Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Kelly Berger
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Last year’s game on Senior Night – there was a super long rain delay but then we came out and crushed!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Well, my freshman year on the lacrosse team I was known as “Baby Spice” so there’s that.
Music on iPod: 90 percent country with some “High School Musical” and Hannah Montana thrown in there.
Future plans: To graduate college and then I’m not sure yet!
Words to live by: “Mind over body.”
One goal before turning 30: Skydive!
One thing people don’t know about me: When I was little, I was convinced I would be an Olympic gymnast despite the fact that I only ever took one class.
By GORDON GLANTZ
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
- Maya Angelou
CB East lacrosse standout Julia Norek can relate to the above quote from the famed author/poet.
Her long and winding road to ultimate success was detoured from the outset, but she was able to summon the strength to fight for what others were being handed, almost as entitlements.
The granddaughter of longtime legendary Ridley High football coach Joe McNicholas, Norek hails from an athletic family.
But she seemed to struggle to find the right sport, trying the likes of basketball and soccer without much satisfaction.
Her mother, Kathy, suggested lacrosse, one of the most popular sports in the region, which sounded fine.
One problem: Julia was already in seventh grade.
Most of the other young ladies she was joining forces with for the Lady Bulldogs club team had been playing since they could walk.
“It was really rough in the beginning,” recalled Norek, the Patriots’ leading scorer, despite playing midfield. “Everyone else had started so young. I remember trying to pass on the wall, and it would take like a whole hour just to get 10 in a row.”
Personal Braveheart
Norek participated for the “B” team and assumed she would advance to the “A” squad the following year with the other eighth graders.
But when she was told she was to be one of only two eighth graders left behind, she was admittedly devastated.
“I cried. I was embarrassed,” she said. “I felt entitled, I guess, to be on the ‘A’ team. When I came home, I started to cry some more. My mom told me to stop crying and work through it. I went back and asked the coach what I needed to work on. Overall, being one of the older and better players on the team, it was rewarding.”
From those humble beginnings, Norek is able to fully appreciate the journey that has led her to the hard-earned success she enjoys now.
Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That might be a well-worn cliché to some. Not to Norek, whose perseverance saw her on CB East’s varsity roster as a sophomore. She became a starter midway through that season and has been an integral part of a program that has undergone several coaching changes ever since.
“It has definitely been gratifying,” she said. “After my freshman year (on junior varsity), I got way better. And a lot of the older girls on the team, who were better players than I was, were really helpful.”
When it came time to write a college essay, the owner of a 4.178 grade-point average wrote about the discovery of strength she found in herself and “about me overcoming my ego.”
She called it “Braveheart,” named for the moment-of-truth one-on-one lacrosse drill, not the Mel Gibson movie.
In it, she wrote: “I talked to the coach, asking what I needed to work on, what I could do to advance my skills, to become an ‘A-Team’ player. Instead of joking around and counting down the minutes at practice, I pushed myself, giving it my all in everything we did. My skills gradually began to improve, resulting in more playing time, more passes, more goals. I was not just playing for my personal benefit; I was playing for the entire team. Like the star drill we did in practice, I was a point contributing to the whole – there was no center.”
Paying it Forward
Current coach Kelly White, who has formed a symbiotic bond with her captain, has not been around Norek that long, but she can appreciate her personal struggle and how it has shaped her.
“Julia is a fantastic young lady and lacrosse player,” said White, formerly the coach at Pennsbury. “She is a natural leader who excels on the field as well as in the classroom. The team has been through some tough transitions, and she has handled those challenges with grace and dignity. Julia's teammates and coaches rely heavily on Julia because they believe she can make the big play.
“I am very lucky as a first year coach to CB East to have someone like Julia on my squad. My only regret is that Julia is a senior and I will no longer benefit from her talent on the field and her leadership qualities.”
Norek, who was also a diver for the CB East swim team but gave up this past winter when a small fracture in her foot was discovered, has nothing but praise for Kelly and her staff.
She is enthused about the team’s chemistry on a squad that lost eight starters and has but three seniors.
“With the new coaches, we had to struggle to come together,” said Norek, who plans to play club-level lacrosse at one of the four schools – South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Penn State -- on her list of finalists. “I think we have worked through that well.
“I have great teammates, and awesome coaches. I know it sounds a little bit cliché but that’s the truth. We have a great team. Once we get out there for practice, it’s not hard to stay focused. Everyone is excited to be there.”
As for leadership, Norek is simply paying it forward.
“I think I try to lead through example,” she said. “I’m not really good at motivational talks, but I try to make it known what everyone’s responsibilities are.”
Reigning Victorious
If Norek is excelling as a role model, it is because she had her role models, and most are dangling right from her own family tree.
There is her aunt, Mary Beth Bakey, a former Penn State lacrosse player who has been an “inspiration” throughout.
And her mother, who kept Norek believing in herself back on the fateful day and remained a pillar of strength.
“I really have my mom to thank,” said Norek. “She got me involved, and drove me everywhere. When I was younger, it was hard for me, but she kept motivating me.”
Meanwhile, her “Pop Pop,” has become quite the lacrosse expert.
“Every time I see him or he comes to a game he'll give me advice,” said Norek. “He tells my mom on the sideline all the time about how he would run defense or offense, etc. -- if he was coaching based on certain strengths of players and such.
“Just this past weekend, for example, he and my grandmom came down to visit and he just kept telling me that the most important thing to do when I mess up is to think about what I did wrong and then fix it. He really is awesome. He doesn't really know much about lacrosse -- at least compared to football -- especially since the game has grown a lot since my aunt used to play, but his coaching is still so applicable and insightful. It's really so cool and such a privilege to hear his thoughts on how I played and the game in general.”
While Norek has been fortunate to have so many supporters in her corner, not letting her throw in towel, she is the one who proved true the prize fighter’s hymn that it is not how many times you get knocked down but how many times your get back up.
And in her “Braveheart” essay, her own words are as powerful as any noted writer.
She closed her essay as follows: “When I didn’t make the A-team, I had, in effect, lost the ball. Gotten checked, slashed, hacked: worthless without the incomparable prize of being a member of the A-team. But the beating my ego took was necessary, as it taught me that I was not the best, and if I wanted to make the A-team, any A-team, ever, I would need to work for it. Resilience and persistence succeed where self-importance and expectation never could, leading me to reign victorious in my own personal braveheart.”
