York’s Tom Norwell receives 2015 Gino Fracas Award as CIS Assistant Coach of the Year

York University football coach, Tom Norwell earned the 2015 Gino Fracas Award, presented to the CIS Assistant Coach of the Year, on Thursday night at the Sun Life All-Canadian Banquet Presented by Mallette.

Tom Norwell has been the assistant head coach and linebackers coach at York University since joining the Lions in 2010 alongside head coach Warren Craney.

Tom’s involvement as a university coach is impressive given that he works full-time in Tennessee where he was hired as president of Remington Industries in 2012. Tom uses vacation time during the end of August to ensure that he’s on campus during training camp. During the season, he commutes into Toronto in time for Thursday night practice, stays for the weekend’s game and helps with corrections on Sunday before flying back to Tennessee for another work week.

During the off-season, he’s available for weekly recruiting meetings by phone and makes a point of flying into Toronto whenever top-level recruits visit campus so that he can participate in the process.

Norwell also spent two terms on Team Ontario’s coaching staff at the Football Canada Cup, serving as the defensive line coach in 2011 while in 2012 he served as the special teams coordinator and linebackers coach. Prior to joining the coaching staff at York, he spent 10 years as the defensive coordinator at Dr. G.W. Williams S.S. in Aurora, and has also worked as a guest coach with Concordia University and the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL.

“When I was initially hired at York, one of the first people I asked to join my coaching staff was Tom because I wanted his expertise and passion as part of my team. His dedication to our program is evident and it means a lot to me that he puts in so much time to make the York Lions better with his own hectic schedule. I am honoured to have him coach alongside me and trilled that his contributions to our program are being recognized on such a big stage.”

– Warren Craney, head coach, York Lions

About the Gino Fracas Award

This award is named to honour a man who has made a lifetime of outstanding contributions to amateur football. Gino Fracas moved right into a coaching role after his days with the Edmonton Eskimos with the University of Alberta head coach position. He led them to three league championships in the next four years. In 1963 his team won the Golden Bowl, the unofficial university National Championship and he also appeared in the very first Canadian College Bowl in 1965.

He was highly respected and admired for his dedication and commitment to the great sport of Canadian football. 2011 proves to be another great accomplishment by Gino, almost two years after his passing Gino was entered into the CFL Hall of Fame on September 17th, 2011 under the builder category.

The award created by Football Canada to pay recognition to the assistant coach that provides endless hours to improve the experience for the players and to support the other coaches. This award will ensure we continue to be able to recognize Gino’s legacy within the game of football as it also continues to recognize the contribution of the assistant coach.

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