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Women's basketball: Novack continues to shine on the court for the Lady Broncbusters
Published 12/4/2008 in Special Sections : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
Katie Novack has been through the rebuilding before.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City Community College's Katie Novack, right. draws a foul on Sterling Junior Varsity's Caitlin Magee (40) as she goes up for a shot in November during the Pepsi Classic at Perryman Athletic Complex. Novack sank both free throws on the play.
All you have to do is look back on the 2007-2008 season, and it still doesn't both her much. The only thing that does matter to Novack, a sophomore guard at Garden City Community College, is that the team does get better. No matter how much of a rebuilding process the team goes through, Novack plays on.
"There's still a lot of things that we need to work on, but as the season goes on, we're seeing more and more strengths and we're trying to pull through and hopefully we'll become a better team," Novack said. "We're still somewhat trying to figure out how each other plays and find those strengths."
Through the Lady Broncbusters first 12 games it's not hard to find what Novack's strength is. Leave her alone for an open shot and it becomes evident that scoring is no weakness. As Garden City sits at .500 through those 12 games, Novack has given the team exactly what it's needed -- scoring. It's just a matter of keeping that momentum going.
"We're learning how to do things together more and become more as one," Novack said.
A 2007 Holcomb High School graduate, Novack helped lift GCCC from a one-win team two years ago, to one that finished 10-21 last season. She finished as the Lady Busters leading scorer and 3-point shooter at 13.1 points and 73 treys from behind the arc. Novack was honored by the Jayhawk Conference by being selected on the All-Conference honorable mention team. Fast forward to this season and Novack is putting up similar numbers, just a little bit better. She's averaging 16.8 points and almost three 3-pointers a game. She's second to Cheree Freeman on the team in free throw percentage among those who have shot more than 20. Novack, who is hitting 77.4 percent of her free throws and has 20 more attempts than anyone on the team.
"I'm trying to be more of a leader this year," Novack said. "I just want to help the team. When they're down I want to help them get up. That way we'll be more successful."
It's that desire that has kept Novack going as the top performer for GCCC. She would rather keep the focus off herself, and make everything about the success the Busters have this season a team thing.
A self-proclaimed homebody before she arrived at GCCC, Novack is ready to take her game to the next level. Where? She doesn't know right now, but she has talked to some teams and plans to go from there. It doesn't matter if it's a college in Kansas or not. Just as long as she has a shot to play, Novack will be happy. But that's a decision she'll make later. Right now, she's just focused on helping to make her team better. This weekend Novack and her teammates will get a look at some of the Jayhawk Eastern Division teams as they will take on Johnson County on Saturday, then Independence on Sunday in the Jayhawk Shootout in Coffeyville.
"They're a lot tougher down there," Novack said of the Eastern Division teams. "So I know we'll have our hands full. I have a feeling that we can do it."
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