A Canadian basketball legend’s final season is derailed by the pandemic

Can you really say someone’s coaching career has ended prematurely when they are 75 years old and they’ve been doing it for 45 years?

The 2020-21 basketball season would have been Steve Konchalski’s 46th and final one at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., and he was supposed to transition the head coaching job over to Tyrell Vernon.

Instead, due to COVID-19 concerns, Atlantic University Sport postponed the entire season.

This wasn’t how the legendary Canadian basketball coach’s career was supposed to end. This coming March, the X-Men were supposed to be the host team at the USports final eight men’s basketball tournament at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.

The tournament would have been the final chapter in his memorable coaching career.

“Some of the greatest successes that I’ve had in my career have been at the Scotiabank Centre and it would have been a great place to finish up,” said Konchalski, from his home in Antigonish. “But right now I’m just putting my focus on helping my team deal with the uncertainties that we have in the world right now.”

St. Francis Xavier University

Konchalski, known affectionately as Coach K, said it would have been nice to have one last season so he could say farewell to many of the people in Atlantic Canada he has met along the way in his amazing Canadian basketball journey.

That journey began in 1962 when he left his home state of New York to play basketball at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.

Submitted by Steve Konchalski

In 1965, Konchalski was one of the key players for Acadia and was the tournament MVP when they won their first national championship. Ten years later he landed in Antigonish for his rookie year as the coach of the X-Men. His first recruit was Gil Green, a talented young guard from New York.

“Steve was not just my coach, he was a father figure to me and a mentor,” said Green, from his home in Richmond, Va. “I lost my dad when I was 16.”

Submitted by Steve Konchalski

In his 45 seasons Konchalski coached his teams to a…

Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/canadian-basketball-legends-final-season-100000567.html

Author : CBC

Publish date : 2020-12-09 10:00:00

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