Head Coach Dave Bontempo

Dave Bontempo is the longest serving coach in the Colonial States Athletic Conference as he returns for his 8th season at GMC. In 2009, he led Gwynedd to their first playoff appearance and first playoff win in school history. Dave holds a National Coaching license from the United States Soccer Federation and arrived on the GMC campus in the fall of 2003 along with 14 new freshmen and a strong desire to build a winning program. In a unique role reversal, Dave replaced one of his former players from Archbishop Ryan High School (Marty Stanton) as Gwynedd’s Men’s Soccer coach. Bontempo comes from the highly regarded Philadelphia Catholic League where he coached at two high schools for a total of 28 years.

In his first season at Gwynedd, the team posted a 2-16 record, in 2004 improved to 7-10-1 and in 2005 set the school record for most wins in a season finishing with a record of 10-6-2. In that third year, the team set records for most overall wins, most conference wins, most goals scored and fewest goals allowed. Over the last three years the program has strengthened their schedule and has traveled far and wide to play the region’s top Division III teams. The coaching staff believes the brutal schedule they established in September of 2009 was directly responsible for the school’s most successful men’s soccer season ever, which ended with an appearance in the conference semifinal.

In addition to the progress on the field, Gwynedd Men’s Soccer has a special relationship with the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation and Luke Ronco. Luke is 11 years old and has been battling a brain tumor for 7 years. Luke and his family are frequent visitors to campus and can be seen at practices, tossing the coin before games and having dinner with the team. The players also act as guest coaches and trainers for special needs children with Autism at Lighthouse TOP Soccer Foundation.

Coach Bontempo was a three-year varsity starter and an all-league forward at Archbishop Ryan High School, one of the top programs in the state of Pennsylvania. In May of 2009, he was elected to the Ryan Soccer Hall of Fame. After an injury cut short his playing career at LaSalle University he turned to coaching. In 1976 he began coaching at Ryan as an assistant and during his 15 years there, they won the Catholic League Championship eight times, including six titles in a row. Bontempo was the coach of Ryan’s defense when the team set a national high school record of consecutive wins, 119 straight games without a loss over a six-year period and were ranked 4th in the country.

1991 to 2002 he was the head varsity coach at Father Judge High School and led his team to the playoffs in five consecutive seasons and was voted Philadelphia High School Coach of the Year. While at Judge he sent six of his players to play for Gwynedd before taking over the program.

During his coaching years, Bontempo helped produce countless all league and all state players, including five college All-Americans and the Philadelphia Soccer 7 College Player of the Year. Six former players have or are playing professionally and many others have gone on to coach at the high school and collegiate level. Dave is very proud of the fact that four former players are now college head coaches and three are college assistants. Two of his former players are currently playing in the MLS and one was a member of the 2006 U.S. World Cup squad.

Bontempo served as a staff coach for the Eastern Pa. Youth Soccer Association for 10 years and was an instructor for the state-level coaching license courses. Dave has twice served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Region for the Keystone State Games and his team won two gold medals.

Dave is the owner of The Bontempo Group, an executive search and career coaching firm and is also a partner of a retained search firm located in Princeton, N.J. He lives in Southampton, Pa. with his wife Mary who is a writer and three children, David (a graduate of Gwynedd Mercy), Laura (a graduate of West Chester University) and Megan (currently studying physical therapy at West Chester University).

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