri-County titles while earning the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association's (GMHA) Coach of the Year award in 1996- 97 and the Joe Pentesco Execu- tive of the Year honour in 1998 and 2000. But wins and losses were not the top priority for Norton's teams. During those years, he was the lead instructor for the GMHA's IP, introducing skills development and fundamentals to kids under seven years old. "You can never lose a hockey game if you know what you need to work on to improve your team for the next outing," Norton added. "That's where I come from. A loss is actually a learning expe- rience and it should be for ev- eryone. You try to develop that kind of thought process where you say, 'Yes, we didn't get the two points, but we know now what we have to do next time to get those two points.'" Norton took on a number of executive roles with the GMHA and helped develop a manual to assist both rep and junior house league coaches with practice- planning workshops and re- source materials, along with a yearly plan for tyke coaches to reinforce and support skills be- ing developed in the initiation program. In 1996, he received a call from Tom Bly at the Ontario Mi- nor Hockey Association (OM- HA) asking him to join the orga- nization's IP Working Commit- tee and he became the point man for programs across the province for several years. He was also a certified course con- ductor, facilitating CHIP and coach level certification work- shops for the OMHA. Norton said he's excited about the recent Hockey Cana- da directive to make it mandato- ry for players at the CHIP level to play cross-ice/half-ice hock- ey, allowing them to better de- velop their skills. "Let's make the game age ap- propriate and size appropriate for the age," said Norton, who acknowledged there's been a lot of parent resistance to the move, despite analytic proof to show otherwise. "The science and the data is there that proves it is best for the participant. We all want the best for our kids and it's hard for some people to accept that it doesn't have to be played on a full ice surface, but I think we're going in the right direction." In February 2000, Norton and John Murphy ran the very first Canadian Hockey Initiation Program Festival for the OMHA in Georgetown, resulting in the development of an initiation program (IP) Festival guide and manual on how to operate a suc- cessful IP festival, which is still utilized today. He worked on a number of OMHA Coach Tech Committees (CTC) over the years to improve coaching certification pro- grams and helped develop the "Our Game" presentation for parents that was used at a num- ber of parent nights for local 2018 Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award winner: Dennis Norton EAMONN MAHER emaher@theifp.ca Glen Williams native Dennis Norton has been chosen as the 2018 recipient of the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Council Award. The longtime coach and Georgetown/Halton Hills Minor Hockey Association executive will be honoured at the 41st-annual GHHC Awards Dinner on Monday, March 5 at the Acton Legion. Eamonn Maher/Metroland l See NORTON, page 35 SPORTS Visit theifp.ca for more coverage