With their 91-66 win against Edina on Friday, Feb. 13, boys basketball earned their 20th victory of the season. Almost every other school in the state would automatically consider a 20-win year a great success, but for the Royals, it’s just another season.

For the 24th straight season, the Royals eclipsed the 20 win mark. The last time the boys basketball team did not reach over 20 wins was during the 1990-1991 season, the first season at HHS for Mr. Ken Novak Jr., head coach and social studies. He had spent the previous 10 seasons coaching at Blaine.

The 24 consecutive 20-plus win seasons is the longest active record in the state. Braham is second with 19 straight seasons.

“I wouldn’t have known that record. I don’t really pay attention to those types of accomplishments,” Novak said.

He is not new to such achievements, as he has won at least a share of 21 Lake Conference titles, has the most state championships for a head coach at one school in MN at six, has won 761 games as of Feb. 24, has been ESPN’s High School Coach of the Year, and was inducted into the MN Basketball Hall of Fame.

With all the success, Novak hasn’t recently considered moving on to coach at the next level.

“No, no. Way back when I had a few opportunities where I could have, but I’ve enjoyed high school, I always did. But if I’d have known how much money these college coaches make… You have to start that at a young age if you are going to go in that direction,” Novak said.

His main focus is coming in each day and trying to make his team better.

“I enjoy coaching, I enjoy working with the guys, I really do. For me, it’s not as much about playing the other team as it is playing ourselves,” Novak said. “It can get frustrating, it can get tough. We try to get our kids to really work hard and have certain virtues that can help them achieve certain goals.”

As a coach, it is Novak’s responsibility to help the team win basketball games. However, one of his goals every year is to make his players better human beings and help them prepare for anything in life.

“I’m trying to help those kids learn, concentrate, focus, persevere. In essence, to be able to do well at anything. Youth have a tendency to think that what they are doing is good or good enough and our job is to push them into thinking that it isn’t good enough and we can do better,” Novak said.

John Warren, senior and captain, believes that he and his teammates have all been affected in a positive way by Novak.

“Novak has helped me become a smarter basketball player and helped make the game become easier to me,” Warren said. “He cares about us as a team.”

Wyatt Johnson, senior, can only confirm Novak’s aspirations as a coach.

“Novak hasn’t only changed me as a basketball player but as a person. He has taught me how to concentrate and work my hardest at the times where I don’t feel like doing so,” Johnson said.

One thing that drives Novak crazy is when his team doesn’t compete and give it their all in each and every game. There has only been one instance of that happening this year, against a team from Iowa, and it hasn’t happened again.

“He coaches the way he does because he doesn’t care about winning and losing. He cares about competing,” Warren said.

Despite the messages and legacy coaches leave with their players, at the end of the day, most are judged by their wins and losses. Novak doesn’t care too much about the wins but can’t stand losing.

“Personally, winning to me isn’t that big a deal. I just really hate losing. Losing pains me. Losing really, really bothers me,” Novak said. “This will surprise many, but winning state championships aren’t all that important to me. It’s the games I lose that I ultimately think about the most.”

When the team isn’t competing in games, Novak has to judge whether or not the team is truly enjoying the game of basketball or are just going through the motions.

“There is a saying out there that is like ‘find something that you love and then become great at it.’ I’m not sure I’m buying that. I don’t buy that philosophy,” Novak said. “My philosophy is ‘be so good that no one can ignore you’ and when you become so good at something and start becoming an expert in it or start becoming great at it, that’s when you start to love it. You’ll truly love to do it.”