Mike Kemp (born December 13, 1952) is an American

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

and former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

head coach for the men's program at Omaha. After having been an associate athletic director at Omaha since 2009, he was named interim athletic director on July 16, 2021, following the departure of former AD

Trev Alberts Trev Kendall AlbertsJim Offner '' Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier'', February 6, 2013, accessed July 8, 2013. (born August 8, 1970) is an American sports administrator and former football linebacker who is the director of athletics at University o ...

for the same position at the latter's alma mater of

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

Career

Mike Kemp began his coaching career with

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

Gustavus Adolphus, his alma mater, in 1976. After five seasons with the Golden Gusties he moved on to

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

as an assistant for one season. After a year-long stint with Illinois-Chicago he returned to

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

and remained with the program for thirteen years, helping the Badgers to a national title in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

. In the summer of 1996 Nebraska–Omaha, who had announced the intention of sponsoring a Division I program beginning in 1997–98, hired Kemp as the team's first head coach. The Mavericks got started as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

and after two foreseeably poor seasons they were accepted into the CCHA in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. Two years into their conference experience, Kemp got the Mavericks to post their first winning season, going 24–15–3, earning a final ranking as the #13 team in the country and just narrowly missing the NCAA tournament. After another 20+ win season the Mavericks went into the tank for a pair of years before Kemp was able to pull them out of it and get the team to hover around the .500 mark for five seasons. Kemp got the Mavericks their first berth in the tournament in 2006 with his third 20+ win season but unfortunately wasn't able to push them past #1 seed

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

. The following offseason Kemp was offered the position of

Athletic Director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

with the university but turned it down when he determined that he couldn't be both head coach and AD at the same time. Two years later Kemp stepped down as head coach to accept a position as associate AD, clearing the way for 2-time national champion Dean Blais to take over the program. Kemp was inducted into the Omaha Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.

Head caching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Mike 1952 births Living people Gustavus Adolphus Golden Gusties men's ice hockey coaches Omaha Mavericks men's ice hockey coaches UIC Flames men's ice hockey coaches Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey coaches Sportspeople from Duluth, Minnesota Ice hockey people from Minnesota American ice hockey coaches Ice hockey coaches from Minnesota