Kelly Dunne-Romig, a former standout player at Nazareth, returns for her 9th season as head coach in 2024-25 after compiling her best season at the helm in 2023-24. Nazareth went delivered its first 20-win season under Dunne-Romig, finishing 22-4 overall and 14-2 in Empire 8 play en route to picking up Empire 8 Coaching Staff of the Year honors.
Dunn-Romig reached her 100th career coaching win in 2022. That came in February in a 67-62 home-court win over Utica. All told, Nazareth finished 17-10 overall last season.
Nazareth is 144-75 (658) over eight seasons Dunne-Romig has been at the helm.
The last four seasons have been especially prosperous with 68 wins, including 46 in Empire 8 Conference games. The Golden Flyers also have reached conference playoffs four times and captured their first E8 title during the pandemic-shortened season of 2021.
Nazareth's recent success also has culminated in post-season awards. Each of the last three seasons, a Nazareth player has picked up all-region accolades with Olivia Dobrovosky (23-24), Brielle Reidinger (22-23) and Jayden Abrams (21-22) recognized by d3hoops.com. Abrams was also a two-time E8 Player of the Year and was an honorable mention All-American in 2021-22. Rachel Benedict earned those same honors in 2019-20.
Leaning heavily on strong contributions from Abrams, Dunne-Romig was able to steer the Golden Flyers to their first-ever conference title in 2021 with a thrilling home-court win over rival St. John Fisher in the championship game. Dunne-Romig and her staff were rewarded as E8 Coaching Staff of the Year.
In 2017-18, Dunne-Romig led a young Golden Flyers squad to a 13-12 record, including a 9-7 mark in Empire 8 Conference play. Nazareth led the E8 in 3-point field goals made, totaling 165 on the year (6.6 per game). Dunne-Romig's successful first season of 2015-16 included an 11-5 record in the E8 and was highlighted by an aggressive offensive style of play that featured a team three-point shooting percentage (225-for-621, 36.2%) that ranked eighth nationally. The Golden Flyers also broke a school record and led the nation in free-throw percentage that year by going 318 for 402 (79.1%). Three of her players -- Lindsey Kelly, Veronica Peck and Sam Sorge -- earned all-conference recognition.
A native of East Northport, N.Y., Dunne is a 2010 Nazareth graduate who coached for three seasons at Brockport. She was appointed interim head coach there following the 2014-15 season. Her responsibilities included coordination of recruiting. She also has coaching experience at several camps and clinics.
As a player at Nazareth from 2006 through 2010, Dunne-Romig was a four-year starter and two-time 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).
She ranked first all-time in career free throw percentage (200-for-250, .800) until she was recently surpassed by her current player, Jadyn Abrams, who has a percentage of .849 through four seasons. Dunne-Romig also set the single-season mark for free-throw accuracy in 2009-10 when she sank 74 of 82 shots (.902).
Dunne-Romig comes from a basketball-playing family that includes her older brother, Greg, an All-American player for the Golden Flyers in the late-90s. A member of Nazareth's Sports Hall of Fame, Greg is the former men's basketball coach at Brockport. Coaching alongside Kelly at Nazareth is another brother, Tim. Her parents, John and Eileen, are fixtures at all Golden Flyer basketball games.
Kelly has a degree from Nazareth in Business Administration after playing scholastically at Northport High School, where she also excelled in soccer and lacrosse.
Dunne-Romig and her husband Derrick are parents to daughter Peyton and son Dylan.
