::  BIOGRAPHY ::

>>> HOME


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.

                  

2006 Tommy Dempsey. AllCoachNetwork.com, A division of CollegeInsider.com