The Calgary, Alta. native will be inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in June
For Ross Norton, his success on the court with the Senior Men’s National Team was all about timing.
During his decade with the National Team, Norton helped Canada win back-to-back gold medals at the Paralympic Games in 2000 and 2004 and a silver medal in 2008.
Additionally, Norton won Gold at the 2006 Gold Cup World Championships in Amsterdam and a Gold Medal at the 2007 Visa Paralympic Cup in Manchester, England. He was also named tournament MVP at the 2001 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League final in Vancouver.
“I had a lot of fun when I played,” said Norton. “I think my timing was good. I came into the sport at the right time. I hit the right generation. We were the first to win Paralympic Gold in Sydney in 2000, and I enjoyed myself. I played because it was a lot of fun. We had a good coaching staff and fun players who made the sport fun, so I know I lucked out in the time that I had.”
In recognition of Norton’s success on the court, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame announced that he would be inducted with the 2025 Class at a ceremony in June.
“I’d say it’s a big honour, for sure. It’s always nice to be recognized for your accomplishments that you’ve had as an athlete,” Norton said. “Sydney was special. It was the first time that we had won. It was fun. Australians love sport. We were celebrities for a moment. That one is the most special to me.”
Norton was first introduced to wheelchair basketball by his physiotherapist and began playing the sport in 1989. He became a regular with local club teams and went on to represent the province of Alberta at the Canada Games and the national championships.
“I started playing in Red Deer and fell in love with the sport pretty fast,” Norton recalled. “That’s when I met Joe Higgins. Joe Higgins was another influential person in my early years, and he took me under his wing, got me on the Rollers, and started teaching me how to train and to win. That’s where it all started.”
In addition to on-court success, Norton says he created life-long friendships with teammates while competing with the Senior Men’s National Team.
“When I played, Dave Durepos was a close friend of mine, and we bonded as friends. We bonded as a group of athletes at that time too,” he said. “The coaching staff, we had Paul Bowes and Mike Frogley, and they made the experience really fun. They pushed us hard. Being pushed hard is also fun because then you want to play well for your teammates, and we had a good bond between us, the athletes and the coaching staff. I think that’s why we were successful, too.”
Norton wrapped his playing career following the 2008 Paralympic Games and took a break to reset.
Looking for a way to remain involved in the game, Norton decided to try coaching.
He began coaching his former team, the Alberta Northern Lights, in 2010.
Norton was named Canadian Women’s U25 National Team coach in 2014. He joined the coaching staff of the Men’s U23 National Team in 2021 and was a part of the coaching staff at the 2023 Canada Winter Games, helping Team Alberta win a silver medal in Charlottetown.
“You certainly have to learn communication,” Norton said of the transition from playing to coaching. “That’s the most important thing. You might know something very well, but that doesn’t mean that you can teach it to someone else. You have to really hone in on your communication, what you say, how you say it, the articulation of your words, and the words you use. It’s a good skill to learn. Coaching is not an easy thing to do.”
Norton credits Frogley as the most influential in terms of coaching style.
“My coaching philosophy is modelled a lot around his philosophy because that’s all I knew,” Norton explained. “That’s what I learned as an athlete, and that’s how I teach as a coach.”
Norton will be on the bench leading Alberta’s men’s team at the 2025 National Championships (May 23-25) in Oshawa, Ont.
The 51-year-old is in the middle of assembling his team.
“We’re going to have a tryouts soon. Tryouts are fun. I hope people enjoy the experience. We you don’t get very many opportunities to try out for a team,” said Norton. “Right now, I’ve got 14 or 15 athletes on the list, hoping for a few more. It’s fun to try your very best to make a top 10 or 12 athletes. I think by mid-March, we’ll have our roster selected.”
Norton, the Program Manager at the Alberta Northern Lights Wheelchair Basketball Society, says the sport sells itself when recruiting new athletes.
“Wheelchair basketball is an easy sell. Basketball is a fun sport. You don’t really have to sell it that hard,” he said. “It’s a great social environment. I think a lot of people start playing because of the social environment. Then they realize that, you know, they’re athletes, they’re not people with disabilities anymore. They’re an athlete. You have expectations of time management, being on time, being a good sportsman – all those things that people enjoy being part of.”