Off The Field Off the field to the rescue. In the middle of umpiring a game in Camden last week, Chris Norton of Newcastle, a gym teacher at Boothbay Region Elementary School, saved a little girl's life. (Photo Barbara Freeman)

But one man hears the plea, immediately takes in the situation, and does what it takes to help the child.

A life is saved. And the man returns to his work as if nothing much had happened.

Chris Norton of Newcastle didn't even know the parents when he saved their child's life last Wednesday, April 14. He still doesn't know their names, just the name of the little girl he saved -- Celeste. He estimates she is between one and two years old.

Norton was in Camden, out on the field umpiring a varsity baseball game between the Camden and Rockland high schools, when he heard a woman screaming for help with her baby. No one seemed to respond, so he ran off the field and over to the woman to see what he could do. The little girl wasn't breathing, and Norton knew something was lodged in her airway.

He saw that everyone near the child and parents was ``just standing around,'' and most people in the crowd didn't even realize what was happening. Responding to the call for help, he says, ``was just a reaction. You've got to do what you've got to do.''

He took the little girl from the man he presumes was her father and gave her a sharp pat on the back. When that didn't seem to help, he turned her over, and the pressure of his hands dislodged whatever was blocking her throat.

``I heard her cry and knew she was all right,'' he said, the relief still in his voice days after the incident.

``I gave her back to the dad and went right back to the game. I really didn't think much of it,'' says Norton. ``It happens and back you go. I never gave it a second thought''

Only if you consider the alternative does the magnitude of Norton's actions and the situation become clear. Because of his quick thinking, and quick response, a family is together, and healthy. Without his intervention, they might have been grieving for a child needlessly lost.

The couple came over to Norton and thanked him as he was walking off the field at the end of the game. Norton had the impression that they had something to do with the Rockland team, that perhaps the little girl had an uncle playing.

It was in the numerous first aid courses he has taken that Norton, a gym teacher at Boothbay Region Elementary School and a coach, learned the Heimlich maneuver for saving choking victims. He had a chance to use the procedure once before; he saved his own sister from choking ten or twelve years ago.

It was only on the drive home last week that he really had a chance to think about what had happened.

``I guess I pretty much saved the kid's life,'' he says.

How did it make him feel? ``Pretty good.''