ASU hockey has been no stranger to questions and doubts in the last 11 months.
Other programs and people have asked, "Can an NCAA program survive in the desert?" "Why should an ACHA dynasty become a startup at the NCAA level?" "Will the Sun Devils be good enough?"
With a new program on the horizon and a team in need of leadership, another question was raised.
"Who is going to be ASU's cap-"
ASU hockey head coach Greg Powers stopped the reporter mid-question. He had one answer immediately come to his head to be the NCAA program's inaugural captain.
"Liam Norris."
Just months earlier, Norris didn't even think he'd take the ice at Oceanside Ice Arena again. Certainly not at the NCAA level.
Friday night, Norris took the ice in Tempe yet again, this time with a "C" on his chest, an ASU diploma at home and a West-Coast-sized chip on his shoulder as he and his startup program set out to prove the doubters wrong.
Through his first seven games, he has five points (two goals, three assists). His team has seen its ups and downs, from a 8-1 win over ACHA foe Arizona to a blowout loss to then-No. 19 Quinnipiac. But that hasn't stopped ASU from doing things their way.
The Sun Devils are unique.
"Be The Tradition," they said.
Part of that tradition begins with their leadership — a blend of old and new blood all donning the "C," no captain more important than the other.
The captains: graduate transfer forward Garrett Peterson, ACHA alum Jordan Young and Norris.
The man who hadn't set foot in the desert before telling Powers he would play for his club hockey program.
The man Powers said has been here longer than anybody — players, coaches and NCAA program alike.
"If anyone deserves (to be a captain), he does," Young said. "He's been here the longest and is one of the greatest guys I know. He's just a natural leader, so it's cool to see him get rewarded as well and take the leap and make the decision to come back and play hockey and also get a letter too."
The 2014-15 WCHL MVP thought he wouldn't be able to be around to see his team's hard work pay off. With 134 points in his career and an ACHA championship under his belt, he had run out of eligibility before ASU's inaugural NCAA season.
He had already taken a job. He had moved on. All he needed was a few courses to receive his diploma, and the Calgary native's fondly remembered time in Tempe would be over.
That was, until a phone call from college hockey's newest top recruiter — Powers.
He wanted his star back.
"It was a process with Liam, because he had a job lined up," Powers said. "I always want what's best for the kids and we just decided, 'You help build this, and you should be a part of it. That job is never going to go anywhere. Your cubicle will be waiting for you.' This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."
Norris hadn't even considered the opportunity to play NCAA hockey as a Sun Devil. To him, Division I hockey at ASU was still a pipe dream.
"We always said it would be cool to happen here, and everybody always thought that it would happen eventually but it was always said like 20 years down the road," Norris said. "It kind of just came out of the blue. Obviously (Powers) wasn't telling us everything and it kind of just got announced and everyone was in awe."
Powers' pitch worked.
As soon as the idea came to mind, Norris said he couldn't quite hang up the skates just yet.
"Once we worked out all the details, it was an easy decision to make," Norris said. "To come back and be a part of this first year of ASU NCAA hockey was just a once in a lifetime opportunity. I talked to my parents and everybody I kind of look up to as adults and everybody just kind of said, 'You have your whole life to work. You only have one opportunity to do this.'
"Once you hang up your skates, you're done. You could never come back and play competitive hockey, so it was really an easy decision once the cards were on the table."
The first teammate to find out that Norris would be coming back was Young, who lived with him during the 2014-15 season.
"I lived with Liam last year and we got to talking one long night," Young said. "(Coach) Powers is really good with his phone, so he just fired him a text and ran the idea by him and acted on a whim."
The whim, which came just a month before his college graduation, led him to spend Friday and Saturday night in a familiar spot — Oceanside Ice Arena.
In his first game back at the arena, he too found his name in a familiar spot — the scorer's sheet.
With less than a minute to go in the opening minute of the first period in the second game in his new, refurbished "barn," Norris took the assist from an old ACHA teammate in Ryan Belonger and new NCAA teammate Liam McGing and did what he did to various ACHA opponents in the last four years.
Bury the puck into the back of the net.
There he was, in his old No. 25, celebrating yet again during his final season in Tempe.
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow @fardaya15 on Twitter.
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