BASEBALL TAB: Norris feels 'time is right' to guide Wayne Christian baseball team

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on March 10, 2017 10:01 AM

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jhayes@newsargus.com

He walks and talks, talks and walks.

There's a flight of stairs, unusually narrow and vertical, which he handles like someone competing for an opening-day roster spot. Up, down and in a flash, back.

The man still has quicks.

Around the corner, a retail-inspired rack of clothing runs the length of a hallway, which he explains was formed through the kindness of wonderful civic partners.

Beyond the cardigans and cargos and capris and clutches is a military-grade walk-in cooler -- a titanic bounty of perishables -- that had be to installed in sections due to its size.

Thank goodness, he adds, they don't have any trouble keeping it full.

Following another turn, more hallway runs out, leading to additional rooms -- a daycare, a pre-school, a kindergarten and something called "Uptown," a stadium-seated, vaulted theatre dressed in stage black that both entertains and inspires.

Over the past 20 years, newly-minted Wayne Christian varsity baseball coach Pete Norris built Harvest Fellowship Church -- a 25,000 square foot hall of good tidings in downtown Goldsboro -- largely on his own, from the ground up.

Not bad for a converted minor-league shortstop.

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Before Norris accepted the school's offering this winter, he worked diligently to quiet a loud, recurring concern -- how in the world would practice plans, safety squeeze reps and theories of run manufacturing fit in with the obligations of his faith-based life?

The question wandered with him most days, and rightly so.

In addition to leading the congregation at Harvest each Sunday, Norris also supervises a staff of 24 volunteers that gather three days a week to prepare and serve breakfast for the area's homeless -- a spread of goodwill that touches nearly 2,000 Wayne County citizens per month.

What's left of the week is another tightrope, one spent navigating an organizational maze that includes research and writing, the development of four fellowships and the continued coordination with partners such as the Eastern North Carolina Food Bank -- a relationship that, above all else, keeps his group in a position to help others.

Amidst his deliberation, however, the answer arrived simply.

"What I do for a living has kind of consumed me the last twenty years," Norris said of his day-job. "But my daughter's a junior now, and she'll be gone after next year, so I thought... I need to do this -- and I believe there is a lot I can pour into young kids."

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The old ball coach grew up a cut-off throw from Goldsboro, in Benson, and played the game with his school chums when not tending matters on his daddy's hog farm.

After Little League, it was on to South Johnston High School, where he traded bullpen gas with the likes of Ray Tanner and learned the game from Hall of Fame skipper Bruce Coats -- friendships and lessons that inspired confidence, dreams and hopes of a big league future.

"I had several scholarship offers, but chose to go try and play a little pro ball," Norris recalled of the time. "But I was too young, too immature... I just wasn't ready for that lifestyle."

So after 18 months of hacking out a meager living as a Dodgers farm hand, in places like pan-fried Sarasota and Double-A Bakersville, Norris returned home -- where he would begin defining the man he is today.

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Grace would be the new grooved fastball for Pete Norris.

"I got saved at 23 years old," he said with a smile. "And six months later I was the pastor of a church... went to school full-time, five nights a week... I've always been a motivated type-guy."

Indeed so.

And Norris has worked diligently since then -- from scratch, because there's no other way -- building relationships, exploring all manners of faith and helping others find the best versions of themselves.

The work is far from easy, but redeeming.

This spring, Norris will continue the journey, hoping to instill in his players some of what he has experienced over a 35-year tour of faith and, in one particular case long ago, futility.

It's an opportunity he relishes.

"I've always been about bringing out the best in everybody," Norris said. "(And) we've got some good kids and some good talent... I just felt like this year I was supposed to help them out