Norm Landrover

Norm Landrover is a current player for the in the  and formerly captain and coach for Springfield College.

Collegiate Footy
Norm was playing his footy at Springfield College, a program which he began at the institution for the fall of 2011. He captained and coached the side for the three seasons.

2011/12
In the first season, the club won it's opening match against rivals Wheaton (MA), the club lost five matches, three in conference, earning third seed in the New England Women's and Men's Conference. As the third seed, SC would go on to beat six seed Emerson in the elimination final, who they lost to earlier in the fixture. This followed with a win over second seeded Wheaton in the preliminary final. Fourth seed Babson lost to 5th seed MIT in the other elimination final and MIT subsequently beaten by the first place US Coast Guard Academy. Though Springfield was the victor during the season at home, they had to travel south to Coast Guard with the disadvantage of their cold seaside home in Connecticut. The two sides were fairly even throughout the match Because the conference grand final could not end in a draw, the sides had to settle it with a five minute extra time. The Pride kicked the opening minor score followed by a goal, but the Bears of Coast Guard surged with two straight followed by a pair of behinds to take the NEWMAC title. Despite their impressive opening performance, Springfield failed to get an at large bid to the NCAA national tournament.

2012/13
The second season saw improvement in which the side lost one less season match, both out of conference. As the fifth and six seeds respectively, Clark and WPI not only bumped out Emerson and Babson from the postseason spots, but also won their corresponding fixtures (over Coast Guard and Wheaton). Springfield, however cruised over WPI (having squeaked out of Worcester with a road win the previous two weeks to end the regular season). They awaited Coast Guard anticipating they'd do much the same, until Clark surged through the fourth quarter, nothing eight straight between three Coast guard kicks (one major and two behinds) three minutes in and 'til five minutes before the siren. By then the damage was done and the Cougars come out on top by two straight.

As the NEWMAC Grand Final came about Lando knew not to take Clark lightly. But continuing their momentum, the Cougars stormed out of the floodgates kicking 5 goals two to 3 behinds at quarter time. The Brock-Affleck Crowd was silenced and it appeared as though this would weaken the at large bid for nationals. Not five minutes into the second term, a very close play was signalled for a goal. But as Americanized as footy had gotten, Landrover (from the interchange area) threw his challenge flag (his only one for the quarter). He decided to challenge, because in fact, the videoboard clearly indicated that the ball had been touched by a Cougar player as the ball traveled towards goal. After a rather short review (as expected) the call stood (not as expected). Then beneath his gaze burned a quiet rage. He took the opportunity to gather his players while play had not yet restarted to get them into gear. Slowly but surely the Pride were clawing their way back kicking six of the last seven goals into halftime down 27. That pace continued as they took six of eight to get it down to just a behind by the three quarter time siren. After some back and forth early on, Clark got a pair of goals followed by three straight for SC to grab it's first lead. Momentum however was slowly shifting back to Clark, that was until a costly error just outside of the Clark forward fifty sent the Pride the other way. Lando tried to torp it from near the edge of the center square but instead shanked it for a mark by a teammate just inside of fifty for a goal. SC's lead was now ten and for the life of them, Clark couldn't get that next goal as SC successfully played keep away to win their first flag.

The first round saw Springfield host Hartwick College (of Oneonta, NY) in Erie, PA In their first national finals meeting, Springfield and Alleghany Mountain Collegiate Conference auto-bid Penn St. Behrend (the host institution) were fixed at Behrend in the second round having drawn in Springfield in season. Behrend had beaten Buffalo State College (Buffalo, NY) in their first match. In the previous fixture, Behrend could've won the match with a kick after the siren, but it missed to the left from the right side for a minor score and the draw. Sure not to have that kind of result again, Lando started a completely new full-forward line and two new forward flanks (none of those five were able to play in the aforementioned match). It was risky but payed off as the Pride built a nine goal cushion to go up 63 by halftime. The Lions were able to cut the margin to 24, but the damage had been done. The problem was, the club almost did the same as Behrend the following week, except down by six goals and losing by three kicks to Coe College of Cedar Rapids, IA (also at Behrend).

A Short Trip Downsatate
Lando's career began at Van Cortlandt Park with the midway through Season 18, with a win in his debut - a start against the  immediately following his signing by the club. He quickly became a voice in the clubhouse bringing a lot of enthusiasm. In their week 10 victory against the reigning premiers Won, Lando was one of five Warriors named to the side of the week by the SFA for booting his first point and not soon after his first major score. His first multiple goal game would come in the first quarter of the last week against in which he scored two goals and one behind. Continuing in his good run of form, Norm managed three goals following his personal opening behind all in the first quarter before sitting on the interchange bench for much of the second quarter to get a breather against the in the Elimination Final. He tacked on two first quarter goals in a semi finals loss to the. He finished the finals having kicked five goals one, adding to his home and away total of eight straight six.

During the off season between season's 19 and 19, Lando's number was changed by the club board from 31 to 6. ATV saw his amount of goals drop from 13 to 5 with the move to the back line. However, he would become a part of a back six that was arguably the best in the SFA having helped propel the squad to the Grand Final.

Collegiate Curling
In 2010 upon his arrival to Springfield College, Landrover pursued trying to gather individuals to form a curling club at the campus recreation level. It took early 2013 to get his inquiry approved for his fourth year and were sponsored by their match home at the Norfolk Curling Club in Northwest Connecticut. The team was skipped by Lando with Stuart Sokoloff as the vice-skip, Chuck Lane as the second, and Sasha Lewis throwing lead rocks, with Barry Ebua as the alternate. Curl New England (CNE) is the conference in which Springfield competed. This included Mass. Inst. of Tech., Harvard, Boston Univ., Yale, Maine, Bowdoin, Westfield State, U-Mass at Lowell, U-Mass at Boston, U-Mass at Amherst, Boston College, Emerson, Unity, and Univ. of New Haven.

2013/14
As the season began, Norm's rink won it's opening two bonspiels 4-2 versus Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute and at Pennsylvania 6-5 in eleven ends. Binghamton took the win at home in the third match of the season by a score of 3-1 which was followed by a win at Hamilton 2-1. A 3-0 win at home followed to Penn State. To round out non-conference play, the Pride played host to perennial favorites Villanova. After falling behind 2-0 after one end as 'Nova had the hammer, The Pride got going. Sokoloff set up the double that tied it in the second after a blank end in the third, Lando managed to secure the previously played yellow stones of his team in addition to his two. The Wildcat's fourth (the skip threw third rocks) missed a rather difficult shot that went disastrous as the Pride had shot rock and two more to steal three points. Finally 'Nova got a point after a third straight try with the hammer at 3-3 halfway through. Mazella throwing the hammer in the sixth had to perform a tricky raise-takeout to remove the red shot rock of the Wildcats on the button. In doing so, Springfield scored four in the sixth then stole one in the next after which Villanova conceded the match for a 8-3 win to Springfield.

CNE play began with wins at Yale and Emerson. After beating Westfield State at home, the Pride lost to New Haven on the road at the only other curling club in the state of Connecticut (shared by Yale). Two more home wins followed to the two U-Mass schools furthest away (Lowell and Boston) on home ice. A hotly contested affair at Maine saw three phenomenal shots by their skip who helped the Black Bears over the Pride 10-7. Following a trip to U-Mass Amherst, a win, BC and BU came to town with losses and a road match at Bowdoin which fell in the Polar Bears' favor. But the following day, SC bounced back at Unity. Harvard was the next victim after the Crimson blew a four point lead as Springfield went on to tally six unanswered points to grab the victory. MIT was the final match, the best-in conference the previous season. Springfield had the hammer to start, but MIT stole a point in the opening end. After trading two point ends, the Engineers missed a shot that would've had them lying three to possibly force just a single point to the hosts. Instead it was another double coming into the halfway mark. SC had a point stolen in the sixth to keep the hammer due to an unfortunate sweep calling error by the vice-skip Sokoloff which allowed MIT to sweep it out of the back of the four foot to sit second shot rock. Both teams exchanged singles into the ninth which the Pride blanked to come home with the hammer and two points to win.

Having finished in second losing the overall record tie-breaker which came to head-to-head to Maine at 11-3 in the CNE Conference.In the conference stepladder, 6 Bowdoin beat 5 Yale and 4 MIT, then lost to 3 New Hampshire who got to play 2 SC. Unlike the blow-out at the Nutmeg Curling Club, the other NCC in Connecticut saw a 4-3 affair in which it took an 11th end to finish as New Hampshire could only get one with the hammer to force the extra end. In what was considered to be the most highly anticipated conference title match (for several reasons), the Springfield/Maine draw was held at the Canadian Club of Boston (Chestnut Hill) for the CNE Tankard. It turned out that the teams were separated at 6-5 by a Maine eighth end double without the hammer when in the final end, Norm had made his final shot to ensure he at least had shot rock to tie. He thought that second shot belonged to MIT to send it to the eleventh, but asked for a measurement just to make sure. It was determined that Lando's second red in fact had indeed finished second shot to win the tankard.



Along with Springfield, other conference champions Wisconsin-Stevens Point, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Syracuse got automatic-qualifiers. The other five joining them would be at-large bids including Maine, Minnesota, RPI, Miami of Ohio, and Michigan. The national Tournament was in its final season at Four Seasons Curling Club pending a two season extension. After the round robin stage, Springfield finished third at 6-3 behind North Dakota and Minnesota. The Pride breezed past Wisconsin-Stevens Point 6-2 much to their own surprise. They got the loser of the other game according to the page playoff system in which said both teams were guaranteed two games. Minnesota defeated North Dakota in twelve ends after UND scored two to tie in the tenth and Minnesota blanked after a bad scenario in eleven. With a shot at redemption, North Dakota opened the floodgates, scoring three then stealing one to open the first pair of ends, exposing SC's lack of experience. As they had on occasion, Springfield chipped away with two in the third giving one back in four, getting two more back, forcing a blank, and stealing two to make the score 6-5 to Lando and company through seven. After forcing UND to a single in the eighth to tie, SC managed to blank the ninth to bring the hammer and the win with one in the tenth.

By this point in the tournament, the Pride became the Cinderella everyone was rooting for, but the stands would be full of Golden Gopher fans pretty much on home ice as the heavy favorite.Through eight, the teams had traded ones and twos and both blanked once to find themselves in a 4-4 deadlock. Minnesota managed to freeze on what was shot rock for SC to grab two points and the lead in the ninth end. After the first seven stones for each rink, Minnesota's skip was able to raise one of their four guard stones into shot rock position a quarter into the button while making contact with the previous shot rock - a Springfield stone. However, the Pride stone at the very end of it's motion spun slightly back toward the house and biting the back of the twelve foot. With four well placed guards, Landrover had to raise his own guard on another part of the sheet onto the Golden Gophers' shot rock for the takeout without rolling the shooter and taking out his own stone which was second shot or hit shot rock incorrectly so it knocked out the biter. Though the SC guard was mishit, it was able to clip the shot rock that scored three and a one point win to take home the national championship.

Teams
* The first three seasons were as US National team trials participants.

Personal Life
Norm has graduated from Springfield with a bachelors of science in sport management (minoring in sport analytics) and has a second bachelors from Medaille College in general studies. He has held a job as the public addreess announcer for Medaille athletics since his graduation from Springfield in the spring of 2014. ATV was also was honored by his high school at the end of his senior year for his dedication to its athletic department. Lando is also the founder of Buffalo Nickel Graphics, a sports design firm and the creator of the sport sphereball.