Mike Kemp
Head Coach
Phone: 402-554-3629
Email:
mkemp@unomaha.edu
Mike Kemp was elevated to the position of Associate Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on May 14, 2009. He has primary oversight of UNO hockey, golf, cross country/track and field and soccer.
During a 12-year tenure as head coach, Kemp guided UNO hockey from a fledgling independent to an established program with one of the best followings in college hockey. UNO has ranked among the nation’s college hockey elite in attendance from the start and boasts college hockey’s largest booster club.
As the head coach of a start up program, Kemp built a team that was a model of consistency in the always-tough Central Collegiate Hockey Association. In only ten years of play, UNO had an average finish of sixth place in the league and earned CCHA home playoff games in eight of those ten years. Kemp also placed players on one of the CCHA all-league teams in eight of ten years. Both of those accomplishments are surpassed only by the University of Michigan.
Kemp may be best remembered for his commitment to community service. Under his guidance, the UNO hockey team was widely recognized for its contributions to the quality of life in greater Omaha. The highlight came during the 2008-09 season when the team held its “Leap for a Cure” fundraiser which raised $44,000 for brain cancer research at the Estabrook Cancer Center.
For Kemp, coming to UNO was an opportunity to finish a job that he had started more than 30 years ago. That was when the graduate of Gustavus Adolphus came to UNO in 1975 as the head coach of the club hockey program. Hopes for club hockey to grow into a varsity program were slashed after one year, however, and Kemp returned to his alma mater where he began a 20-year career as an assistant coach.
Kemp spent five years as an assistant at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minn. and then went to the University of Wisconsin in 1981 where he spent one year as an assistant under the legendary Bob Johnson.
After a year as an assistant at Illinois-Chicago, Kemp returned to the Badgers in 1983 under new head coach Jeff Sauer. As the head recruiter, Kemp secured some of the most talented players in Wisconsin history. Twelve went on to play in the Olympic Games, 16 earned first or second-team All-American honors, 44 were Western Collegiate Hockey Association all-academic team selections and four were named player of the year in the WCHA. The Badgers won one WCHA regular season championship, four WCHA playoff titles, appeared in nine NCAA tournaments, finishing runners up twice and winning one national championship in 1990.
Named the first head coach in Maverick hockey history on June 26, 1996, Kemp spent months on the road traveling from Alaska to Finland to create UNO’s first Division I roster. In that inaugural season of play (1997-98), UNO surpassed most people’s expectations. A signature sweep of the University of Denver and a surprising road win at the University of Maine gave hockey fans nationwide a look at what was to come from the program.
In 1999-2000, UNO joined the CCHA and took many in the league by surprise. The Mavericks defeated 10 of 11 different CCHA opponents while ending the season with a runner-up finish at the conference tournament. The Mavs came one win short of making the NCAA tournament, and Kemp was a finalist for both the CCHA Coach of the Year Award and the Spensor Penrose Trophy for National Coach of the Year honors.
The Mavericks continued their success in 2000-2001 by posting a school-record 24 wins and earning the first winning season for the program. UNO had a home record of 17-5 and Kemp was again a finalist for CCHA and National Coach of the Year honors.
In 2001-2002, Nebraska-Omaha posted 21 wins and was ranked as high as No. 5 in the national polls. The Mavericks had a school record eight-game winning streak and the Civic Auditorium had its 100th consecutive sellout on January 25, 2002.
Nebraska-Omaha closed out its six-year run at the Civic Auditorium in 2002-2003 having sold out 131 consecutive games.
Kemp and his program began a new chapter by moving to its current home, Qwest Center Omaha, in 2003-2004. The Mavericks led the CCHA in attendance with an average of 8,200 fans per game that season.
In 2004-05, the program experienced the largest single-season improvement in the country. For his efforts, Kemp was named the CCHA Coach of the Year after the program matched its best finish of fourth place in the regular season standings and advanced to the CCHA Super 6. For the third time in his first eight seasons as UNO’s head coach, he was named a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors.
In 2005-06, the Mavericks ninth season, the team made its initial appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Kemp coached five All-Americans while at Nebraska-Omaha and had a total of twelve all-CCHA players in ten years.
Kemp serves on the Board of Directors of the Nebraska Special Olympics. He is an active member of the American Hockey Coaches Association and served on the Board of Governors as the second vice president of the AHCA from 2000-2003.
Off the ice, Kemp is an avid runner and has competed in the Boston Marathon.
Kemp and his wife, Julie, have two children, Emily, and Sarah.
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