Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- ken.dempsey@unh.edu
- Phone:
- 603-862-1844
Ken Dempsey has served as UNH’s Associate Athletic Director for Team Support since March 2020. Dempsey made the transition to athletics administration following 13 seasons as Associate Head Coach for the men’s basketball program under Head Coach Bill Herrion, the America East Conference’s all-time leader in victories.
Ken handles a wide range of responsibilities for the athletic department. He is the point person for game scheduling for the Wildcat football and men’s basketball programs. Additionally, he acts as the department’s primary team travel and ground transportation contact for all 20 varsity programs, coaches and athletics administrators. Dempsey oversees the relationship between UNH Athletics and student-athlete services across campus including Housing, Dining, and Scholarship Books.
Dempsey serves as sport administrator for men's cross country and track & field in addition to women's basketball. He previously was the secondary sport administrator for field hockey and women's lacrosse.
Ken is a proven, self-directed and high-profile coaching/recruiting professional with over 30 years of full-time leadership experience at numerous Division I institutions.
In March 2023, he earned the NABC Guardian of the Game Award for Service presented by CoPeace.The awards are presented annually to NABC-member coaches, administrators and contributors who embody the NABC’s core values of leadership, service, education, advocacy and inclusion.
Dempsey has served as the Associate Athletic Director for Team Support at the University of New Hampshire since 2020 following 13 seasons as an assistant men’s basketball coach at UNH. He also held prior assistant coach roles at four different schools. Dempsey is currently chair of the NABC Division I Assistant Coaches Committee, which provides valuable feedback and assistant coach perspective to NABC advocacy and legislative efforts. He also sits on the NABC Division I Congress, and served on the NABC Executive Director search committee in 2020. Additionally, Dempsey is a member of the America East Spread Respect Advisory Group.
Dempsey spent six seasons (2001-07) as the Associate Men’s Basketball Head Coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The native of Howell, N.J., also served as the recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro from 1999-2001. The Spartans captured the 2001 Southern Conference championship and reached the NCAA Tournament.
Dempsey served as assistant coach at Northeastern University from 1994-99, helping the Huskies reach the 1995 North Atlantic Conference championship game against Bill Herrion’s Drexel Dragons.
From 1984-94, Dempsey was an assistant coach at Monmouth (N.J.) University; the players he recruited earned a combined 21 All-Conference selections and helped the Hawks reach three conference championship games. His recruiting efforts produced several of the school’s all-time Division-I scoring leaders and a GTE Academic All-American.
Dempsey is an active member of the NABC and presently serves as president of the Division I Assistant Coaches Committee. He is also a member of the Division I Coaches Congress and recently served on the search committee for Craig Robinson, the NABC Executive Director. Additionally, Dempsey serves as a member of the America East Spread Respect Advisory Group. In the past, he was a member of the inaugural UNH Committee on Mutual Respect.
Dempsey earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 1983 from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., where he was a four-year letter-winner in basketball and baseball. He also completed a master’s degree in Education from Monmouth in 1991.
He and his wife Bridget have two sons, Riley and Brody, and a daughter, Molly-Kate.
