Mother tongue (2021):
Recreation
Norwood has a modern single pad arena, a baseball diamond, a skateboard park, a children's splash pad and a playground. The high school has soccer, rugby and football pitches. Norwood currently is home to the Norwood Vipers an OHA Sr. A hockey team. The town hockey teams are referred to as the Norwood Hornets.
Minor hockey history
The Norwood Hornets Minor Hockey Association (previously known as Norwood Minor Sports) has operated minor hockey programs for more than 80 years in the community of approximately 1,300.
The NMHA has operated out of three arenas since the Association's inception in the 1920s. Originally the minor hockey programs skated in the Trent Valley League (TVL) holding games at the Spring Street Arena located north of Spring Street and south of Hwy. 7 (between Pine and Hwy.45). The Spring Street Arena was an outdoor facility that featured Norwood taking on TVL rivals such as neighboring Havelock, Hastings, Warsaw, Douro, Marmora and Keene.
In the mid-1950s, the G.A. Brethen Coliseum was built originally for use for the Norwood Fair, however, was converted into a hockey arena and was used until the year 2001 when the new Asphodel–Norwood Community Centre opened. Around this time, the Norwood programs participated in the Hastings & District League against newer opponents such as Ennismore, Warkworth and Campbellford.
In the early 1980s, former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender Marv Edwards settled in Norwood and implemented the Fundamentals In Action (FIA) skills development system. The program paid immediate dividends as the Hornets had unprecedented success from 1983 to 1992—winning seven (7) OMHA titles and participating in twelve (12) OMHA Finals between 1983 and 1994.
It was believed that much of Norwood's minor hockey success was attributed to the Brethen Coliseum's small, tight quarters. The ice surface was measured at 186 feet long by 72 feet wide. (NHL regulation ice is 200 x 85). The Coliseum's ice was approximately 23% smaller than the traditional North American ice surface.
Norwood's OMHA championship success over the years is one of the most successful among centres of its size (the DD and D classification) for communities under 5,000 residents.
The Hornets program has sent several players onto the various levels of Junior levels of hockey, however, the most notable was forward Fred Doherty who played professionally from 1908 until 1919, including stints in the Maritime Professional Hockey League and the National Hockey Association. After World War I, Doherty was called up to the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL and saw action in three games in the 1918–19 campaign for Montreal.
The Hornets have had sixteen (16) O.M.H.A. Championships and seventeen (17) O.M.H.A. Finalists since 1958. 33 of Norwood's OMHA Finals appearances came in a 27-year span from 1983 to 2010
Education
Norwood has four schools in three buildings. Norwood District Public School (elementary), St. Paul's Elementary School (Catholic), Norwood Intermediate Public School (grade 8) and Norwood District High School. Norwood intermediate is now a wing of the High School.
Notable residents
- Fred Doherty, former NHL player
- Matt Walst, Neil Sanderson, Barry Stock and Brad Walst, members of the rock band Three Days Grace
- Brendan McMillan, bassist of the rock band My Darkest Days
- Cale Gontier, bassist of the rock bands Art of Dying and Saint Asonia
- Adam Gontier, current lead vocalist for Saint Asonia and Three Days Grace
See also
- List of municipalities in Ontario
- List of townships in Ontario