Penny Kempf has served as Rowan’s Associate Athletic Director and Senior Women’s Administrator since 2014, after completing a 17-year coaching career in which she became the winningest coach in Profs’ field hockey history.
In her current administrative role, Kempf has a myriad of duties and serves as the sport supervisor for multiple programs. She is also an advocate for all student-athletes, creating a Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee for Rowan athletics and becoming a Division III LBGTQ facilitator in the OneTeam Program, a group that helps prepare student-athletes for their future while also empowering them as a person and an athlete.
Kempf established a tradition of excellence for Rowan field hockey compiling a school-record 253 wins in 17 years as head coach. She led the Profs to the 2002 NCAA Championship, the only national title thus far for a Rowan women’s team and was honored as the NFHCA National Coach of the Year.
During her tenure as head coach, Rowan made 12 trips to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Semifinals three times and to the Quarterfinals once. Kempf, who led Rowan to 17 consecutive winning seasons, saw 27 of her student-athletes earn All-America honors and 53 gain All-Region recognition, while a total of 77 Profs were named All-Conference performers in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC).
With a career record of 253-81, she currently ranks 18th in career winning percentage (.775) for all NCAA divisions, and is ninth among Division III coaches, while ranking 28th all-time for Division III victories.
During that national championship run in 2002, Rowan went undefeated with a 21-0 record to set the school mark for wins in a season. Kempf guided the Profs to one of their six NJAC titles in her career and swept the Coach of the Year honors, winning the national, region and conference awards.
She set the standard in her first season with the Profs in 1998, leading Rowan to its first NCAA Semifinal and a third-place finish. That team also posted an 8-0 conference record en route to winning the NJAC title, while Kempf was honored as the Coach of the Year in the South Atlantic Region and the conference. From there, her teams would put together a streak of winning its first NCAA Tournament game 10 times in 12 appearances.
Kempf earned All-American honors in field hockey at The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College) and was a two-time All-American in lacrosse. She was a member of one national championship field hockey team and three national championship lacrosse teams, while being named the Most Outstanding defender for the championship tournament her junior and senior years for lacrosse. Kempf has been inducted into the TCNJ’s Athletic Hall of Fame four times as a member of a Team of Distinction and is an individual inductee into the Class of 2021.
Kempf, from Vineland, N.J. has served the sport of field hockey as a member and chair of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Committee, member and chair of the South Atlantic Committee, and member of NFHCA Regional All-American Committee.
