Local WA umpire on Olympics front-line

The Tokyo Olympics hockey tournament this coming July will have an additional West Australian flavour when it arrives, with former local WA player and umpire, Kevin Dempster, finding himself in a unique position as one of the main people in charge of the mammoth task of running the Games.

Since joining the Tokyo Olympic Committee in 2018 he has been working in Japan in both the Hockey Services and Technical Operations Manager positions - deputy positions to the Olympic Hockey Manager.

“It’s very international work as you could imagine – with our daily multi-lingual dealings with the FIH Head Office in Europe and with the teams, officials and volunteers from all over the planet,“ Dempster says.

He has found that his many years of experience as an international college principal and qualifications in people management have certainly come in handy for some of the unpredictable situations that he has to deal with in his Tokyo work. 

Dempster’s hockey journey has been quite a whirlwind and it all started as a mad, keen high school player in country WA.

“After high school, I moved from Manjimup to Perth for university,” he says.

“In Perth I played through the divisions until making it to 1As with Willetton. That was definitely a highlight!”

He later went on to become an avid umpire in the Perth hockey scene. Dempster says that residing in Japan for most of the 90s prior to returning to Australia, is what shaped his love for umpiring and the technical side of the game.

“When I lived in Japan, I was very fortunate to be coached by ex-Olympic umpires and this is what lit the fire for my love of umpiring,” Dempster says.

“Japan is a fantastic place to umpire and hone your skills – the Japanese are very respectful on and off the pitch, which helps a lot when you’re just starting out.”

Kevin’s return to Australia after that 10-year stint saw him take up umpiring in WA’s top league, which he says was quite daunting at first.

“After moving back to Perth, umpiring at the very top level was a bit of a culture shock - I was never the greatest umpire, but I’m very fit, and managed to develop some skills, and even picked up a service award along the way,” Dempster says.

“Pitty and Netts were tremendous mentors for me in this time, as they were for many WA umpires.”

Dempster then caught the Masters Hockey bug. After a half-dozen years of umpiring Premier League, he was invited to umpire at the National Masters Tournament and was chosen to umpire the final. This led to selection to tour overseas as the accompanying umpire with the Australian Masters Team.

Following several Masters World Cups he then picked the stick back up and went on to state and national selection as a player. It’s through this involvement with Masters on the world stage, that Dempster says resulted in him landing in Japan once again, but this time, to be involved on the biggest event on the sporting calendar - the Olympics.

His involvement with Masters on an international level reconnected him with Japan Hockey through their Masters teams at the World Cup.

“At one of the tournaments, I got chatting to a good friend from Japan Hockey, who I knew was also involved at a senior level organising the hockey at the Tokyo Olympics,” Dempster says.

“So I offered my services as a volunteer, knowing my Japanese language skills and deep knowledge of Japanese hockey would probably prove useful.”

“The conversation eventually evolved and I was then asked, “hey, why don’t you come and work for us?” - I think you can guess what my answer was…”

After going through the vetting process and officially being offered the position, Dempster said goodbye to his work at UWA and joined the hockey office at the Tokyo Olympic Committee in early 2018.

In the time since he has seen the new four-pitch hockey complex constructed from scratch on the edge of Tokyo Bay, he explains, “We have a brand-new world-class facility beautifully decked out now in its Olympic colours, ready to welcome the world’s very best hockey teams”

With the Olympics almost near and preparations full steam ahead, Dempster says his pulse is starting to race just that little bit faster, but also that the unique challenge ahead has been a long time coming.

“It was a huge task for my Japanese colleagues and I with the one-year postponement, having to rewrite most of our operations to allow for all the COVID precautions. Not to mention the impact of losing our many dozens of overseas volunteers,” Dempster says.

“On top of this, the IOC then shortened the stay-period for teams in the Athletes Village, meaning we had to somehow cram 24 squads into 4.5 days of training, instead of the original two weeks.”

With this ‘bonus‘ year full of extra challenges, this ex-WA boy says it has been a bumpy but fun ride.

“Our Hockey Office Team in Tokyo has certainly had to deal with an assortment of highs and lows in the last year or so, but we are basically ready now to open the gates of the outstanding Oi Hockey Stadium.” He comments in conclusion (with a smile), “I’m feeling extremely thankful and fortunate to be involved in what will now be quite a unique Olympics Games.”

“I’m also pretty glad I chose the hockey stick instead of the football all those years ago in the Manjimup Sports Shop…”