Norman High’s Drummond reaches career win No. 400
NORMAN — Gordon Drummond felt a sense of relief.
There was a different feel at the pitch named after Drummond on Friday night, when his Norman boys soccer team hosted Northwest Classen. It was different for numerous reasons.
The game time was moved up because of impending weather, meaning the boys game started before the girls. Yet that wasn’t the highlight of the night.
Norman’s boys beat Northwest Classen 3-1 on Friday night, yet the win was monumental for the 84-year-old Drummond. It was his 400th win as Norman’s head coach, another bullet point on a résumé littered with great accomplishments, state championships and thousands of lives impacted in a positive way.
“It was a wonderful night,” Drummond said. “It was in part a relief because you don’t want your players focusing on that, you want them focusing on the game, and they did.”
The match was tied at 1 at half before a pair of late goals gave the Tigers a win, and a celebration for Drummond ensued.
There was cake. A plaque. Family, players and administrators gathered and celebrated the only head coach in Norman boys soccer history.
For Drummond, it was a moment of remembrance of all of the players who helped get him to that point. The administrators who allowed him to coach for nearly four decades. The family who supported late nights watching films and miscellaneous activities for team bonding.
This is Drummond’s 38th season leading the Tigers, which have won four state titles under his guidance. His first season coaching was in the spring of 1985. The first state title came in ‘86 and three more before the turn of the century.
“He has been doing it for 38 years, and we’re hoping for 38 more,” Norman Public Schools athletic director T.D. O’Hara said. “You see a coach who stays at a school for that many years, that’s just that’s uncommon nowadays. It just brings more value to what he is and what he’s about.”
He said he’s most thankful for the administration always being supportive of him and his family while allowing him to coach as long as he has.
From Canada, Drummond came to Norman and taught in the history department at OU before retiring in 2001. But he always continued coaching. And Drummond doesn’t plan to stop. “I’ve so enjoyed being with young men and the opportunity to help them develop as players and mature as young men,” Drummond said. “I think that’s the part that’s best.”