Hamilton senior John Novak needs 43 goals to become the first male Hornet to score 100 in a career. He scored 39 last year.HamHamilton senior John Novak needs 43 goals to become the first male Hornet to score 100 in a career. He scored 39 last year.ilton senior John Novak needs 43 goals to become the first male Hornet to score 100 in a career. He scored 39 last year.
If John Novak puts his two thumbs side by side, it’s still easy to point out the one that he broke almost a year ago playing lacrosse. The right thumb is wider and still looks a bit, well, less attractive.
So if it looks that bad now, one can only imagine how it appeared last spring. Despite breaking it in the season’s second game, the Hamilton High School West senior played through the year and scored 39 goals for the Hornets.
He enters his final season 43 goals shy of becoming the first male player to reach 100 in school history.
“He did what he felt he had to do to give the team every opportunity to compete in our games; that’s what leaders do,” coach Alex Chis-Luca said. “He has the heart of a lion going into battle, and he battled through a lot of pain throughout the season. There were many occasions he would come off the field with blood running down some part of his body. He would just say ‘Clean it and cover it, I’m going back in.’”
The thumb injury occurred against Nottingham, when he took a stick check from a Northstar, and it got pinched between two sticks. The thumb was broken and infected, but Novak did not miss a game and helped Hamilton to a school-record five victories. He still wonders how much more effective he would have been with a healthy hand.
“It definitely hindered me,” Novak said. “It didn’t lower my playing ability, but I would think twice before I went and did something. I wouldn’t go as hard to the cage, or I would think, ‘Should I pass the ball instead of running right to the defender because I might get hurt more?’”
Part of the way through the season, he went to the hospital to get the wound drained and release some pressure. But the pain lingered.
Since he shoots from the right side, he lost some of his power due to the lack of thumb strength. Despite the discomfort, Novak has no regrets.
“I’d rather play without the pain but I’m glad I played through it, and it didn’t stop me from playing last year,” he said. “I just think if I didn’t hurt my thumb, would I have gotten more goals? That would have made it less stressful worrying about 100 this year, and there’s a lot of pressure since nobody’s gotten 100 from the boys’ side. But, you can’t take it back.”
Novak doesn’t want to take back anything from the past three years, which constitutes his entire lacrosse career.
When he entered West, Novak had every intention of continuing a baseball career he started at age 3. But two seniors who were friends of his sister mentioned in passing that he should go out for lacrosse. Despite being “in love” with baseball, the more he learned about lacrosse, the more he liked the idea of playing.
Novak has no idea why the two targeted him.
“It was just casual talk, but they kept asking me, so I thought ‘Why not?’” he said. “I don’t know what made me decide that, but I’m glad I did. I ended up starting freshman year on varsity and haven’t looked back since.”
Playing midfield, Novak had a modest two goals his first year, upped it to 16 as a sophomore and exploded last year despite the injury. He realized that the Hornets had lost all their scoring power to graduation and knew he had to step things up.
“I worked on my shot quite a bit, and I just came out with the mentality that I have to be the leading goal scorer,” he said. “Not necessarily be a ball hog but just get as many goals as possible for the team.”
Novak feels one of his strength’s as a goal scorer is the ability to look away from his target area. But he admitted that good fortune also plays a part.
“I don’t look at the goalie, and that’s what many people do, they look at the goalie and that’s automatically (a tip off) where they’re going to aim because that’s where their eyes are going,” Novak said. “I’ll look at the goal, I’ll look down or look somewhere else, and then I’ll take my shot. Accuracy and power are definitely a part of it too, but overall you have some luck. It’s not all skill in my opinion.”
And while Chis-Luca agreed with Novak that his skills would likely have been more productive without the bum thumb, he also felt the player used his injury as inspiration, turning his pain into power.
“He would come off the field, throw his glove while grimacing with pain and then within two minutes he put the pain somewhere that gave him the adrenaline to go out for another shift,” he said.
Chis-Luca said the 100-goal milestone is not as important to Novak as the possibility of capturing a division title for the first time in West history.
Novak agreed. He admitted it would be a big deal for him to get 100 goals, but said he would forego that opportunity if it could help the Hornets increase their win total. Last year, he would torch a team for five goals in one game, and then find himself double and triple teamed the next time the squads met.
“This year, I’m going to make it less about me and more about all the other guys,” Novak said. “It will eventually get them off of me, and I’ll get my chance for shots. We want to be at least .500 this year. I was talking to (attack) Mike Carbone, and we were saying this could be our year. We’ve been working hard, we didn’t lose many seniors last year. We’re looking for a good season.”
Chis-Luca feels if the team can avoid serious injuries and maintain its focus, it could be a strong year.
“We have the experience, the depth and the know-how to do better,” he said. “I believe in the team, and that whatever they encounter, we will be strong enough to come together and achieve our goals for this year. John and the rest of my four-year players have been through all the ups downs while I have been at West, so they know what it takes to pull themselves up if we aren’t having the game we should be having.”
Novak will be in the middle of any success the Hornets have, as both a scorer and a leader.
“I am looking for John to lead by example of how to be a spectacular lacrosse player that you look forward to watching because he is going to do something so unexpected that the result is going to bring you out of your seat with excitement,” Chis-Luca said. “I am looking to see him make everyone around him better and more successful than in years past, even though it may not increase his goal totals. I expect him to be a better all-around player, just working everyday to build on the skills that have gotten him to the level he is at.”
And provided he keeps that thumb healthy, take it to an even higher level.
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