“Speed, work ethic—and some pushing from family”

 By Gregg E. Riess

It’s 5:24pm on a Wednesday evening.  Do you know where your athlete is? 

It’s after school.  Dinner will be served soon.  The sun is starting to set, and the cool breeze of fall is ever present.  Where is your athlete?  Where is your child, the future superstar? 

Sure, it’s been a long day at school.  Homework is piled on the kitchen counter.  The couch looks very inviting, nestled right in front of the television tuned to the Disney Channel. 

Decisions to be made.  Time to be managed.  If you’re a ten-year-old, what do you do?  Do you chill on the couch, crack the books for homework, or practice your athletic skills? 

“Winners in life are people who have the discipline to eat dinner before dessert,” explains Andy Barney, the founder of the KC Legends Soccer Club.  “There’s nothing wrong with dessert—just remember to eat dinner first.”  Those words are posted to my desk as part of a motivational note that Barney had sent to parents and players earlier in the year.  Famous author Stephen Covey tells us that one of his seven habits for success is to “do the first things first”. 

Lots of good advice.  But, is it that easy?  How does a young athlete, such as a girl breaking into premier soccer, do it all?  And, what role do the parents play?  Good questions, right?  I have a ten-year-old daughter playing soccer, but don’t look to me for the answers—just count me in as a motivated student in this ongoing learning experience as a sports parent. 

Whether you’re a soccer mom, or a devoted dad, we’ve all been there.  It’s time for soccer practice with the team, and your child is nowhere to be found.  It’s time to go in the backyard to practice soccer skills, and the television has put your daughter or son in a trance.  What do you do?  I tapped one of our area’s best soccer players for the answers.  Enter Lacey Novak.  Lacey has stepped out of the role as a young premier player and has stepped into the role as a new freshman on the Kansas University women’s soccer team. 

“When I was little, it was my brother and dad pushing me.  They’d take me out and teach me how to win.  I remember them teaching me my first year.  They were both excited and wanted me to succeed.”  Those early sessions paid immediate results.  “Young kids starting out just kick the soccer ball in big mobs, right?  My family taught me that if you kick the ball, you are the one that knows where it’s going.  They told me to kick and get there first.  They taught me to use my speed and keep doing cuts because I knew where the ball was going.  My brother told me that before you kick a goal, you should cut it across the goal because you know it’s going to happen but the goalie does not.  My older brother taught me this with my dad.”  Her next game Lacey scored five goals with those moves.  “They had to take me out because kept scoring and no one else had a shot on goal.”  Lacey reflected on her early start, “It starts out so easy, and I learned at an early age.  Every little kid wants to win.  I saw how to do it, and that made it a lot of fun.”  

Early success leads to higher expectations.  It takes more than family tricks to get the job done.  When you enter your early teens, the level of competition increases, and the amount of practice required to compete at that level also increases.  Even with Lacey’s strong work ethic and “do what it takes attitude” she needed some extra motivation.  “Pushing from my mom was more visible starting in middle school.  My mom was always pushing me to go do something like run or work at the ball.  I didn’t want to hear that at the time, but she’d make me go out and do it.  Now, I look back and realize that she was so persistent with me.  She said that I had to work at this if I was going to progress.  She was there to make sure I was practicing.  We’d get into fights.  She was always right.  But, but as a teenager I wanted to be right!”  Lacey now admits, “Parents really do know best.  My mom knew I wanted to play and keep my soccer career going.  I couldn’t do it while I was just sitting around.  Even though she got mad at me, it was the right thing.  It really helped because she made me better.”   

Her father adds, “I think Lacey’s success is 80% Lacey and 20% others around her.”  Sounds like her family was there to hold her accountable to her dream.  You see, when Lacey first started playing soccer and other organized sports there were not a lot of opportunities for girls.  “I played softball for a while in second and third grade on a boys team that my dad coached.  There were just a few girls on the team.  The boys would scoot in for us while we were batting at the plate.  Then, we would hit the ball over their heads.  After a couple of years, we saw more girls playing and there were co-ed teams.  Then we saw more all-girl teams.”  The competitive spirit was first fueled by a chance to beat the boys in their own game.  Later it fueled a desire to compete as a woman as the opportunities increased for female athletes. 

It was eighth grade was when Lacey started thinking more about the future as a soccer player.  “You’re almost in high school, that’s when you start thinking about the possibilities.  That’s such a big transition.  When I was in eighth grade, women’s soccer began to get noticed nationwide, and women were seeing a lot of options.  My club team, KCFC Pumas coached by Dave Morrow, started to talk about it.  We realized that all the girls on our team had a chance to play soccer in college.  College soccer was getting bigger for women, and our sport was really getting noticed.  We started to think that we could really do this because if we wanted to play, there’s opportunity for us.”  Role models were visible for Lacey: “Mia Hamm wears the same number (9) as me, and plays the same position (forward) like me.  I saw that Mia Hamm was doing the same thing I’m doing, and playing at a much higher level.” 

The vision was there.  Still, before you become the next Mia Hamm, you need to jump off the couch, grab a ball, and do your soccer drills in the backyard.

Her father, Jim Novak explains: “I’d walk in and turn the TV off for her, and tell her to go outside for 5 or 10 minutes.  Next, she’d be out there for 2 hours practicing and hitting the ball against the fence.  I finally bought a net where she could kick it into the goal.“  Jim explains his fatherly advice to others with young daughters, “the thing that helped Lacey to have the desire was positive strokes.  I’d tell Lacey to hit a section of fence and when she hit it, I would go up and pat her on the back and say ‘Very good’.  Then, we’d step back.  She’d do it again, and then I’d give her more positive strokes.” 

Once in high school, the Olympic Development Program (ODP) program gave her those positive strokes.  “When I was young, I did a few Huw Williams camps.  Another camp that accelerated my development was ODP.  The ODP camps help you get seen by coaches nationally and regionally because they come to focus on you.  At end of camp, you get an evaluation as to what you can do to improve quickness, defense, heading, and other skills.  You see all of that on paper and see personally what you need to do to become a better player.  It’s a different coach each year, providing a lot of different perspectives from different experts.”  It must have worked because Lacey competed on the Kansas state ODP team for 5 years and in 2002 she played on the Midwest regional team within ODP.

For Lacey, all of that practice and development has made her a good player.  But, combined with her unique speed, she’s a great player.  “My speed comes from my father,” Lacey explains.  “He ran track at Nebraska and competed in the Junior Olympics.”  Speed has always been a trademark for Lacey, especially as a younger player.  Coach Dave Murrow of KCFC Alliance Puma coached her for nine years.  “There were a number of good players on that team, and she was one of the better players because of her outstanding speed.”  Speed alone wasn’t the secret for Lacey explained Murrow, “she had a great desire to learn the game.  She was always asking questions, saying ‘should I being doing this or that?’  She never missed a practice.  Lacey was very competitive by always giving 100% to win, and had that same mentality at practice.

A graduate from Shawnee Mission South, Lacey was named 2002 All Sun Country Offensive Player of Year by Sun Publications in junior year.  During her senior year, she was the Gatorade Player of the Year for Girls Soccer in the state of Kansas.  Her 2003 Pumas were state champs for U19, and were also the 2002 U18 state champions.   

Lacey arrived in Lawrence, Kansas late this spring and noticed a few changes right away.  “The level of play here is certainly different.  Everyone is quicker.  And, school is a lot different.  No one is making you go to class.  It’s almost that you have an option.  But for us, if the coach finds out we’re not in school, there are consequences.  Freedom is there, and it’s how you manage that.”   

Although her parents are no longer on-site every day to push her, she’s getting a lot of positive strokes from the Kansas coaching staff.  Donna Holyman is the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.  Coach Holyman explains, “We knew Lacey from ODP and already knew that her personality would match with the girls on the team.  She has done very well for us, we have moved her around (to different positions) because she is so versatile and she has been gaining valuable minutes as the season goes on."   

Head coach Mark Francis agrees, “Lacey is getting better every week and we are definitely looking for big things from her down the road.  When we watched her play the thing that caught our eye was her pace.  She is very quick and changes speeds very well, which is important in the game of soccer.  She is very good in the 1-on-1 portion of the game, meaning that she can take the ball and go at people with her speed.” 

In retrospect, Lacey offers advice for young athletes that are seeking to grow in their sport, “I know it gets frustrating that you don’t get the outcome you’re wanting every time, but you can’t let that get to you.  Everyone makes mistakes and you have to go through that.  If you let that get you down, it will impact you.  You’ll make mistakes every game, but you have to work through that.  Your team will back you up, and you’ll back your teammates up.”  Lacey continues, “I’d suggest you do as many little camps as you can, and also college camps.  You get those coaches advice and you get to work with those coaches’ players.  Those players have great insight.” 

Finally, I asked Lacey for advice to parents like you and me.  Lacey explained, “You know your own kid.  You know how much they want to do it.  You know how much they love the sport.  My mom knew I loved soccer, so she kept encouraging me.  Even though you get mad at your child, and your child might be mad at you—don’t let that keep you from pushing next time.  You know what they want to accomplish, and you need to keep pushing them because they can’t always do it on their own.  Parents are there to keep us on track.  Soon, the kids realize the parents were right.”

When did Lacey finally realize her parents were right?  “For me, that happened my senior year.  I told my parents, ‘thanks for pushing me, thanks for always being there, thanks for never giving up.’” 

That’s right: the secret to this scholarship athlete’s early success is speed, work ethic—and some pushing from her family.  Hang in there, parents.  Your kids will appreciate your encouragement—but it might be once they’re out of the house!  It’s now 5:29pm on a Wednesday evening.  Do you know where your athlete is? 

View selected portfolio shots of Lacey Novak from Gregg Riess Photography: click here.