Constantin earns North Star League honors in final season

CLARK FORK — Senior Josh Constantin was the lone Clark Fork boys basketball player to receive North Star League honors for his efforts this season.

The all-league team was announced last Thursday following the 1A Division II District 1 championship game.

Constantin was Mr. Consistent this season as almost every night the Wampus Cats could count on him getting a double-double. Constantin was never afraid to get in the post, block shots and fight for every rebound.

His energy was contagious. If he was rolling, then you knew the Wampus Cats were executing at a high level.

Second-year head coach Heath Beason said he’s been working with Constantin since last season to fix his bad habits and his play this year didn’t show many imperfections.

“He deserves this all league,” Beason said. “He’s got a very good work ethic and he really wanted to succeed because he’s never gotten all-league in basketball ... and he accomplished it so I’m very proud of him.”

All the extra time Constantin spent in the gym perfecting his craft and honing his skills paid off and Beason said he came pretty close in votes to notching league MVP.

Constantin did something this season that no other Clark Fork basketball player has even done — dunk. The forward jammed home the first dunk in program history during a home game against Kootenai on Feb. 4. Constantin followed that milestone up with three straight dunks in a district loser-out game against the Warriors.

“Being 6 foot he wanted to dunk,” Beason said, “and that was his ultimate dream so we worked on that and were able to accomplish that last year and just this year he was able to accomplish it in a game.”

Constantin was on the team for all four years of his high school career and had three different head coaches during that span. Despite that, Beason said Constantin was able to pick up the philosophy he was trying to instill right away and did everything he could to show the rest of the players the ropes.

“It’s tough switching programs,” he said, “and picking it up and then also working on your individual challenges in regards to what you need to fix, what you need to get better at and what you need to practice, but he picked it up quickly.”

Constantin certainly left his mark on the program and the one thing that set him apart from most players Beason has coached was his ability to listen. And that willingness to take criticism allowed him to continually improve from season to season.

Constantin also never let his emotions get the best of him.

“That’s someone who’s mature beyond the age that he is,” Beason said. “We’re going to miss him a 110 percent. He’s very influential off the court, in the community and on the team ... This one’s going to hurt.”