Antigonish, NS—StFX men’s basketball head coach Steve Konchalski was honored recently for reaching the coaching milestone of his 700th overall career win (regular season, playoffs, non-conference). Coach Konchalski achieved the milestone earlier this season and was presented with a commemorative plaque by StFX President Dr. Sean Riley prior to StFX’s last home game. He achieved this most recent coaching feat on October 9, 2008 with a 95-61 win over UQAM in pre-season exhibition action played in Montreal.
 
Coach Konchalski, or ‘Coach K’ as he is more affectionately known around the men’s basketball scene, currently has an all-time overall career coaching record of 716 wins and 392 losses, coaching in just over 1100 games throughout his CIS career.
 
Currently in his 34th season as a CIS head coach, all with StFX University, Coach K leads all active CIS coaches in overall career wins (regular season, playoffs, non-conference) and is second on the all-time overall win list behind Jerry Hemmings who coached at Brandon University for 28 seasons and achieved 734 overall career wins. As he is 19 wins away from surpassing Hemmings as the all-time career win leader, Coach Konchalski should achieve this milestone in the 2009-10 varsity season.
 
Under his tenure ship at StFX, Coach K has won three national championships (1993, 2000, 2001) and was named CIS Coach of the Year in 2000-01. He has also coached at the international level, serving 16 years as assistant coach of Canada’s national team (including the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games) and was head coach of the Canadian national team for four years from 1995-98. As a player he led Acadia University to a national title in 1965 and was named tournament MVP. A native of Elmhurst, NY, Coach K has been named to the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame, StFX Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame and most recently was named as a member of Basketball Canada’s Council of Excellence. In 1999 he was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Frank Baldwin Memorial Award for dedication to basketball in Nova Scotia.