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Tommy Dempsey, the youngest active head
coach in Division I with 100 college
coaching victories, finished the 2006-07
season with twice as many victories as the
previous year when he served on an interim
basis. He enters the 2007-08 season with a
career head coaching record of 104-27.
Since taking his place on the Rider bench
as an assistant coach prior to the 2003-04
season, Dempsey has shown that he was
destined for this job helping the Broncs
to a regular season MAAC championship in
his second year as an assistant to Don
Harnum.
When Harnum left the bench to become
Rider's director of athletics his first
move was to hire his former assistant to
take over as the head basketball coach.
"I was very excited to be able to name
Tommy Dempsey as the head men's basketball
coach," said Harnum, who served in that
role at Rider from 1997 to 2005. "He is a
great fit for Rider because of his
regional recruiting contacts and his
relationships with the players. There is
no doubt in my mind he will attack this
job with a passion and energy that is
worthy of the proud tradition of Rider
basketball."
"I feel blessed everyday that President (Mordechai)
Rozanski and Don Harnum have given me an
opportunity to coach at Rider, said
Dempsey." "My family and I were accepted
right away by the Rider community and we
are very proud to be associated with the
university. I work hard everyday to reward
their decision and to continue to move
this program forward."
On an interim basis, Dempsey returned to
the head coaching ranks in 2005-06, where
he had experienced nothing but success in
the past. That year the Broncs had four
freshmen and a sophomore among the top
eight players on the team and produced an
All-MAAC selection (Jason Thompson) and a
MAAC All-Rookie Team member (Lamar
Johnson).
In 2006-07, his first full year as the
head coach, Dempsey's team won seven games
on the road. The last time Rider won eight
road games in a season was 1993-94.
Dempsey's team was the only Division I
school in New Jersey (out of seven) to
finish with a winning record. It was
Rider's sixth winning season in the last
eight years. His first squad as the head
coach produced a first team All-MAAC
selection and MAAC Defensive Player of the
Year (Thompson).
As a head coach prior to Rider, Dempsey
took two different institutions to the
NJCAA Final Four. In three years as head
coach on the junior college level, Dempsey
compiled an 88-12 record including a
perfect 46-0 record at home and was twice
a finalist for National Coach of the Year
honors.
At Lackawanna College, Dempsey reached the
Division II National Title Game in 2003
and was the Region 19 and District 9 Coach
of the Year, taking a team that was not in
the preseason top 40 and finishing
National Runner-Up with a school-record 33
wins.
In 2001 and 2002, Dempsey was the Region
19 and District 6 Coach of the Year at
Keystone College. He took Keystone College
to the 2002 Division III Final Four with a
school-record 29 wins. He took over an
11-12 team and went 55-8 over the next two
seasons and reached the NJCAA Division III
National Tournament, earning Eastern
Pennsylvania College Coach of the Year
honors in 2001.
Dempsey began his head coaching career at
age 24 at Wyoming Seminary Preparatory
School in Kingston, Pa., in 1999. Dempsey
is a former assistant coach to Frank
Marcinek at Susquehanna University where
he was a former player. Dempsey was a
three-year letter-winner in basketball and
team captain in 1996-97 at Susquehanna.
Dempsey received his bachelor's degree
from Susquehanna University and master's
degree from Bloomsburg University. Dempsey
came to Rider from Scranton, Pa. with his
wife Amy and children Tommy, Emily, and
Brian. He currently resides in Langhorne,
Pa. |
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