Lori Ewing
St. Francis Xavier University men s basketball head coach Steve Konchalski is shown in a huddle during practice in this 2019 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - StFX Athletics, Bryan Kennedy MANDATORY CREDIT March 05, 2021 - 9:52 AM
The story of Steve Konchalski s career is written in the photos that paper the walls of his office at St. Francis Xavier University.
There are more than 250, of all the teams coached and lives touched in Antigonish, N.S., including three national championship squads and photos that are more than four decades old. Looking at those pictures gives me energy, it reminds me of why I coach, not just to win the games, but it s in the great relationships and helping young people through a pivotal time in their lives, Konchalski said.
HALIFAX The man known in Canadian basketball circles as ‘Coach K’ is prepared to hang up the clipboard for the last time. After 46-years of guiding the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men basketball team, Steve Konchalski’s time behind the bench is coming to an end. His final season has not gone according to plan, with the pandemic just one of several personal tragedies that Coach K has faced in the past year, but he handles it with grace and perspective. Konchalski fell in love with basketball as a child, growing up in Elmhurt, New York. He came to Nova Scotia as a skinny 17-year-old, and burst onto the scene as a star player for the Acadia Axemen, helping lead the team to a National Championship in 1963.