YCS selects Rex Norris as Tornados head football coach

Yelm High School has chosen its next football coach, the Nisqually Valley News has confirmed.

Rex Norris, who served as head coach for the Eatonville Cruisers the past two seasons, will take over a Tornados program that won the 3A state championship in 2022 and was state runner-up in 2023. Norris introduced himself to players and current staff on June 16.

This season, the Tornados competed in the 4A South Puget Sound League, finishing 7-3 and narrowly missing the state tournament after a 24-20 home loss to Richland. The Cruisers, meanwhile, totaled a record of 11-9 during Norris’s two-year head coaching tenure at Eatonville. This past season, the Cruisers made the jump from the 1A Evergreen League to the 2A SPSL. They finished sixth out of eight teams.

Norris had previously served as defensive coordinator at Eatonville, before taking over head duties for coach Gavin Kralik, who remained athletic director. Kralik recently announced he would be returning to the sideline as head coach for the Cruisers for the 2025 season.
Norris’s coaching career spans decades. His most notable stop was at Kentwood High School in Covington, where he served as head coach for the Conquerors from 2004-2014, before resigning prior to the 2015 season. During his tenure, the Conks went 86-30 and won five league championships.

According to Skip Smith of the Eatonville Dispatch, Norris was named South Puget Sound League Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2012.

Before becoming a head coach, Norris spent the better part of the 90s as the defensive coordinator at Kentwood under Washington State Football Hall of Fame coach Tom Ingles, before leaving after the 2000 season to coach in Texas. Norris was also the defensive coordinator for Tahoma High School for two seasons, beginning in 2018. He stepped down in 2020 due to COVID-19 and other family obligations.

Norris briefly returned to Kentwood as defensive coordinator during the 2021 season.
Outside of high school football, Norris is a successful veteran rugby coach, having led the Kent Crusaders girls club to numerous state titles and multiple top-four national finishes. From 2015-20, Norris was head of football at Atavus, a company that helps coaches teach an improved and safer form of tackling derived from rugby. Atavus has partnered with the University of Washington, the Ohio State University, the University of Nebraska, and the Seattle Seahawks, among other programs.

Norris has yet to win a state title as a head football coach. It is unclear whether he intends to retain members of the current Yelm staff, most of whom coached under Jason Ronquillo.
Ronquillo, longtime head football coach for Yelm High School, resigned Friday, May 23, just a week before spring practice was set to begin. Yelm concludes its practices on June 19.