Had it not been for a spring fling coaching back-to-basics basketball, there’s no telling if a 16-season NCAA Division I head coach would have opted to return to the high school sideline for the first time in 23 years.
But there it’ll be for Tommy Dempsey, recently appointed head of Seton Catholic Central’s boys program.
The erstwhile Rider University and Binghamton University coach succeeds 25-season man and Section 4 Hall of Fame member Chris Sinicki as head of the storied program, which sustained excellence in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference and Section 4 throughout his tenure.
Dempsey, 49-year-old native of Dunmore, Pa., with close ties to the Seton CC community, wrapped up a nine-season stint as BU coach (71-194) upon conclusion of the 2020-21 season. He’d headed Rider (Lawrenceville, N.J.) to a 119-105 record through seven seasons before transitioning to Broome County.
He has two sons, sophomore Brian and eighth-grader Tyler, in Seton CC’s program. Son Tommy _ presently director of basketball operations at Manhattan College _ and daughter Emily were notable players in the Saints’ boys and girls programs, respectively.
“I’ve had an interest in the program for many years but now I certainly have a vested interest with two more boys,” Dempsey said. “If they were going to be coached by Chris Sinicki, I was thrilled with that. But they weren’t, so I started to think more and more about it, had a couple of conversations and decided to put my hat in the ring.”
Dempsey last coached at the high school level in 1999-2000 as head man for one season at Wyoming Seminary, a prep school in Kingston, Pa., before taking the Keystone College job the following season.
“Another thing that got me excited about coaching at that level is I did coach a 15U AAU team out of Scranton in the spring,” he said. “They were all basically rising ninth- and 10th-graders. I really enjoyed it, I had a great group of kids, They’re at age where they don’t have…
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