Dennis Stark's five-year tour of duty with the UNBC Northern Timberwolves men's basketball team can be charted side-by-side with the rise of the program to provincial and national prominence.
Now, after a career highlighted by two B.C. championships, a fourth-place national finish on home court and one Canadian title, Stark is ready to move on with life after hoops.
"I'm happy with the way I tried to play the game and I feel like I played it the way I wanted to all five years, " said Stark, who appeared in his final UNBC game Saturday in Truro, N.S., site of the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournament. "I have no regrets as far as things I didn't get to do. I think I got to do it all as a player in the CCAA and I'm very thankful for the opportunity the university has given me."
Stark will graduate from UNBC in May with degrees in human resource management and international business.
In his final game, a 74-62 loss to the St. Thomas University Tommies of Fredericton, the six-foot-four Stark was picked as UNBC's top player. He brought his customary passion and pride to the court and made the Tommies work exceedingly hard under both baskets.
A scorer at one end of the court and a stopper at the other -- from the beginning of his UNBC career to the end, that was Stark.
In the 2007-08 pre-season, then-coach Zane Robison had this to say about the fresh-faced Kelly Road secondary school graduate after a four-game trip through Alberta: "Dennis played better and better each game. He was in double digits probably in both rebounds and points and had some really good stuff around the hoop. He had some nice jump hooks that were looking really good and he crashed the boards.
"He's got a great attitude with the guys," Robison continued. "Also, he's coachable."
Stark and the Timberwolves missed the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association playoffs that first season but that would be the only time he would feel that disappointment.
The following season, 2008-09, the Timberwolves won the bronze medal at provincials. Then, as hosts of the CCAA nationals, they were the tournament's surprise team and finished in fourth place. Stark, meanwhile, was picked as a second-team all-star.
The next year, the T-wolves won provincial and national championships for the first time in the history of the UNBC men's basketball program. In 2010-11, they placed second at provincials and fifth at nationals. And, this season, they added another B.C. title and again ended up fifth on the national stage.
In the past four years, Stark and his talented Timberwolves teammates compiled an overall record of 72-20 in regular-season, provincial and national playoff games.
"Four straight trips to nationals, a win in the middle -- four seasons in the top five, I don't know if any other team can say they've done that," Stark said. "Unfortunately we couldn't win it all this year and we definitely had the tools to do that. But, over my five-year career, I'm very proud of it and I'm very glad I was able to do it with the people I did it with.
"I've felt support from a lot of people in Prince George and other areas," he added. "I appreciate everything that everyone has given to the program. I won't forget it and I'll cherish it forever."
