From the sidelines
If you google "Mike Norris" you will find a plethora of people.
There are a couple of B-movie actors, including Chuck Norris' son, a former bass fishing pro, and a photographer among many others.
But the one I have always found interesting is a former Oakland A's pitcher from the '70s and '80s who shares my name.
He is best known for his 1980 season when he went 22-9 with a 2.53 ERA and 24 complete games. It was by far his best year, and it's neat how we share the same name.
I got to thinking lately if anyone else I knew shared the same name as an athlete, so I did some checking with some current Marion High School athletes.
I didn't have time to google everyone who was participating in spring sports, but there were a few who have had some "same name success."
Brooke Johnson, a sophomore outfielder for the MHS softball team, could be mistaken for a junior basketball player (who led her team in scoring with 11.9 points per game) on the Western Carolina Catamounts basketball team.
That is until they stood side-by-side and the six-foot, four-inch Brooke Johnson from WCU towered over MHS' Johnson by a foot.
Mitch Cady, a 6-0, 132-pound sophomore outfielder for the Warriors baseball team, shares his name with a former football player for the University of Minnesota at Duluth.
Their similarities stop with their names as well, as the Minnesotan Cady was a big, burly offensive lineman for the Bulldogs.
Keith Jones, who will hang up his Warrior golf shoes at the end of the year to study aerospace engineering at Kansas State University, might want to take up hockey and/or basketball.
According to the Internet he has had a successful 19-year career as an athletic trainer for the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets. He also has had a professional hockey career playing for the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, and Colorado Avalanche.
He was a member of the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, although that doesn't sound like something he would tell his friends.
He should stick to telling people he played in the NHL.
Lauren Helmer is a veteran Warrior senior who has been a member of the volleyball, basketball, and softball teams.
But apparently she doubles as a golfer in the spring and summer.
In 2000 she competed in seven events while playing in the Minnesota Junior Golf Association. In six of them she took first place, and once she was second with an average 18-hole round of 95.3.
Adam Maag might own a pretty fast jet, considering he is a member of the Marion High School baseball team, and according to Google, the Orville (Ohio) High School track and field team.
It could be however, that he is just really fast.
Records show he ran the 1600-meter race in four minutes, 50.94 seconds at Orville.
Luke Gordon participates in two spring sports for MHS, golf and baseball, possibly because he lost his eligibility in baseball.
In 2007, he set the school base hits record at Georgia State University with 77.
MHS baseball coach Shaun Craft could have used him, but once he played at the collegiate level, he was done at MHS.
I didn't check, but Randy Carlson could be the youngest Division I baseball coach in the nation.
The MHS sophomore pole vaulter was named assistant baseball coach at The Citadel in 2005, at the young age of 13.
Kristin Waner, MHS softball player, and Julia Zeiner, MHS track and field athlete, have shown up all other athletes with their name by being listed first on Google.
But it's an MHS coach who might have had more "same name success" than any Warrior athlete.
Jerry Smith, an assistant football and pole vaulting coach, as well as former head girls' basketball coach, tops them all.
He is a professional golfer, was a tight end for the Washington Redskins from 1965-77, and somehow has found NCAA eligibility, and is a current sophomore on the Louisville Cardinals' basketball team.
What does this mean? Nothing really, except that Smith has a pretty common name.
Google. Ya gotta love it.
