Dave Kemmy

Dave Kemmy
Roger Williams University Head Coach
1994-Present

Dave Kemmy has served as head coach of the Hawks’ highly successful wrestling program since the 1994-95 season. He has guided the team to 13 straight winning seasons from 1996-2009.

Coach Kemmy has a 219-146-7 (.598) record in his tenure and his teams have captured five Pilgrim League titles. With 56 wins as RWU’s first women’s soccer coach, Coach Kemmy has totaled 275 wins in his RWU career.

Eight wrestlers have earned All-American honors on the mat, four of them named this past 2008-09 season, and 23 have been named to the Academic All-America team. He has had 74 wrestlers earn All-New England honors and 88 have earned All-Pilgrim League recognition.

Coach Kemmy was honored by his peers when he was named NCAA Division III “National Rookie Coach of the Year” and New England “Rookie Coach of the Year” during the 1994-95 season.

He took his 1998-99 RWU squad on an 11-day exchange trip to Helsinki, Finland. The 2003-04 squad went on a nine-day tour of Amsterdam, Holland.

During the 2006-07 season, the team visited the countries of Finland, Russia, and Estonia and finished third in the Finlandia Freestyle Cup Tournament in Helsinki, Finland. Four countries were represented in the event with teams from Finland, Estonia and Latvia, in addition to RWU representing the USA. The Hawks entered 22 wrestlers in the event and 10 placed in the top six. And an overall finish of third in the 27-team tournament.

In 2003, he was appointed Chairman of the NCAA Division III Wrestling Committee and also was appointed to a four-year term on the NCAA Wrestling Committee which oversees all three Divisions. For the past three years he has served the NCAA as an Evaluator of the Officials at the NCAA Division I Championships. In 2005 he was honored by the National Wrestling Coaches Association for his 25 years of service to the sport.

For the past 15 years he has served as Commissioner of the Pilgrim Wrestling League. He continues to serve as the New England Wrestling Association’s Secretary and Reporting Director and is Secretary of the NCAA Division III Wrestling Coaches Association. Since August of 2007 he has served on the National Wrestling Coaches Association Executive Committee as the Division III representative, a term that ends in August of 2011. In 2009 he became just the 12th coach inducted into the 54-member New England Wrestling Association Hall of Fame.

At Bristol and Mt Hope High Schools, Coach Kemmy posted a 128-33-2 (.791) record, winning three league titles and 29 tournament championships in nine years. He has been named Rhode Island High School “Coach of the Year,” USA Wrestling Rhode Island “Man of the Year,” and USA Wrestling Northeast Region “State Chairperson of the Year.” In 2002, he was inducted into the Rhode Island Wrestling Hall of Fame. The following year, Kemmy was inducted into the Bristol Athletic Hall of Fame. To add to his many accomplishments, Kemmy was inducted into the New England Wrestling Association Hall of Fame in February of 2009, and will also be the Interim Athletic Director of the RWU Department of Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation for the 2009-10 season.

He has also coached the Rhode Island Junior and Cadet National freestyle and Greco-roman teams, and teams that have taken tours of Italy and Germany.

For the 2009-10 academic year, Coach Kemmy has been named the Interim Athletic Director of the RWU Department of Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation. In this role, he will be in charge of directing and developing the University’s 20 athletic programs, as well as intramurals and recreational services.