April 6, 2006 - Dempsey Named Head Coach / Dupree Named Associate Head Coach
April 6, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Men’s College Basketball
Rider Names Dempsey Head Coach
Dupree Associate Head Coach
LAWRENCEVILLE—Tommy Dempsey has been named the head coach of the Rider University men’s basketball team, it was announced today. Dempsey was the Interim Head Coach at Rider during the 2005-2006 season.
“I am very excited to be able to name Tommy Dempsey as the Head Men’s Basketball Coach,” said Rider Director of Athletics Don Harnum, who served as the Rider Head Basketball Coach from 1997-98 to 2004-05. “He is a great fit for Rider because of his regional recruiting contacts and his working relationship with our current group of 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.”
Dempsey, 32, is the third youngest head basketball coach on the Division I level of the NCAA, behind Dane Fife (25), the head coach at the Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne, and Jeff Capel (30), the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth.
“I am very honored to be the next head basketball coach at Rider University,” said Dempsey. “I feel very blessed and I am so thankful that (Rider) President (Mordechai) Rozanski and our athletic director, Don Harnum, feel comfortable enough to allow me to move this program forward. This is not something that I will take lightly. I will work tirelessly to reward their decision to name me as the next head coach in a program with such a proud tradition.”
One of Dempsey’s first moves was to name Fred Dupree as the Associate Head Coach. Dupree has been a Rider men’s basketball assistant coach for five seasons.
“Fred has been very instrumental in the success of this basketball program since his arrival,” said Dempsey. “I truly believe he is one of the top assistant coaches in the MAAC.”
Dempsey came to Rider prior to the 2003-04 season as an assistant coach, and proved to be an important courtside consultant to then head coach Don Harnum, who is now the Rider Director of Athletics.
This past year Dempsey returned to the head coaching ranks, where he has experienced nothing but success in the past. Dempsey recorded his first win at Rider on November 26, a 71-64 victory over Boston University. The 2006 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).
Dempsey, who as a head coach has taken two different institutions to the NJCAA Final Four, came to Rider having never lost a home game (46-0) as a head coach.
In three years as head coach on the junior college level, Dempsey compiled an 88-12 record and was twice a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors.
At Lackawanna 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 finished 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 at Susquehanna University and a former player. Dempsey was a three-year letter-winner in basketball and team captain at Susquehanna.
Dempsey received his Bachelor degree from Susquehanna University and Master degree from Bloomsburg University. Dempsey came to Rider from Scranton, Pa with his wife Amy and children Tommy and Emily.
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