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Mira Novak
Mira Novak enters his fifth season as Head Coach in the fall of 2023 after joining the River Hawks in the summer of 2017 as an Assistant Coach and serving as Interim Head Coach in 2018.
A UEFA A license holder, Novak has coached at the university level in the USA, Canada, and United Kingdom. Novak oversaw a major turnaround in the program's history, including the first America East playoff appearance, Regular Season Championship, and making it to the America East Championship game. As of 2022, he coached eight All-Region honorees, nine America East Conference major award winners, nineteen All-Conference players, nine All-Rookie selections, one America East Fall Sports Scholar Athletes of the Year, two Academic All-Americans, and eight student-athletes claimed America East All-Academic honors under his watch.
In 2022, the River Hawks reached a fifth consecutive appearance in the America East Tournament, earning the #4 seed. The team finished with a 7-7-4 overall record and conference mark of 4-2-2. Six players earned America East All-Conference honors, with three on the All-Conference First Team (Dunja Mostarac, Emily Nelson and Ioanna Papatheodorou), two on the Second Team (Calliste Brookshire and Lily Fabian) and one on the All-Rookie Team (Nadja Andersen). Mostarac and Nelson also earned America East All-Academic honors. In addition, Papatheodorou was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Region team after scoring a team-high 10 goals and tallying a team-high 24 points. Mostarac, Nelson and Papatheodorou were also named to the NEWISA All-New England team, with Nelson and Papatheodorou making the second team and Mostarac being named to the third team.
During the fall season of 2021, the program reached a second consecutive playoff bye after finishing second in the regular season.
UMass Lowell finished the season 8-6-3 with a conference record of 5-3-1, which marked the highest number of wins in the program's Division 1 history. The team finished the season with the highest RPI national ranking since joining Division I, and collected three major awards for winning Defender of the Year (Dunja Mostarac) and Rookie and Striker of the Year (Ioanna Papatheodorou). Additionally, Mostarac earned All-Region First Team honors as the only non-ACC team player on the list, along with Academic All-American and America East Fall Sports Scholar of the Year. Papatheodorou claimed the second team All-Region honors after leading the conference in goals.
The 2020 season (postponed to Spring 2021) saw the River Hawks break several program records under Coach Novak. UMass Lowell finished the regular season 5-2-1 with an undefeated conference record of 4-0-0. Their success earned the team their first America East regular season championship, along with the first No. 1 seed in the conference tournament since joining Division I. The team received multiple postseason accolades, including Coaching Staff of the Year, awarded to Coach Novak and his assistants. Other honors included Rookie & Goalkeeper of the Year earned by Taylor Burgess (11th in the country for save percentage and second for shoutouts), Defender of the Year earned by Dunja Mostarac, and Midfielder of the Year earned by Kristina Bartsch. Additionally, three players (Kritsitna Bartsch, Dunja Mostarac, and Abby Drezek) earned the Player of Distinction Award by the United Soccer Coaches. The program's defense was nationally ranked fifth for save percentage and fourteenth for goals against average.
In 2019, the River Hawks earned their first-ever bid to the America East tournament and a trip to the conference championship game after going 6-8-4 in the regular season (4-3-1 in America East). That season also marked the highest RPI ranking by the program to date. The team also posted a 3.36 GPA under Novak's guidance in the 2018 fall semester, while Maggie Davenport claimed the America East Elite 18 Award.
Since taking over as the head coach of the program, Novak has delivered four consecutive America East playoff appearances as the only team to have done so. The team has also qualified for the United Soccer Coaches Academic Award in every year of Novak's tenure at Umass Lowell. Novak has proven himself as a successful recruiter introducing the most impactful freshmen class (2018) in program history as they combined for 9,235 minutes and 17 goals surpassing the total amount of goals scored in the previous season by all players. Over the last four years, Novak has recruited players with high international pedigree - they collectively hold 111 youth national team caps for their respective national teams.
Prior to his hiring, Novak served one season as an assistant coach at Merrimack College, where he helped the Warriors to a second-round NCAA Tournament appearance after a second-place, regular-season finish in the Northeast-10. Novak assisted with leading the squad to a 13-4 record. Additionally, he also worked as the men's soccer team's head of match analysis at Boston University.
He also served as the associate head coach for the men's and women's soccer programs at St. Francis Xavier University. He established himself as a credible performance coach after helping to turn around the women's program and leading the men's team into the conference playoffs. Novak also received the Nova Scotia Coach of the Year award after leading the XFC senior club team to its first-ever playoff appearance at the Tier 1 level.
After moving to Scotland, Novak worked for the Scottish Football Association in elite talent programs and, as the head coach of the regional performance program, coached a number of youth national team players. He also worked as a coach educator, running coaching courses, and helped establish an innovative coach mentoring program. Novak also led the men's soccer team at the University of Stirling to a second-place finish in the highest division of university sports in Scotland.
In his playing career, Novak played at a semi-professional level in the Czech Republic, as well as successfully competing as a student-athlete at St. Francis Xavier University in Canada. While at St. Francis Xavier University, he led the X-Men as a co-captain to their first-ever No. 1 national ranking and earned All-Canadian and Conference Rookie of the Year honors.
Novak earned degrees in Kinesiology and Coaching Soccer from St. Francis Xavier University (Canada) and Charles University (Czech Republic), respectively. Additionally, he holds a Master's degree from the University of British Columbia in High Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership and also possesses the Chartered Professional Coach designation.
Novak currently lives in Reading, Massachusetts, with his wife Tory.
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