General | 10/6/2022 10:10:10 AM
Kelly Dunne enters her eighth season at Nazareth College as head coach of the women's basketball program in 2022-23 after a successful playing career with the Golden Flyers from 2006-2010. As head coach, Dunne has amassed 103 wins in seven seasons, culminating in an Empire 8 Championship in 2021. Dunne and her staff earned Empire 8 Coaching Staff of the Year that season. In addition, has coached a trio of Empire 8 Players of the Year, including Samantha Peebles, Rachel Benedict and Jadyn Abrams.
A native of East Northport, New York, Dunne earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Nazareth in 2010. As a student-athlete at Nazareth from 2006 through 2010, Dunne was a four-year starter and two-year team captain who earned Empire 8 Conference all-star recognition as a senior. She ranks among the program’s all-time career leaders in three-point field goals made (157), assists (297) and steals (153).
Kelly Dunne - Empire 8 Pioneer
Year at Current Institution/Total in College Athletics: Eighth year at Nazareth/12th overall
College Attended/Class Year: Nazareth College ’10
Playing Career:
Four-year member of the women's basketball team at Nazareth (2006-2010)
Favorite Professional Athlete/ Team:
Derek Jeter/New York Yankees
Favorite Movie: Shawshank Redemption
Last TV Show You Binge Watched: Ted Lasso
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Coffee
What Do You Enjoy Doing When Away From College Athletics? Spending time with family and traveling.
Dream Vacation Spot: Greece
Greatest Mentors: My high school basketball coach, Rich Castellano. He taught me that you can be a tough coach that wants to win while still caring deeply about your players and their well being. The amount of weddings he gets invited to from his previous players speaks volumes.
In addition, my family. We are a sports family but more specifically, a basketball family. Every single one of us played but also coached in some capacity. I love bouncing ideas off of each one of them and talking X’s and O’s at Christmas Dinner. Being the youngest, I have learned so much from all of them over the years
Favorite Athletic Memory from Your Time as a Player in College: Defeating St John Fisher on our home floor on my senior night (2010) in overtime at the buzzer.
Favorite Athletic Memory as a Coach: Winning the Empire 8 Championship on our home floor in front of our families and fans after a tough year due to COVID in 2021.
Most Rewarding Aspect of Being a Coach/Administrator: Seeing the growth and development of our incredible women on and off the basketball court and having lifelong friendships with them and their families for years after they leave Naz.
What Have You Learned About Yourself as a Leader and In Your Role: It is okay to be vulnerable with my student athletes and let them see me not just as a coach but also as a person outside of the basketball court as well.
Recent Community Service Projects Your Teams or Departments Have Worked On: Our women's basketball team always participates in the Rochester breast cancer walk in October and raise money for that cause. We also dedicate multiple games throughout our season where we raise money for different charities. Each year we donate to Golisano Children's Hospital, the American Cancer Society, and Go 4 The Goal, which helps children fight cancer.
How Does The Empire 8 Stand Out Among Other Conferences? The Empire 8 really puts a focus on being a STUDENT-ATHLETE. I love the fact that they are not just publishing the wins and losses and the individual accomplishments on their social media and website. They are also highlighting community service projects, inspiring stories, scholar athletes, and success stories within our team members.
How Did Title IX Played a Role For You as a Student-Athlete? I can remember in high school the cheerleaders and dance team started performing at both the girls and boys games because of Title IX. As high school students, we didn’t know much about Title IX, but I remember our team being pumped and appreciative that our games would now be identical to our boys games, especially since we were actually better than they were each year! It doesn’t sound like much but I remember our team really seeing a difference. We had a couple more people at our games and we had some help when it came to creating an even more awesome environment for our home and away games.
What Do You Think Is the Greatest Impact of Title IX/How Has it Changed Your Life? Title IX has given me job opportunities that I might never have gotten without it. The coaching world was always so dominated by men. Title IX helped shift that and give women a fair shot to do something they were just as good at and just as passionate about. We had one year recently where every single womens basketball coach in the Empire 8 were females. Now that was a special year and a great example of the impact of Title IX.
How Has Title IX Changed the Collegiate Sports World? Thanks to Title IX, we have seen things we had never seen before. Women began officiating men's games, more womens sports teams that were strictly male sports years ago (rugby, hockey, wrestling) female commentators, and even females coaching male teams. All of these things are popping up more and more and will just continue to help with growing women in sports.
What Can Be Done to Continue the Growth of Women’s Sports? More accessibility and more exposure. Continue to call out any inequalities found within the sports world. I became a big fan of Sedona Prince on Oregon a few years back when she did exactly that, which raised a lot of awareness of things that needed to change. There is still a lot of work to be done but it’s rewarding to see how far we have come thanks to Title IX.
Advice for Aspiring Student-Athletes (Youth/High School and Incoming Collegians): Don’t lose sight of WHY you play. It should be competitive but it should also be fun and enjoyable. Be coachable, be respectful, be a great teammate and a great opponent.
Advice for Graduating Student-Athletes: This is easier said than done but try and take some time for yourself after graduation. Save up some money during your senior year and after graduation travel, go see that friend or relative that lives far away, cross something off your bucket list. You have the rest of your life to work! You worked so hard to get to this point, so reward yourself.
The Empire 8 Pioneers series celebrates 50 years of Title IX and highlights the growth of women's sports, while featuring a standout women's coach of administrator from each of the league's 10 institutions.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
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