Norton steps in for Sage Hill

Tom Norton has been named the Sage Hill School girls’ varsity water polo coach, Lightning Athletic Director Nate Miller confirmed Tuesday.

He replaces Aleah Amr, who Miller said stepped down over the holiday break due to personal reasons. Amr, a former UC Irvine women’s water polo player, was in her second year as coach.

Norton, a walk-on and also former Anteaters water polo player, was named girls’ coach on Jan. 2, Miller said. In his first year as Lightning boys’ water polo coach in the fall, Norton led Sage Hill to second place in the Orange Coast League and a CIF Southern Section Division II playoff berth.

Sage Hill lost to Mission Viejo in the first round, 15-11.

For over 10 years, Norton has been coaching age-group water polo at Corona del Mar High, his alma mater where he played under current Stanford Coach John Vargas.

“We were happy that Tom jumped in and decided to help out,” Miller said.

The Sage Hill girls’ team is 6-3, 0-1 in the Orange Coast League, heading into today’s game at Costa Mesa. The Lightning went 13-8 last year as a freelance team, failing to earn a playoff berth.

Attempts to reach Amr were unsuccessful. On her cellphone voice-mail greeting message, Amr said she was leaving for Egypt and won’t be back until mid-February.

- Matt Szabo