Norm Batherson is a native of North Sydney, N.S. and member of the Class of 1994. He played Major Junior Hockey with the Bellville Bulls of the OHL and then moved to the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL.
Norm arrived at Acadia in the fall of 1990, responding to the recruiting efforts of Coach Tom Coolen. In Norm’s three years with the Axemen, he played in 68 regular season games, scored 43 goals and had 62 assists for 105 points.
Tom Coolen, head coach of the hockey Axemen during Batherson’s university career, says, “Norm Batherson was an outstanding competitor, with skills to match. He never stopped improving his game as he attended Acadia, and his national championship and professional career reflect this.” Batherson was inducted into Acadia’s Hockey Honour Roll in 2008.
Following the Axemen’s first National Championship in 1993, Norm signed a contract with the Ottawa Senators and played in Charlottetown for the PEI Senators of the American Hockey League.
He then moved to the AHL’s Portland Pirates, who opened the 1994-95 season with a record-setting 42 days and 17 games without a loss, an AHL record for best start to a season. Norm still holds the Pirates’ record for the most short-handed goals in a season with six, is their 13th all-time goal scorer, their 10th all-time leader in assists and is 11th in all-time points with 395 total points, including 155 goals.
Following his AHL career, Batherson played eight years in Germany, first in the Premiere League then seven in second league. He won a League Championship his last year in Straubing (2006), known as the German Cup, and was the all-time leading scorer in that league when he retired in 2006. In total, Batherson played 13 years and close to 800 games as a professional in the AHL and in Germany. Along the way, he played with NHL players Sergei Gonchar, Jason Allison, Andrew Brunnette, and Pavol Demitra. One of his personal highlights was scoring a goal on Dominik Hasek during an NHL exhibition game in 1995 while playing for the Washington Capitals.
Following his retirement, Norm, with his wife Deeann and two children, Drake and Mae, returned to the Annapolis Valley and started a career with the Nova Scotia Dept. of Justice. He was then an assistant hockey coach at St. F.X. for three seasons, and currently lives in the Annapolis Valley.
The Acadia Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to induct, in the athlete category, an outstanding competitor and member of Acadia’s Hockey Honour Roll, Norm Batherson.
