By MIKE MARSHALL
Times Staff Writer mike.marshall@htimes.com

Poolside with Fran Norris for the 3 p.m. practice at Huntsville Natatorium, and a boy who appears to be nearing his mid-teens asks her permission to go to the bathroom. Propped against the side of the pool, soaked from the last of his laps, the boy mouths his request, as if he’s expecting a scolding. And that’s what he gets because Norris’ rule on bathroom breaks is clear: When you gotta go, you go before the most difficult part of practice begins.

“I don’t let them go the last half-hour,” she says. “They’ll go in the bathroom and stay in there.” So the boy stays in the pool until Norris orders him and his teammates out of the water as the end of practice nears. About 15 bodies huddle around her, all of them dripping water near her chair, and she checks her clipboard. Before she addresses them, she says, “We’ve got a meet coming up in two days.”

In previous years, the meet, sponsored by the Huntsville Swim Association, was known as the Jack Frost Invitational. Early last Saturday afternoon, the meet’s name was officially changed to the Fran Norris Invitational. Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer attended the ceremony, held at the end of the first day of the meet.

“I never thought they’d do that,” she says.

But the name of the meet was changed because Norris has been a swimming coach here since she moved from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Huntsville in 1960. After that, she has overseen the renaming of the local swim club, from the Rocket City Aquatic Club to the Huntsville Swim Association. In 1965, she started a swim team on Monte Sano. More than 200 swimmers showed up that first year, when she coached the team by herself.

“They told me I wouldn’t last because of baseball and ballet,” she recalls. “But it did last.”

She has survived years when it rained for most of the summer and years when her primary indoor facility was the tiny pool in the basement of the Central YMCA on Green Street. One of her swimmers, Chris O’Neal, was a four-time All-American at Texas A&M and a gold medal winner at the World University Games in the mid-1980s. Another swimmer, Margaret Hoelzer, was a member of the 2006 Olympic team. So many have swum on college teams that she’s lost count.

“I’ve always loved water, and I’ve always loved working with children,” she says. “Whether it’s telling stories in Sunday school or what, I’ve always loved working with children.” Her payoff, among other things, has come in recent years, when her former swimmers, now grown, return to Huntsville to see her.

“I’ve coached everything from housepainters to physicians,” she says. “I’ve coached all kinds - bad kids and good kids.” All of them remind her about the notes she made for them before big meets - her way of motivating her swimmers.

“You looked good at practice,” was among her favorite sayings. Another: “I think you’re going to have a great meet - and don’t eat any candy.”

She was a firm believer that sugar and swimming didn’t mix. But some of her swimmers thought otherwise. “Some them would eat candy like you wouldn’t believe,” she says. “I’d get upset when they’d bring candy to a meet. I’d get them if they were chewing gum. I’d be the only one who’d do it, but I’d do it.”

Chewing gum and swimming was dangerous, in her estimation. “They’d take it out, and I’d check them,” she says. “Some of them would say they’d swallowed it. Some put it under the blocks. Everybody knew that, that I’d check for gum.”