Ed Novak Honored With 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award

When Ed Novak began running track at Richland High School more than five decades ago, the school didn’t provide an all-weather track, starting blocks or electronic timing.

“We didn’t even have a track,” Novak said. “We drew a line around the football field.”

That didn’t stop Novak from setting a Richland High record of 10.3 seconds in the 100-yard dash in 1958 and later becoming a WPIAL title-winning coach for the Rams.

The school district has grown and is now Pine-Richland, but Rams track officials acknowledged Novak’s  accomplishments by giving him the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award and inducting him into its Hall of Fame at the 45th Annual Pine-Richland Track Invitational recently at Pine-Richland Stadium.

“I never expected anything like this,” Novak said. “Working with good people and all those good kids, that’s all the reward I wanted.”

Along with the award, Novak said he appreciated the associations he made while serving as an assistant for track coaches Bob McDonough and Bill Riley. Novak moved up to take the head track coaching job in 1989 and led the boys team to the 1992 WPIAL Championship.

Novak also served as an assistant to McDonough on the 1988 PIAA girls cross country championship team, an event that marked the school district’s first state title in any sport.

“I owe a lot to the guys I worked with,” Novak said. “They knew so much about the sport and they were great mentors.”

Novak set the Richland High 100-yard dash record in 1958 on the cinder track at Plum High School, and the mark stood for 10 years.

“We didn’t have starting blocks,” Novak said. “We just dug holes in the cinders.”

Current Pine-Richland track coach Brian Devinney said Novak was honored not only for his records and championships, but also “for the thousands of lives he touched over the course of his career.”

Devinney said records will be broken and titles forgotten.

“The memories of the fun and the life lessons learned by participation in athletics and having had coach Novak as a teacher, coach, colleague and friend is something much more important and enduring,” Devinney said.

Besides inspiring his student-athletes, Novak also passed along his passion for running to his children.

Novak’s youngest son, Jay, won the 1986 two-mile PIAA individual title for the Rams, in addition to the 1984 WPIAL mile championship. Jay also won WPIAL cross country titles in 1985 and 1986.

Jay Novak finished second in the 1986 PIAA mile run despite breaking the state record by almost four seconds with a 4:10.9 finish in one of the fastest and closest races in state track history.

Novak’s daughter, Jennifer, won the mile run gold medal for the Rams in the 1986 WPIAL Championships.

In addition to coaching track and cross country, Novak also served as an assistant coach for Rams varsity football, baseball and boys and girls basketball teams.

Novak retired from the district in 1997 after a 35-year teaching and coaching career.

Novak and his wife, Lenore, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Past Pine-Richland honorees and hall inductees include:

William Riley, former Pine-Richland boys head track coach,

Dr. Robert Johnson, former high school principal and assistant superintendent,

Norman Crawford, former track and field official and Olympic athlete,

Edward “Doc” Totin, current track and field official,

Joseph Rivosecchi, former Rams assistant track and field coach,

Robert McDonough, former girls track and cross country coach.