There was a time when Ken Novak, Jr., couldn’t lose for winning. He won 20 or more games 28 years in a row from 1993 to 2020. He coached in a record 18 state tournaments. He won 8 state titles, 2nd only to Dave Thorson of DeLaSalle and, now, of the Minnestoa Gophers. He won 8 state titles in 18 years from 2002 to 2019. Along with 2 others of the state’s biggest winners in boys basketball–Austin and DeLaSalle–the Royals one of the teams that Minnesota basketball fans most loved to hate.
But, then, the unthinkable happened. Hopkins suddenly didn’t win anymore. Oh, wait. Let’s not get carried away. They’re winning plenty at the game level. But, suddenly, they haven’t won a state title in 7 years, since 2019. They haven’t even won a section title in 6 years, since 2020, thanks to the Wayzata Trojans who won their 1st state tournament berth in 58 years in 2017, and now have been to 5 straight state tournaments and 7 of 8 eight, all from Section 6AAAA, which also happens to be home to the Hopkins Royals. Since the Royals won their last state title, Wayzata has won 3 and Wayzata is rated #1 today.
So the focus is shifting. Almost nobody thinks Hopkins will beat Wayzata in Section 6 with the exception, I’m sure, of Ken Novak and the Hopkins Royals. But, what Hopkins can do is claim the all-time Minnesota record for most wins by a boys high school coach. Mike Dreier of New London-Spicer has the girls record of 1,095 wins. Bob McDonald of Chisholm has the boys record of 1,012 wins. Ken Novak, Jr., entered the 2025-2026 season with 993 wins. It’s now 994, after Hopkins opened the season with an 83-66 win at White Bear Lake. If all goes well, Hopkins can win its 19th game somewhere around the 1st of March, sometime before the beginning of the post-season playoffs. I’d give Novak a 90% chance or more of reaching 1,013 before the season is over. Beating Wayzata for the Lake Conference title and/or a Section 6AAAA title, well, that’s an entirely different can of worms.
Hopkins 83 White Bear Lake 66
The Royals were never in any real danger of losing to the Bears of the White persuasion, who are not rated in the top half of Section 4AAAA. And, yet, everytime that Hopkins forced a few turnovers and seemed on the verge of pulling away, White Bear would stiffen and make a game of it once again. Hopkins opened a quick 17-9 lead as White Bear shot 4-of-6 but turned it over 6 times. White Bear fought back to within 22-19, but Hopkins again pulled out to 41-23. At the half White Bear was back within 44-31. Early in the 2nd half Hopkins led 47-30, but still White Bear fought back to within 55-45. A few minutes later it was 60-45 but again White Bear got within 12 at 64-52. That was when Hopkins finally closed the door, finally getting 20 points of separation at 83-63. The final was 83-66.
The difference-makers for Hopkins were guards Jayden Moore and Xavier Felix, the latter a transfer from Park Center. They, along with guards Tre Moore and Kyree Nelson pressured the Bears into 6 turnovers in the 1st 6 minutes and 19 for the game. Hopkins scored 23 points off turnovers, White Bear 8.
Senior guards Xavier Frelix and Jayden Moore led Hopkins with 19 and 18 points. Frelix came to Hopkins from Park Center along with then Park Center head coach James Ware, who accepted the assistant’s job at Hopkins and the mantle of heir-apparent as Novak’s successor. Frelix added 4 steals, J. Moore 2 and sophomore guard Tre Moore 4. Frelix shot 5-of-9 from 3. Hopkins highly regarded 6-7 junior forward Ahmed Nur had a low-energy night with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting, 2-of-5 FT, but 9 rebounds and 3 blocks. 6-6 senior post, the unheralded Anthony Byrd, was more active and more aggressive inside, at least offensively, and finished with 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting with 4 rebounds and a block.
White Bear was led by 6-8 senior post Colin Piper, who hung in there for 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting with 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Senior wing Nick Cardenas added 19 points, including 4-of-9 3s, mostly from the left corner. Guard Will McQuay added 12 points, including 2-of-3 3s. 6-5 forward Preston Crider had a tough 1st half, but bounced back to score 8 points in the 2nd on 4-of-5 shooting. White Bear got zero bench points with Hopkins got 15.
Movin’ On
Speaking of Frelix, there’s no point in pretending anymore that players who transfer have done something wrong (they haven’t), something that’s against the rules (it’s not), something illegal (it’s not), something immoral (it most certainly is not). Players have a perfect right to transfer schools–in high school as well as in college. The stigma associated with transferring is something from a bygone day, kind of like a tattoo. And, so, the big news out of Hopkins is not Frelix, it’s his coach, James Ware.
But before we get to coach Ware, I will also mention the one that got away. Junior forward Izayah Cook was going to transfer out of Sauke Rapids-Rice no matter what. He visited Hopkins and Hopkins fans, at least, thought he would become a Royal. A few days later came the word. He was and is a Wayzata Trojan.
So anyway, coach Ware. James Ware played his high school ball at Hopkins. He played for the 1994 Royals and coach Novak in the state final, a 66-65 loss to Minneapolis Washburn. Ware led Hopkins in scoring with 19 points in a 63-51 semi-final win over Mounds View. In 2015, coach Ware became head coach at Park Center where he won the 2022 state title over Wayzata, then lost to Wayzata in the 2023 final. It was announced last August that he would be returning to Hopkins, even accepting a demotion from head coach to an assistant coach in order to one day became Novak’s successor. What was not announced was when the intended handoff would occur, when coach Ware would become the Hopkins head coach.
The parallels of this story to that of coach Novak’s dad, Ken Novak, Sr., are uncanny. Ken Novak, Sr., was a basketball star at Crosby-Ironton 1945-1948. C-I made the state tournament all 4 seasons and played in the state single class final in 1945 and 1948. Novak made all-state in 1948. He went on to a distinguished playing career at St. Cloud State. A year later, he became head coach at St. Cloud State; at 24 years of age, he was one of if not the youngest college head coach in the country. But, his wife (Ken Novak Jr.’s wife), he told me in an interview many years later, was from St. Cloud and she wanted to get out of town. So Ken, Sr., accepted an offer from Hopkins high school to become an assistant coach for 2 years and then to succeed Butsie Maetzold as head coach.
Butsie was revered at Hopkins. His teams won the 1952 and 1953 state titles, and won 65 straight games. He retired as the #2 winningest coach in Minnesota history (the same as Novak, Jr., today). Maetzold was revered at Hopkins. And, yet, after one year as Butsie’s assistant, Novak, Sr., got an offer to coach Edina. Hopkins said, no way. Despite Maetzold’s lofty stature, Hopkins non-renewed him and elevated Novak, so as to prevent him from going to Edina. Edina settled on Duane Baglien as coach.