Quick Facts
Biography
Stephen J. "Steve" Konchalski is an American-Canadian basketball coach who has been serving as head coach of the St. Francis Xavier University men’s basketball team since 1975. He was the head coach of the Canadian men’s national team from 1995 to 1998.
Career
A native of Elmhurst, New York, Konchalski played at Archbishop Molloy High School before embarking on a college career in Canada. He guided Acadia University to its first ever national title in the CIAU in 1965, setting single game highs 41 points and 17 field goals, while being presented with the Jack Donohue Trophy as the tournament Most Valuable Player. His career 1,479 points were more than any player had scored in the history of the program when he left. Konchalski graduated from Acadia in 1966 with a Bachelor of Arts and subsequently enrolled at Dalhousie Law School.
He worked as assistant coach at Loyola College in Montreal for four years and in 1975 accepted the position as head coach of the St. Francis Xavier University men’s basketball team. He coached the X-Men to national titles in 1993, 2000 and 2001, while receiving CIS Coach of the Year honours in 2001. He was named Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Coach of the Year in 1983, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2006 and coached StFX to AUS titles in 1981, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In November 2009, Konchalski became the all-time CIS leader in career wins with 736.
Konchalski was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 1993, the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame as an athlete in 1994, the St. Francis Xavier University Sports Hall of Fame as a builder in 2001 and the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Frank Baldwin Award for dedication to basketball in Nova Scotia.
In 2010, he received the Jean-Marie De Koninck Coaching Excellence Award, which is being given to an "individual who has made an outstanding contribution to university sport as demonstrated by long-term commitment and leadership as a coach at the local, provincial, national and/or international levels of Canadian university sport."
National team
Konchalski was named assistant coach of the Canadian Men’s National Team in 1973 and had that job until 1988, including the Olympic Games in 1976, 1984 and 1988, serving under Jack Donohue.
He served as head coach of the Canadian Men’s National Team from 1995 to 1998 and later became a mentor coach with Canadian Junior National Teams, including the U19 squad that won gold at the 2017 FIBA Under-19 World Cup.