It’s been half his life since Omaha coach Mike Gabinet played for the Mavericks under current UNO executive associate athletic director Mike Kemp.
The dynamics of their relationship have changed over the resulting couple of decades, but Gabinet’s respect for Kemp has only grown. This Tuesday, after it was announced last week that Kemp will be retiring from UNO effective this May, Gabinet praised someone who has been a continuous fixture on that campus for the last 28 years.
“There’s that good relationship you have to have between a coach and a player, and a player and a coach, but as you become an adult and get older and still have those people with you, it’s different,” Gabinet said.
“Some things about our working relationship are the same, and we’ll always have that respect for each other, but you get to talk about different experiences now, and I’m able to lean on him as a mentor to help with certain situations, and that’s been awesome.”
Kemp’s association with UNO goes back further than when he was hired in 1996 to lead the Mavericks’ first varsity hockey program. He previously coached the school’s club team, which had been considered for varsity status in the 1970s but couldn’t command the required funding.
Kemp later spent 20 years in assistant coaching spells at Wisconsin, Illinois-Chicago and Gustavus Adolphus before returning to Omaha. He led the Mavericks for 12 years and was then elevated into the first of a series of administrative titles.
Kemp later spent five years serving on the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee, chairing it from 2020-22. In 2020, he managed the NCHC Pod, with all eight of the conference’s teams beginning their pandemic-affected season at Omaha’s Baxter Arena.
Omaha, let alone the wider world, is a much different place than it was when Gabinet finished his UNO playing days in 2004. He always kept in touch with Kemp, though, before returning in 2016.
“I would come back to Omaha sometimes to train in the summer while I was still playing professionally, so I’d always see him around, and when I started coaching, we connected that way and I always kept track of how the team was doing here,” Gabinet said.
“He was a big reason I came back. People like that are a big reason why Omaha is what Omaha is.”
And now, Gabinet is enhancing what Kemp had started.
“With some things, you never really know until you know as a head coach,” Gabinet started. “You think you know as an observer, but you don’t know until you’re in the chair just what that takes, what bandwidth that requires on a day-to-day basis and all the responsibilities you have.
“When you get to live in that same seat that he held, you have a lot of respect for what he went through in building this program, and what he continues to do to help the program. Being the head coach myself now, I think it speaks volumes to just how much he continues to support the program. He’s just as passionate now about helping the program have success, and I always have admired that about him.”
Kemp’s presence will unquestionably be missed. His legacy will be carried forth, however, by someone who hopes to be able to claim a similar longevity.
“He has always treated people respectfully and is a team player who has done a good job building rapport with people he has been around,” Gabinet said. “He conducts himself with a classy and businesslike approach to things, and I think that’s reflected in his career, and the tenure he has had in one spot is very impressive.
“He’s a builder for the program, and a huge pillar of it. We wouldn’t have what we have today without his time and dedication to hockey in Omaha.”
