OLD SAYBROOK, CT Growing up in the sticks of Westminster, as she called her childhood home, Jody (Normandin) Lech had about the most primitive front yard basketball court any future roundball star could imagine.

For my first hoop, my uncle Donald Leger cut a piece of really thick telephone cable and nailed it to a piece of plywood, she recalled with a laugh. That was my first basketball hoop and I would play amongst the pine trees and roots and rocks in my driveway.

Then he and I used to play the guys down at the Westminster outdoor courts, and hustle them so many years ago, she added.

Out of those very humble beginning grew the legend of one of the finest girls basketball players to ever grace the local hardwood.

The three-sport star and Oakmont Hall of Famer helped to lead Spartan teams of the mid-1980s to appearances in four district final games, winning three championships and appearing in two state title games.

Im so grateful. We had such an amazing education (at Oakmont), she said, noting that the success came from the instruction she received on the courts and fields. It was the fundamentals and the coaching. We had such great coaches.

In the fall, when she was a high-scoring forward on the field hockey team, it was under the direction of head coach Bob McGowan. During the winter, she was the sharp-shooting point guard on the basketball team led by coach Ron Therrien.

Our field hockey team had an awesome coach in Mr. McGowan, and then Id have to say that Ron Therrien was the best coach I had in my whole life, she continued. He taught me everything. Even today, when Im working with my son, I will teach him those same drills. He was such a stickler.

Great coaching and talented players equaled a tremendous run of success during her junior and senior seasons with the Spartans.

We had great camaraderie, she said, with such teammates as Robin Paris, Marnie MacLean, Tonya and Missy Urban, Karla Swedberg, Karen Bourgeois, Kim LeBlanc, Maureen Casey and her older sister Jill comprising many of the teams.

Those coaches taught us such life lessons and we were so successful because you respected them and they were also very positive, she continued. Their preparation was spot on so that they would have already scouted the teams, they had a plan to what we were doing. I think we all bought into that and it made it easier to play and be successful.

The run of success began during her junior field hockey season in the fall of 1984 when the Spartans captured their first-ever district championship with a 2-1 win over Southbridge. From there, they advanced to the state championship game, losing to Rockport, 2-0.

Four months later, she was on another team that vied for a state championship after the Spartans beat Southbridge for the district title, 47-42. Oakmont then went on to beat Athol 45-42 in state semis, with Normandin leading the way with a game-high 18 points.

Playing on the biggest Central Mass. stage the Worcester Centrum Oakmont met up with a Westwood team that had won twelve-straight Tri-Valley basketball championships. The Spartans fell in the state title game, 65-54.

It was such a great team and we just kinda clicked, said Lech, looking back. We made it to the state finals and we had most of our team coming back, so we were really looking ahead to the next season.

In the spring, she was a member of the 1985 Oakmont softball team that advanced to another district final losing in the title game to Wachusett League rival Quabbin, 6-5. That fall, the Spartan field hockey team suffered an early exit to Murdock in a game decided by strokes.

Murdock would go on to take part in the state field hockey finals.

The winter of 1985-86 brought the Spartans yet another district title as Normandin, with 18 points and six assists, led the team to a 74-46 championship win over Leicester. However, the Spartan express was derailed in the state semifinals to powerful Monument Mountain, 55-53.

While high school basketball drew to an end, there was much more basketball ahead in the career of Jody Normandin first at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and later with a semi-pro hoop team in Connecticut.

At WPI she became the all-time leading scorer in womens basketball history with 1,716 points, a mark that stands to date. She averaged an amazing 16.3 points per game and scored in double figures in 84 games. In addition, she was the career leader in field goal attempts (1,579), three-point field goals made (147) and attempted (349), free throws made (325) and free throw percentage (.765).

She also ranked in the top five all-time in steals, assists, free throws attempted, field goals made, scoring average and games played. Twice named to the New England All-Star Second Team by the Eastern College Athletic Conference, she was later inducted into the WPI Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.

After graduating WPI with a B.S. in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, she spent ten years at General Electric working in project engineering, product management and sales engineering. Upon moving to Connecticut, she continued playing semi-pro basketball for the Noreastern Storm.

On that semipro team wed play something like 25 games in 30 days, she recalled. We were the warn-up game for womens college teams, so everyone was trying to get us in before November and it was really too much.

One of her teammates on the Storm was former Gardner High standout Dina Sawicki.

Lech suffered a partial tear of her patella tendon while still playing at the age of 36, and decided it was time to call it a career.

The timing was right as she and her husband. Mark Lech, learned they were expecting their son Josh. Today, Josh is a 15-year old freshman basketball player at the all-boys Catholic school Xavier High School in Middletown, Connecticut.

Hes not a bad player, said the proud mom. I guess its in the blood.

Currently, she, her husband and son live in Old Saybrook, Connecticut where she works for Boston Scientific Pelvic Health Division, as the Territory Manager for Connecticut.

I help to train physicians on our products and work with them in the operating room, observing them implanting our product, she said. Its a fun job, like getting on the court and preparing for a game.

She noted that through her work, she has developed a stronger bond with her Catholic faith, instructing Confirmation classes as well as being a CCD Teacher for more than 20 years.

Looking back on her playing days, she expressed her gratitude to her parents Pete and Sandy, for all the support over the years and attending an unending number of games.

Her older sister Jill was her Oakmont teammate for several seasons, while younger sister Hollybeth was a member of the 1990 Spartan basketball team that played in the state finals. In addition, she has two brothers, John and Peter the latter who was a 1,000-point scorer for the Oakmont boys team and later played college basketball at Clark University.

Sports continue to be a big part of her life.

I still play a little bit of basketball here and there, when the knees hold out, she said. I still work out a lot; do a lot of cycling, boating, lifting and play some tennis.

Do you have a suggestion for a future Where are they Now segment? Please contact Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Rd. Sandwich, MA 02563.

Originally posted here:
Oakmonts Jody (Normandin) Lech became one of the schools best athletes of all time - The Gardner News