Norm Latona, the father of two-time Hokie All-American Sam Latona, will always carry a part of Virginia Tech wrestling with him. Literally.
The Hokies sports information department announced on May 7, 2025 that Norm underwent a kidney transplant following prolonged health troubles. The donor? None other than Virginia Tech head wrestling coach Tony Robie.
𝑼𝒕 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒎 🧡
— Virginia Tech Wrestling (@HokiesWrestling)
Please keep two of our own in your thoughts and prayers today as Norm Latona undergoes a long awaited, much needed kidney transplant. The donor none other than head coach Tony Robie.
We all thank you for your support and love. 🦃
For Norm, this transplant marked the end of a tumultuous, emotional journey that began in January 2022 and involved multiple different forms of dialysis treatment, all of which required laborious processes and machines to serve in the place of his kidney. With the help of a selfless act from Robie, Norm is now healthy again, a reality that his son Sam can only describe as a “pretty incredible, very surreal” medical miracle.
“I didn't want to miss anything”
Sam Latona remembers getting the call from his family that his father Norm was sick with kidney troubles. Sam was traveling back to Blacksburg after a dual meet, trying to balance competing in his rigorous ACC schedule with weight management, school, ranked opponents and now this, a critical health diagnosis for his father. Sam said he wasn’t totally clear on what the kidney diagnosis meant and leaned on his brother Dom, a Virginia Tech wrestling alum, who was in medical school, to help explain the intricacies of the situation.
Pretty quickly, though, he realized this prognosis would send him and his family on a roller coaster of a journey.
Norm's kidney treatment started with in-home dialysis where a tube was inserted into his belly to function as his kidney. This process failed after about a year, causing Norm’s condition to decline. He was then diagnosed with pneumonia during what Sam said was one of the scariest moments for him and his family.
“I remember having conversations with my mom and my brothers just like, " ‘What do we [have] to do?’ And kind of crying to each other,” Sam said in an interview with sifoeeprocess.com. “But at the end of the day, we had each other's backs and we were there for each other.”
Norm was later put on hemodialysis and was required to go into a dialysis clinic several times a week for hours at a time to clean out his kidneys. This proved to be particularly rough on him as Norm was still trying to travel to watch Sam compete. Norm ended up traveling as far as Stillwater and Philadelphia to see Sam wrestle, finding treatment centers in each of those cities to balance his medical needs with his desire to see Sam wrestle.
He spent as much time as he could in Blacksburg, too, for Sam's final few home meets.
"I didn't want to miss anything," Norm said in a Virginia Tech Zoom press conference. "I would come on a Thursday in Blacksburg so I could do a treatment Friday morning [before a Friday night dual]. Blacksburg is not a bad place to spend a couple of days every other week."
The Virginia Tech community kept Sam and Norm going.
“It was kind of easy when you're at a place like Virginia Tech, and I've got the family and support that I had,” Sam said.
The love for the Latonas from the wrestling community spread across state lines as well. Leaders in the sport like Jesse Leng, the CEO of Rudis, were working publicly and privately to help the family.
In fact, Leng promoted Norm’s story widely and spread the word that he needed a kidney.
Robie, who had been following Norm’s condition for years, felt “called” to help.
“Norm’s become a good friend over the last several years, so that played a huge role in this," Robie said during a Virginia Tech Zoom press conference. "My relationship with him and the kind of person that he is made this an easy decision. I felt deeply called to do it, I just had a feeling throughout the entire process that I was going to be a match just from the start. This was all part of God’s plan and what he wanted me to do — I just had faith in that.”
After passing rigorous medical tests and blood work locally in Blacksburg and then down in Alabama, Robie was confirmed as a match to donate his kidney to Norm.
“Someone else’s kidney is in my dad.”
Robie and Norm didn’t initially want to tell Sam about the transplant option until after Ƶs. They wanted him to be able to concentrate on wrestling.
Ultimately, though, they elected to break the news to him in January, almost exactly three years since Sam first learned about his father’s condition.
“My dad called me after my App State dual this year and told me that Robie..was going to do it,” Sam said.
He explained that Robie, who Sam describes as “not a very emotional guy,” gave Sam a hug and just told him how much he loved him after they talked through the decision.
Months passed between Robie’s decision and the procedure. The anticipation of the surgery was on everyone’s mind, but Robie told Sam to focus on wrestling.
“He was like, you know, ‘I don't want this to change anything about the way that you compete. I don't want you to think anything of it. I want you to just continue to wrestle the way that you are and continue to do the sport that you love,'” Sam said.
Sam went on to qualify for nationals before ending his career for the Hokies in Philadelphia and refocusing on his father and the surgery. He and Robie went down to Alabama in early May, ahead of the surgery, to prepare for the operation.
What a career for Bama Sam Latona.
— Virginia Tech Wrestling (@HokiesWrestling)
Never gave anything less than his absolute best effort. The epitome of a what it means to be a Hokie. We are so grateful you chose to call Blacksburg home, Bama Sam. 🦃
Norm, Sam’s mother, Robie and Robie’s wife Jennifer, arrived at the hospital around 5 a.m. on the morning of May 7, Sam said. Robie’s procedure was first.
Hours passed. The families, especially Jennifer, started to get anxious, according to Sam.
By around 10 a.m., the doctors came out for an update.
“They called her [Jennifer] over and said, finally, ‘Hey, we got the kidney out. It's going in Mr. Latona,’” Sam said. “And so it was kind of successful from his standpoint. Now it's just putting it in my dad.”
Fifteen minutes later, Norm Latona had Robie’s kidney in his body, supporting his medical needs. The success still wows Sam.
𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝐺𝑂𝑂𝐷 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 🙌🙏
— Virginia Tech Wrestling (@HokiesWrestling)
GREAT news from !
This is FAMILY. 🦃
“We were all kind of in that waiting room together. You've got Mrs. Jen is there with us, with our family, and it's very surreal,” Latona said. “It's almost crazy from a medical standpoint, you're like, ‘How is this even possible?’ Someone else’s kidney is in my dad.”
Sam and Norm and truly Hokies through and through, largely because of this generosity from Robie.
Their journey in Blacksburg isn't over either, as Sam will now be transitioning into a role as a recruiting coordinator for the Hokies. He'll now be working with the man who helped transform his father's life while representing the team where he competed for over half a decade.
“I think it will probably be in the headlines, but just how incredible coach Robie and his family have been through the entire process,” Latona said. “Coach Robie deserves all the credit for the person that he is and the things that he’s done. He’s an incredible human being and an awesome person.”
