TJ Dekmar

Goldey-Beacom men’s basketball coach TJ Dekmar has put forth seven solid campaigns that have earned him national acclaim. With six conference tournament appearances on the docket, confidence is high in believing the team continues to head in the right direction.

Goldey-Beacom's 2019-20 campaign was much like all others before it, steps forward with talented competitors against formidable foes. The squad hosted a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference quarterfinal game for the third straight year and reached 15 victories for a fourth consecutive season. A four-game winning streak helped solidify this after the team once again opened against East Region teams that perennially are nationally ranked or regionally ranked.

The 2018-19 season provided another beacon of light with the Lightning advancing to the CACC semifinals for the second straight year. Goldey-Beacom opened the season against three opponents (Bentley, Saint Anselm and Saint Thomas Aquinas) who all were nationally ranked at some point and then defeated regionally ranked Bridgeport, 104-87, in the fourth game of the campaign.

The Lightning put together a four-game winning streak early in the campaign and then won four of their last six regular-season contests to clinch second place and another home conference tournament game.

Dekmar in the 2017-18 campaign helped the team notch a 20-10 record to tie the school record for most wins and record 20 victories in back-to-back seasons for the second time in school history. The Lightning also played in the CACC semifinals and saw Corey Taite named the league's Player of the Year as well as first team all-region by the CCA and NABC.

Goldey-Beacom won 11 of its last 13 contests to reach the conference tournament to finish the season third in the country with 19.43 forced turnovers per game, ninth with 282 steals, seventh with a 4.6 turnover margin and ninth with 9.4 steals per contest.

GBC in 2016-17 paced the Lightning to a 20-7 season for the most regular-season triumphs in school history and a berth in the CACC Tournament. The squad also posted a school-record 12-game winning streak and a team-best 11 road wins.

Goldey-Beacom led the CACC with 81.3 points per contest, shot a league-best 49.5 percent from the floor and was crowned the January Team of the Month in a poll conducted by Hero Sports. The Lightning also were listed ninth in the first NCAA East Region rankings of the year.

For his effort, Dekmar was named among the top 30 men's basketball coaches – head coaches and assistant coaches of all divisions – under age 30 as released by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Dekmar was an assistant coach during the 2015-16 season and got the job after Chuck Hammond stepped down as both head coach and Director of Athletics to become the College's Dean of Students.

Dekmar arrived after serving three seasons as an assistant at Delaware Valley College, where he was the recruiting coordinator and summer camp coordinator in addition to handling film exchange and film breakdown. The Aggies during that stretch captured the 2013 Freedom Conference title, played in another conference final and produced one All-American in addition to six all-league players.

Dekmar played four seasons at Pitt-Bradford, where he led the squad to two Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference finals and two ECAC Tournament appearances.

Dekmar graduated Pitt-Bradford in 2012 with a B.S. in Sports and Recreation Management.