Name recognition

Emma Norris has played an important role as a freshman on the Sycamore soccer team. (Beck Diefenbach - bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com)

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SYCAMORE – Sycamore coach Dave Lichamer knew at the start of soccer tryouts he had a good player in freshman Emma Norris.

If only, at that point, Lichamer could remember her given name.

Ever since she was 3 for 4 years old, Norris estimates, she’s gone by two names: Emma, and “Monkey” the nickname her mom gave her and the one her coaches and teammates know her by.

“I don’t know why,” Norris said. “Since then it’s just stuck. It doesn’t really bother me.”

Lichamer had seen some of Norris’ club games before she got to Sycamore and always knew her as Monkey.

“It was maybe a couple of weeks into the season before I really learned her real name,” Lichamer said with a laugh. “You look around and go ‘OK, Monkey. Which one is Monkey? It’s Emma right? OK.’”

The freshman midfielder has scored seven goals this season and had an assist off a corner kick in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Geneva, which gave the Spartans the Western Sun Conference title.

Sycamore, and the rest of the Western Sun for that matter, know Norris now.

Lichamer hasn’t been surprised by Norris’ play and the freshman’s skill in the midfield has helped push the Spartans to a 21-1 record and is one of the reasons why Sycamore has to be considered one of the favorites in the Class 2A soccer tournament.

Sycamore begins its playoff push at 5 p.m. Tuesday as the top seed in the Sterling regional against the hosts. It will be Norris’ first taste of playoff experience, something Lichamer thought she could handle when he placed Norris on the varsity team.

“It does take a special athlete to be able to move from the freshman level to the varsity,” Lichamer said. “She certainly has the speed, had the skill and impressed us with her physical strength which is equal to anybody else on the varsity. She’s got a strong mental focus.”

Norris said that physicality comes from her “offensive mode.”

“I always think about offense instead of defense,” she said, “and I think I’ve improved on that because I get back on defense more often now.”

Senior Nici Newquist said the way Norris plays fills in what might have been a hole on Sycamore teams in years past.

“She’s really aggressive when she goes in for tackles and that’s really what we’ve been lacking, in a sense, so it’s good to have, especially in a young player because you know she’s only going to get better as the year goes on,” Newquist said.

With Norris helping the Spartans to a conference title in one of Sycamore’s best seasons in school history, the freshman is ready for more with the playoffs starting Tuesday.

“It’s been a lot of fun, just playing with a good team and trying to keep it going,” Norris said.