Omaha Burke Bulldogs

Assistant Coach: Tyson Novotny

         Tyson was born in Rochester, MN and was raised in Columbus, Nebraska. He graduated from Columbus High School in 2003. In 1992 Tyson started playing soccer with the Columbus American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). He played in this league up to the age of 18. He was a member of several championship and runner-up teams in the AYSO though-out the 11 years he played.

         Tyson played high school soccer from 2000-2003 at Columbus High. He played and started on the Varsity team his Junior and Senior seasons. Throughout his younger years, he mainly played forward and midfield. When he joined the high school team, he predominantly played "stopper" in a system that used a diamond defense. His Senior season, the Columbus Discoverers went 13-4, winning the district title and moving on to the state tournament. Unfortunately, with four weeks left in the season, Tyson tore his meniscus in his left knee, which kept him sidelined right up until the state tournament started. The Discoverers lost in the first round of the state tournament to the eventual runner-up, Lincoln East, with a score of 2-0. This was a team that had beat Columbus 4-0 earlier in the season.

          Tyson also attended many different camps during the summers, as well as played club soccer in the summer since age 10. He played for the Columbus Allies and the Columbus Storm, two rivals in the same age group from Columbus.                   They typically played anywhere from four to six tournaments a summer, practicing weekly throughout the summers. Camps he attended included the Creighton Soccer Camp in 2001 and 2002. He was named "All-Tournament" team in 2001 where he was the starting "stopper" when the camp players played against the Creighton University Men's team.

          Tyson was sent letters from several colleges around the area including Midland in Fremont and Hastings College. He declined to further pursue playing organized soccer as he attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Soccer has always been an important and developing part of Tyson's history and he has continuously had interest in some day becoming a coach.

          In Tyson's second year as the head coach of the JV team, the program created a Reserve team and Tyson assumed the head coaching role for that new team as well. In that very 2015 season, Tyson certainly had his plate full coaching two teams, but was able to engineer the very first win in Burke Reserve history in only its first year. Coach Novotny also plays a very important role with the Varsity team and can be credited with helping them to many successful seasons.