TAMPA — Joe Norris toiled for nine years in the minors without ever reaching the majors.

The closest he got was a brief invite to major league camp with the Marlins in 1997, when the team’s pitching coach was Larry Rothschild.

Now the 46-year-old Norris is the pitching coach at Sumter High School in Sumter, S.C., and he’s hoping one of his former pupils makes the leap he wasn’t able to.

Starting when Yankees prospect Jordan Montgomery was in eighth grade, Norris worked with the left-hander and the two still text several times a week.

And this spring, there has been plenty of good news to share, as the 24-year-old has opened eyes throughout spring training in a long-shot bid to make the Yankees rotation.

“I pitched a long time in the minors, just not well enough,” Norris said by phone on Monday. “To see Jordan move up has been fun to watch. I’ve seen every game this spring on TV. We talked in the offseason about focusing on what he can control because it’s such a grind and you have to battle through hard times — but he hasn’t had too many hard times.”

Certainly not lately.

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After going 9-4 with a 2.55 ERA in 19 starts with Double-A Trenton last year, Montgomery moved up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was 5-1 with a 0.97 ERA in six games.

The 24-year-old has followed that up with a solid spring in which he’s surrendered just two runs over his last 8 ¹/₃ innings, walking none and striking out 10.

He’ll have another chance to show what he can do in front of Joe Girardi — and Rothschild, now the Yankees pitching coach — on Wednesday against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla.

For those who watched Montgomery pitch at both Sumter and the University of South Carolina, his rise through the Yankees’ system hasn’t been all that surprising.

In 2011, Montgomery helped pitch Sumter to the state title in a best-of- three series, twice beating Byrnes High School and its ace Daniel Gossett, a right-hander that could crack the A’s roster this season.

“What I remember most is his poise and professionalism and how he goes about his craft,” Sumter head coach Brooks Shumake said. “It’s almost like when he’s pitching, there’s no batter. He just makes his pitch.”

Shumake, who played four years in the Reds system from 1984-87, said he expects to see Montgomery in The Bronx by the summer.

“It looks like he’s doing the same thing in Tampa that he did with us,” Shumake said. “You don’t get lucky and do what he’s done for that long a stretch.”

Not blessed with overwhelming stuff, Norris said Montgomery had to learn how to pitch at an early age, something he believes is helping him now.

“He didn’t blow people away, so he had to work hard,” said Norris, who reached Triple-A with the Marlins, Twins and Reds after being drafted by the Expos in the 26th round in 1989. “Then when his velocity went up and his stuff got better, he already knew what he was doing.”

That was on display at both Sumter and at South Carolina in the most important games.

According to Norris, Montgomery tossed 28 innings in the playoffs without giving up a run.

And at South Carolina — the Yankees picked him from there in the fourth round following his junior season — Montgomery went 5-0 with a 0.93 ERA in five postseason starts, knocking off the likes of Clemson and Arkansas as a freshman, Liberty and North Carolina as a sophomore and Campbell in his junior year.

“He really likes the challenge,” Norris said. “He’s not afraid of big games and doesn’t make the setting bigger than it is.”

But while rising to the occasion in the state playoffs and the College World Series is a good start, Montgomery still has a considerable amount to prove before he wins a spot with the Yankees.

Shumake, though, isn’t going to doubt him.

“He’s passed the test everywhere he’s been so far,” Shumake said. “I don’t think he’s going to stop now.”