By John Singleton

Severna Park has a longstanding tradition of producing great point guards. Duke’s Steve Wojciechowski, North Carolina State’s Quentin Jackson, and NBA 1st round draft pick Nolan Smith all played for Coach Ed Wilson of Severna Park in the local youth leagues of Anne Arundel County. Now, our community can add locally grown Jordan Norwood to that list of distinguished floor generals.

“Jordan Norwood comes from an absolutely beautiful family. His daddy was a defensive coach for the Naval Academy football team,” recalled the 89-year old Wilson, a local basketball legend. “His mom, Tiffany, was a strict disciplinarian. All it took was one look from her and her boys knew exactly what to do. We were at AAU Nationals once with only seven kids. We were playing the number one youth basketball team in the US out of Detroit. It got down to the last few seconds and Jordan drained the winning shot from the top of the key.”

Like Wojo, and Quentin Jackson, Norwood was a cross-over athlete who proudly donned the uniform of the Severna Park Green Hornets football and basketball programs, as did his older brother Gabriel Norwood. Today, the 5-foot-11 Norwood is a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns and his 6-foot-5 brother Gabe plays professional basketball in the Philippines.

“Jordan was always a football player first, and Gabe was a basketball player first,” added Wilson, who has been coaching in local youth leagues for over forty years.

In 2001, when patriarch Brian Norwood accepted an assistant coaching position at Penn State, the family left Annapolis for Pennsylvania. After a standout football career at State College Area High School, where he also happened to lead his high school basketball team to a state championship, Jordan Norwood received a scholarship to play football for the Nittany Lions. In his sophomore season at Penn State, Norwood made the Dean’s List and was named to the Academic All-Big Ten team. On the field he caught 45 passes for 473 yards and two touchdowns and played basketball under Coach Ed DeChellis for the Nittany Lions.

“As a youth football player for the Hornets, Jordan had all the intangibles. It doesn’t surprise me that he has accomplished so much,” said Mike Whittles, Head Football Coach at Spalding. “When I used to watch him at the youth level, Jordan could get in the middle of the pack, and bounce off people. He had the strength to run thru people and the quickness to run away from them and that’s rare.”

In fall of 2010, Norwood returned to Severna Park to talk to coach Tank Duckett’s 14U 3D basketball squad that had compiled a 127-17 record for the season. In the tradition of his mother and father, Norwood focused his talk on values, discipline and the necessity of establishing long-term goals.

“Jordan talked to our boys about the importance of education, and of the friendships that are made on and off the court that are a part of youth sports,” summarized Duckett. “He talked about the necessity of handling yourself properly at all times. He’s just an outstanding young man and we’re proud to call him one of our own.”