Nate Norbo returns for his second season as an assistant coach with the Elizabethtown men's lacrosse program in 2016.
A two-time All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Second Team selection at Hampden-Sydney College, Norbo molded the 2015 Blue Jay defense into one of the best units in NCAA Division III. Elizabethtown finished fifth in the country in scoring defense, allowing a mere 6.00 goals per game. The Blue Jays were also sixth in caused turnovers per game (12.53) and 19th in ground balls per game (39.35). They led the Landmark Conference in all three categories.
Not only did E-town excel defensively in 2015, the team won a school-record 14 games (14-3) and went on a program best 13-game winning streak en route to earning the top seed in the Landmark Conference Championships.
Norbo joined the Blue Jays in time for the 2015 season after spending 2014 as the defensive coordinator at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Va., where the Panthers ranked 66th in Division III with nearly nine and a half caused turnovers per game.
Norbo's two all-conference selections as a player at H-SC came at long stick midfielder. He worked closely with Ferrum coach Mark Frey to instill defensive strategies and game plans, spent time assisting the program's face-off men and coordinated the man-down defense.
Norbo's teaching and direction paid off in the form of seven victories for the 2014 Panthers, one shy of the school's single-season record.
A native of Waterford, Va., Norbo attended Loudoun Valley High School and achieved success as a three-sport athlete in lacrosse, wrestling and football. US Lacrosse named Norbo a High School All-American as a senior in 2007.
Norbo began his collegiate career at Division I Fairfield University, before transferring to Hampden-Sydney. He picked up 130 ground balls over three seasons, appeared on two all-conference teams and was chosen to the All-State Second Team by the Virginia Sports Information Directors in 2011.
In 2010, his first season at Hampden-Sydney, Norbo secured 31 ground balls and caused five turnovers in 17 games to help the Tigers equal a school record with 13 wins. Norbo ranks 21st in career ground balls at HSC and received his bachelor's degree in government from the school in 2012.
On Dec. 17, 2015, Norbo was selected by the Charlotte Hounds with the 110th pick in the 13th round of the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) Supplemental Draft.
Norbo is also the Vice President of the Southwest Lacrosse Company, where he established the first high school elite travel team in the Roanoke, Va., area. Prior to his season as Ferrum, Norbo gained coaching experience as a volunteer with the Western Loudoun Youth Lacrosse program from 2005-07 and with Fuze Lacrosse in Ashburn, Va., during the summers of 2008 and 2009.
Updated 2/22/16
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