Interview with Mike Kemp
December 4, 1996

Background
The University of Nebraska at Omaha announced on May 1st that it would start a Division I hockey team in 1997 - 98. Shortly thereafter the city of Omaha approved a 13.1 million dollar construction contract to renovate the 8,200 seat Civic Auditorium. Within weeks of the May 1 announcement over 6,000 season tickets were sold. To say that Omaha is crazy about hockey is an understatement.

All that was left was filling the position of head coach. The announcement from Don Leahy, UNO Athletic Director, did not take long - on June 30 th Mike Kemp was introduced as the head coach.

Interview
Sarah: When do you plan to start your season?

Coach Mike Kemp: Our season will start, game wise, our first possible weekend of play will be October 17th and 18th. We're still trying to schedule that date for our home opener. If we weren't to have a home opener on that weekend we would probably open on the road the following weekend.

Sarah: I've heard that you are planning on playing fewer games your introductory season, is this true and how many games do you plan to play?

Coach Kemp: No it's not accurate, we're going to play the full Division I compliment of 34 games. Right now our objective is for 18 home games and 16 road games. Were certainly going to play a minimum of 18 home games, if we play more it's just a relative opportunity to play at home.

Sarah: How can a first year team hope to compete with teams like Colorado College or even the Minnesota Gophers?

Coach Kemp: Well there's no possible way of saying that we feel we are going to go in and dominate at that level. Because obviously, it's a huge step to go from no program, to compete with program's that have been in existence for such a long period of time, with such great success. In our situation, we hope to be able to put together a team. And we've followed a plan up to this point of time in recruiting, where I feel we've put together a group of young men who can help us go in and be competitive. Which is what our objective is initially, to be competitive early on in our existence.

Sarah: In a time of tight budget's what kind of commitment do you have from the University of Nebraska at Omaha? If the team doesn't do well in the first couple of years will the University still be as eager to fork out the money?

Coach Kemp: As we've seen up to this point in time our building is sold out in season tickets. If you are playing before sold out buildings, one that will be in the three largest venues in the country, and you walk into that situation you are generating the revenue that stimulates the type of support you are going to need to have a successful program at the Division I level. So our feeling is that, at this point of time, we've had absolutely one hundred percent cooperation and support from the institution. The expectation is that we will continue to enjoy the type of sell out crowds that we are anticipating next year, which we already have. Because of that, we feel that the revenue's stream will be there for us to continue to add support to this program, at a level that will be the same as any outstandingly successful Division I program in the country.

Sarah: Do you see a difference in the style of play and skill level between the WCHA and other conferences?

Coach Kemp: Division I hockey across the country is extremely balanced, right now. There is no one running away with the league. Anyone beats anybody on a given night, as evidence by Colorado College being defeated last Saturday night by Anchorage, they've not had a great deal success on the road and this was down in Colorado Springs. So you see that College hockey has got tremendous parity. It's not just parity within the WCHA, but also from league to league. I think you take the top four teams in any one of the four Division I leagues and they are very, very comparable in competition. I think that's probably the whole secret of college hockey. The fact of the matter is that there is just tremendous competition across the country and that's something I don't anticipate changing.

Sarah: How do you see the relationship between the USHL and Mavericks hockey developing?

Coach Kemp: I'd like to say that it's evident by the early signing period this year. The UNO Mavericks signed more USHL team players than any other school in the NCAA. In reality part of that is that we need more players than any body else at the current time. With the USHL in such close proximity to the program, my belief that it is such a wonderful recruiting area for us. I've had a twenty year history of recruiting in the USHL and I believe that it would be a natural area for us to focus and have the majority of players come from.

Sarah: What kind of player are you looking for to recruit?

Coach Kemp: The player we're going to recruit has to have several elements that make the player or make the person. The player has to be of the ability to compete successfully at the Division I level. And that's a very limited few if you look at the hockey world. In the same sense, that he must exhibit an interest academically and at pursuing an education at a higher level. As a result of that he must be capable of succeeding, doing college work in the classroom. Thirdly character is a huge factor for us in the development of this program. They have to be the type of individuals that exhibit the character of being good citizen's, who will be great representatives for our program, who will enhance the quality of life in Omaha and not detract from it. So the citizenship of the individual becomes very important to us.

Sarah: Can you tell me the areas you're recruiting from, besides the USHL, or is it just the USHL?

Coach Kemp: No quite honestly, it's kind of like what he said in Field of Dreams "If you build it they will come." If there's a player we will go there to get him. We are recruiting absolutely every area of the North American continent right now in which hockey is at a higher level. We will continue to do that, we are not going to be painted into a corner and recruit strictly in one area. We are expanding and getting ourselves exposed in every area of the continent to get the best players.

Sarah: Do you have any commitments from players yet?

Coach Kemp: At the current time we signed ten players in the early signing period. We have a couple of commitments that we cannot talk about because of NCAA rules that will be signed in spring.

Sarah: What are some of your goals for this team in the next few years?

Coach Kemp: Our objective of this team is one; bring it from a non-existent state to becoming a competitive, successful Division I program. That and of itself is no small task. We want to make sure that we establish a good foundation of players here that can be built upon in the future and help to bring the program up to the competitive level. As well as we want to establish this program as a member of one of the Division I leagues and become active members that are successful in that those leagues. Those are our objectives, they're realistic and they're looking at a long-term big picture. I think that that's the important way to go about it.

Sarah: I know that a good 6,000 fans already have requested tickets, so it seems like it might be hard to get tickets. For a fan who would like to just watch a game how would they be able to get tickets?

Coach Kemp: The building is sold out in season tickets, but they're still some things that are being worked upon. It takes awhile to get through this, because of the fact that we have considerations of the city that we have to deal with. But we are trying to set up a standing room only ticket, we also still have ticket's available for week game sales, and there are tickets available for the students to buy in the student section.

Sarah: There seems to be a lot of interest regionally, does UNO plan to have an internet site to keep these people informed?

Coach Kemp: Yes there will be, it's in the process right now, it has not been put together yet, but hopefully by the first of the year it will be in place.

Interview conducted by Sarah Bendy