The Kimball Area Schools’ winter sports season will start Nov. 16. Girls’ basketball began Monday, Nov. 16, with wrestling and boys’ basketball starting their seasons Monday, Nov. 23. All athletes and parents of winter-sports athletes should attend the parent meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23, in the High School cafetorium. Brandon Novak, head wrestling coach at St. John’s University will be the guest speaker. Each winter sport will then break into sport groups to discuss their upcoming season.
Brandon Novak is in his sixth season as head coach of the SJU wrestling program in 2009-10. The Johnnies finished 15th out of 62 teams at the NCAA Championships, including two All-Americans and Novak’s first national champion, Minga Batsukh, at 141 pounds. Keeping the academic standards high in 2005-06, Novak’s SJU wrestling team had the fifth highest team grade-point average in NCAA Division III at 3.334.
Prior to becoming the head coach for the 2004-05 season, Novak assisted John Elton, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, who served as head wrestling coach from 1981-2004.
A 2001 graduate of SJU, Novak won the NCAA Division III National Championship at 197 pounds in 2001 and was a three-time All-American overall.
Novak is also a defensive assistant football coach at SJU, a position he has held for seven seasons. As a football player at SJU, Novak was named MIAC Most Valuable Player as a linebacker in 1999 and a first-team All-America selection.
Novak also worked in the admission office at SJU after graduation. Novak, his wife, Heather, and son Sebastian, live in St. Joseph.