There was no better way for Natalie Norris to go out than with back-to-back AAA state titles.
On Monday, Norris, the Camden High girls’ head basketball coach, announced that she would step down from her coaching position after having led the Lady Bulldogs to the 2022-23 and 2023-24 AAA girls’ state basketball championships. A 1992 Camden High graduate and winner of the 1991-92 Gatorade South Carolina Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year award, Norris will remain at the school as a social studies teacher.
Norris played for the CHS girls — then known as the Rockettes — from 1987 through 1992 for the legendary late head coach, Michael G. “Mike” Culp. As a head coach, she led the Lady Dogs to the past three AAA Lower State basketball crowns. Her teams accumulated a 78-11 record over the span. In her 13 seasons on the CHS sidelines, she guided the basketball program to 180 victories.
For the past five seasons, Norris coached her daughter, Deanna Jeffcoat, who was a member of the Lady Bulldogs’ squad. Deanna will graduate next month and with that, her mother felt this was the best time to step down and turn the keys to the Lady Bulldog program to someone else.
“I believe the time is right,” Norris said as to the timing of her announcement. “My youngest (Deanna) is graduating from high school. My son (former CHS football quarterback, basketball and baseball player Bryce Jeffcoat) is getting married this summer, and I wanted to be available for all of the things that come along with that.
“I never wanted to stay too long, and not be effective and I think I am making this move before that happens.”
As for the 2024-25 Lady Bulldogs, Norris said there is enough returning talent for the program to compete at the 4A level to which Camden will ascend next academic year.
“I believe that I am leaving the program in good shape,” she said. “We have a very good nucleus returning with Morgan (Champion), Braylin (Mungo), Harmony (Jefferson) and Shanaryah (Wright). I fully anticipate that they will keep this momentum going and be a very exciting team to watch.
Camden High School principal and fellow CHS alumnus Rose Montgomery said Monday was a “bittersweet” occasion for her as she broke the news to the school’s faculty, staff and students.
“Coach Norris has been a pillar of our program and her dedication has left a lasting impact,” she said. “But there’s good news! Natalie will continue to be a valuable member of the Camden High School family, sharing her knowledge and passion in the classroom.
“We’re incredibly grateful for everything she’s done for our student-athletes.”
Looking back, this present chapter of girls’ basketball history at Camden almost never happened. Norris told the story of a time when she thought about hanging up her coaching whistle only for then-CHS athletic director Jimmy Neal to convince her otherwise. After their talks, Norris put her decision in the hands of a greater power.
“Some years ago,” Norris recounted, “I went to Coach Neal in great distress. We were losing constantly, my personal life was a mess and I told him that I thought he should find somebody who could do a better job with the kids than I was doing. He was so kind to me and encouraging and, he wouldn’t let me quit. After that day, I started praying and asking God to please just help us be a little bit more competitive and ease some of the burden of constantly losing.
“There is a verse in Ephesians that talks about God doing immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, and that is what has happened here. It has been just unbelievable what has happened around here these last few years.”
During the course of the past several years, Norris called this another “golden age” of Camden athletics, given the success of the school’s teams including her own squad’s along with the 2023 CHS boys’ tennis team winning a AAA state title while the Bulldog football program has played in three AAA state championship games over the past four years.
As for her own team, this past season, the 2023-24 Lady Bulldogs finished with a 28-2 record with both losses coming to out-of-state teams. They finished the season as the nation’s 29th ranked team according to MaxPreps.com. That came on the heels of the previous year when Camden went 29-2 without suffering a loss to an in-state squad while winning the program’s sixth state crown and first since the Culp-led Rockettes captured the 4A state championship in 1982.
Norris also helped develop Joyce Edwards, who started for Camden for the past six seasons after having been promoted to the varsity as a seventh-grader. The 6-foot-2 forward left with a school-record 3,952 points which is second all-time in South Carolina girls’ basketball history.
Recently, the South Carolina signee was named as the 2023-24 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year and was also presented with the Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year award. She was also the co-most valuable player at the 2024 McDonald’s All-American Game and this past Saturday in Portland, Ore., led Team USA to an 83-80 win over an international all-star team at the Nike Hoop Summit as Edwards poured in 25 points to go along with nine rebounds and five steals.
Edwards stands out among all the players who have come through a program, which includes Norris, who signed with and played at South Carolina following her highlight-filled high school career as a Lady Bulldog. Norris treated each of her players the same and said she will miss working with and helping turn teenage girls into young ladies and seeing them succeed after high school.
As she leaves her coaching post, Natalie Norris said she has no regrets about her present decision or, her choice to join the coaching profession which, for her, began in 1996 when she was named the head coach at Thomas Sumter Academy just days after her graduation from USC.
“To be called coach has been the privilege of my life. I love my players and have tried to always treat them in a way I would want someone to care for my own children,” she said. “I will miss them more than I can say. But for any who have played for me, hopefully, they know that my door is always open to them. I will also miss the time with my assistant coaches, who are some of the very best people in the world.
“God has been so gracious to allow me to serve this school and community that I love. This run we’ve had for the last several years has been beyond anything I ever could have hoped for. I feel very proud I can join some of the great coaches here who have won state championships.”
Camden High School athletic director Brian Rimpf said a search for a new girls’ head basketball coach at the school will begin immediately.
