Andy Norman Article

[Captain Kangaroo]

The Beacon can't write anything on the Zips while they're in school...but man can they write epic stories once they leave:

Owner gets to play again

Former Stow standout brings Lightning back to his old high school

By Darnell Mayberry

Beacon Journal staff writer

Here he is, owner of a professional basketball team.

And a player, too.

But he'll likely see mop-up minutes while playing for his team, the Akron Lightning, whose home opener is at 1 p.m. today at Stow High School.

There are few instances when Andy Norman isn't in control.

When Norman wants something, he gets it, which is why he and business partner Jason Herceg paid $45,000 to buy into the 17-team International Basketball League in its inaugural season.

It's the reason he married the 5-foot-4 blonde he fell in love with after only 10 months of dating. It's why he called representatives of the IBL just two days after Herceg slammed an ad on his desk that read, ``Own your own professional team.''

And it's why he jumped into the mortgage business only five years ago and already owns a company.

Norman operates another company, using as much intuition as drive. On a whim or gut feeling, he purchases houses before remodeling them and selling them for profit.

Another chance to play

Succumbing to someone else's orders never has been his style.

That is what makes Norman's entrance into the IBL so, well, unlike Norman.

When the Lightning tip off against Vancouver today, Norman will have no say in how his team is run.

It will be coach Jeff Snead's show.

IBL rules prevent owners from exerting authority during games. Not on their coach, players or officials.

``He has a little more say,'' Snead said of his player-boss. ``But I get on him like I get on the rest of the guys.''

Norman is one of two league owners to substitute shirt and tie for shorts and sneakers. The other, Detroit Pros owner Darryl Greene, is only expected to play in a few games.

Norman, the kid-at-heart 27-year-old, is the youngest owner among counterparts that range from wealthy entrepreneurs to doctors; NBA agents to medical equipment suppliers.

Norman's reasons for buying the team were simple. It offered him the chance to play one last time before a crowd. The thrill of owning a pro team was second to his desire to play.

Norman can outline in detail his entire prep career. He and Herceg, who was a year ahead of Norman, refer to ``The Glory Days'' often.

``I'd give up all my businesses and all my money if I could play one more high school game at Cuyahoga Falls, or a McKinley-Stow game,'' Norman said.

Norman and his Bulldog teammates received rock star treatment when they averaged 96 points and led Stow to a 23-1 record and the state's No. 1 ranking in the 1993-94 season, Norman's junior year. He averaged 20.3 points, 8.3 assists and 2.0 steals as a senior.

Norman went on to play at Ashland University for a year before transferring to the University of Akron, where he made the team as a walk-on.

His love for basketball grew, but so did his disdain for school. Norman dropped out of Akron at the end of his senior season, just five classes short of earning a degree in physical education. He has yet to complete the courses.

But that's Andy Norman. He gets want he wants and pushes aside what he doesn't.

Opportunity to succeed

As his final season concluded at Akron, Norman had no clue how he would make a living.

He worked as a janitor at both a neighborhood bowling alley and a tanning salon. Meanwhile, he met a petite brown-eyed blonde bartender. Ten months later, the two married.

Rayell Norman remembers how she was attracted to Andy's charm and kindness. She loved his outgoing personality and ability to make good conversation.

They are qualities others admire, as well.

``If he's in a room, people flock to him because of his personality,'' said Nate Schindewolf, Norman's teammate and roommate throughout college and current teammate with the Lightning. ``He's a leader and people are drawn to him for that fact.''

But when Norman got married, he wasn't leading anyone. He didn't have a plan for his life.

He knew he wanted more than custodial duty. After refusing to mop up vomit in the bowling alley restroom, he quit the job that paid him 70 bucks a day.

He became married and jobless.

Norman applied for a job as janitor at Stow High School, the same building in which he was revered just five years earlier.

Eventually, Andy asked his older brother Eddie for a job at the Akron-area mortgage company where he was a manager, and Eddie came through.

``I knew that if I just got that opportunity, I had a chance to make some real money,'' Andy said. ``This was something that I knew that I could succeed at and knew that I almost had to succeed at. This was my opportunity.''

Building a career

Norman made the most of it.

He jumped to different mortgage companies throughout the next few years, learning from his peers. Money soon became his motivation, as sharp-dressed brokers surrounded him. He became captivated.

Just when he began his ascension in the business world, Norman encountered problems, with -- of all things -- real estate.

The Normans purchased a home in Rayell's name, only to learn a few months later that it had a severe leak in the basement. It would have cost $25,000 to repair the Stow home.

``I didn't do an inspection, and that's my fault,'' Andy Norman said.

The Normans decided that it made more sense for Rayell to declare bankruptcy in December 2003 and allow the bank to seize the home.

It didn't take long for them to recover.

By 2004, Andy had gained enough business savvy to start VP Equity, a Stow mortgage company that brokers loans. The company employs 11 people and Norman said it generates a monthly net profit of roughly $25,000.

From there, he began a Stow investment company called HH&N, which buys and remodels homes before reselling them.

Norman has created a name for himself outside the lines of a basketball court.

``I've never been the type that didn't think I could do something,'' he said. ``I was always the type of person where I never feared anything. Never will fear anything. Ever.''

Norman's parents, Eddie and Marina, fueled his drive to succeed. He respected his parents' working-class life but wanted more. He saw how his father worked more than 30 years as a meat cutter. He didn't want to be like his mother, who put in just as many years at Roadway Express.

``If (Andy) just had one job and went to work 8 to 5 every day and came home, he would be bored,'' said Rayell, who is three-and-a-half months pregnant with the couple's first child. ``He's just always got to be involved and doing something.

``It's something inside him. That's just his personality. He gets an idea, and he goes with it.''

More `Glory Days'

Norman's caring side often dominates his behavior.

He could have moved the Lightning anywhere in the area but chose Stow High School for their home games to help the community.

When he coached the Ravenna High varsity basketball team the past two years, he often treated his players to dinner, movies and pizza parties.

School board members didn't see the team's progress off the court. They saw the team's 0-21 record and released Norman, at least temporarily ending his coaching career.

Norman surrounds himself with friends and family. He's in business with several childhood and college buddies. It's why the Lightning roster is filled with local talent the community can identify and enjoy watching.

It's why Herceg, who Norman has known since kindergarten, is his business partner. Why, after practice, he tells Lightning players like Jason Workman that he loves him. Why he also gave Workman, a close friend, one-third of HH&N.

So, here's Andy Norman.

The former janitor who is now an owner-player.

The former basketball star who now lives directly across the street from Stow High School.

The man who talks about ``The Glory Days'' of the past and of those yet to come.