By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
There’s this scene in “Remember the Titans.” It’s the last one in that state title game against the team that thinks it’s the New York Jets. The one where Herman Boone calls a Fake 23 Blast With A Backside George Reverse, followed by ‘Rev’ running the sideline with his lead blockers step-for-step as they barrel over every potential tackler on the way to the endzone and a state championship.
It’s exceedingly unrealistic. The pure physics of those blocks seem almost impossible. But hey, it’s Hollywood.
Up in Camdenton, there’s a 6-foot-8, 260-pound mountain of a lineman who runs somewhere between a 4.80 and a 4.60-40-yard dash, depending on who you ask. Big 10 schools want him. There’s another one who stands at 6-foot-6 and 360 pounds. FBS schools are looking his way too. Then there’s a 1,300-yard running back. All three FBS military schools are calling him to come run their option in 2018.
With that speed and size on the line, and that speed in the backfield, maybe you can guess why the unrealistic seems a little real for this year’s Lakers.
But let’s start with The Mountain, because when you walk up to Grant Norton, that’s the feeling you get. Except he’s 17. And not shaped by tectonic plates pushing volcanoes up through our planet’s crust over millions of years.
Somehow, the 6-foot-8 senior tackle/tight end/defensive end hybrid from Camdenton managed to stay under the radar until recently, and it’s not like there’s a growth spurt to blame.
“Coming into high school I was 6’5”. I was 6’6” my sophomore year. And then 6’7” last year. This is the first year I’ve been 6’8”. I’ve just kind of grown into it,” Norton, whose dad might be the only man in Camdenton who could beat him in arm wrestling, said this past June at a 7-on-7 tournament at Parkview High School.
Norton is suddenly one of the best offensive line prospects to come out of the Ozarks of late. As of early July he had double-digit offers from FBS schools and still expects more to roll in by the end of the summer (he lists Purdue, Minnesota and Toledo as some of his top choices). Norton also visited TCU recently, only adding to an increasingly strong list for a kid who just turned 17 this summer despite being a rising senior.
“Grant started young,” Camdenton head coach Jeff Shore said. “He was home schooled. Always played ball with this group of [seniors] growing up. His dad is 6’5” and looks like he played in the NFL. It’s in the genes. He’s always had the potential to grow into his body, and when all those things combine, it’s what you see now.”
What you see now is an offensive lineman’s offensive lineman, shaped like a taller Joe Thomas or the lesser known Jeremy Trueblood. Norton is a tackle by trade, and while he’ll be playing tight end almost exclusively this season (good luck guarding him), he has a lineman’s mindset.
“I take pride in just getting work done,” he said. “The thing that pisses me off is missing assignments. Knowing something I’ve done wrong. I’m always a thinker. But at the same time I just like to hit people.”
Norton had just returned from a visit to Minnesota in late June when I caught up with him. There, he got to experience P.J. Fleck, one of the hottest young head coaches in college football. And like so many at Western Michigan did over the past few years, he couldn’t stop raving about the coach.
“The craziest thing is probably just the way he’s always fired up,” he said of Fleck. “What he expects of his players is what drives his players. His ideas of never stopping. Always go. If your coach is already more excited than you, then you’ve just got to one-up him. That’s how you get a great team, I believe.”
But this story doesn’t end with Norton. It belongs to an increasingly dangerous-looking Camdenton running game. One led by Norton, Josh Semau and Jay Griffin.
Semau and Griffin are joining Norton on the FBS radar. Semau, a 6-foot-6, 350-pound offensive tackle, has gone on official visits to Virginia and Arkansas this summer. Griffin is coming off a year with 1,378 yards and 20 touchdowns and is expecting an offer from Mountain West member Air Force, plus Army and Navy.
“It’s great,” Camdenton Lakers coach Jeff Shore said about the recruiting influx. “We’ve had a ton of college coaches in over the winter, which is interesting and kind of fun for us. Those kids just have a great attitude. It’s been real positive for them and even promoted them to work harder.”
That hard work is something that is almost ingrained into the being of Semau, who said coaches at Virginia reached out to him, in part, because of his Samoan heritage.
“They love Polynesian players because we have something special about us,” he said. “The extra 110 percent we’ll put in. Being raised as a Samoan and Polynesian person, you put everything you have into something, and if given the opportunity, don’t miss the opportunity. My dad raised me don’t go in at 50 percent. You have to earn everything you’re given.”
Semau’s parents are Christian missionaries. His mom was born in Iowa and worked on a medical ship that took her to Thailand, Samoa and Tonga, where she met Semau’s Samoan father.
“I lived in Samoa and then Tonga and then New Zealand and then eventually ended up in Hawaii. That’s where I feel at home,” Semau said. But after Hawaii came Utah, where he lived for eight years before moving to Camdenton in eighth grade, which isn’t far from his grandma’s home.
“My passport was full before I was one. Moving around, I picked up a lot of life skills and social skills. Learned to make new friends quickly. I got to be a part of so many cultures and met so many different people.”
But with all his size, Semau wasn’t a football player. And didn’t even play sports until moving to Utah in elementary school.
“I was really good at basketball,” he said. “It was my best sport until sophomore year. For a big guy, I have really good feet, I’m told. Then in Camdenton it was all football. My mom was hesitant about all the injuries…but [she] gave in when all the coaches were begging her for me to play.”
The transition wasn’t easy, but the potential was always there. A good lineman needs more than a big frame, and those quick feet Semau found on the court have helped make him the type of lineman that college coaches notice.
“Getting into a stance took me a while to learn,” Semau said. “I was kind of confused at the time. There was so much going on. The hardest part was just getting used to hitting people, because in basketball you don’t have to do that much.”
It clicked for Semau halfway through freshman year. But Semau, who is also very interested in Lindenwood, said it wasn’t until he realized his next-level potential that he really began to put in the work.
“It was more of a, ‘Josh, get in the weight room. Schools will look at you. It’ll make you a better player. You’ll feel better on the field.’ So, I started lifting more,” he said.
Semau had a weight class during the day and he’d lift more after school before practice. And boy did it work.
“Since I’m a Polynesian, we kind of put on weight a bit easier because of our build. I put on a lot of muscle and a little fat as well.”
Like Norton, the confidence that hard work brought on has Semau aiming high for the Lakers this season.
“We’re aiming for a state title,” Semau said without skipping a beat. “We have the team. We have the size. We have the skill. Our offensive line is huge (279 pounds on average), so that gives us a tool to run the ball and play old-fashioned Camdenton Laker football.”
Behind that 1,400-pound offensive line stands Jay Griffin. The red-headed back is probably the most recognizable name of this trio. He has a 1,300-yard season under his belt. He has likely offers on their way the summer from Air Force, Navy and Army. And he’s about to run behind the best offensive line he’s ever had in front of him.
“I’ll be able to be a little more patient coming into this year,” Griffin said. “Waiting for them to get their blocks and open up the holes. I can use my speed.”
With patience come trust, and Griffin has that in his hogs.
“If I’m going to run a power right, I’ll be able to trust that that hole will open up instead of having to make that decision to bounce outside and cut back in. I can trust it’ll be there.”
The Lakers are coming off a 6-4 season, and Shore has already said his Lakers have no reason to be overconfident. But with these three coming back in addition to guys like Isaiah Lumley, Todd Simpson and Jake Hill (who finished second in the 100-yard dash at state track this spring), to name a few, at least a little confidence is warranted in Lake Country.
“We’ve struggled the past couple years but now we’ve got all seniors. Everyone is big and ready to play,” Griffin said.
“We’re ready to get the job done.”
