Niagara Sports Magazine
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In the business of athletics and the working world not many can say they have excelled in both before the age of 30.
Local siblings Mike and Jessica Kemp, who grew up in Niagara Falls, had what it took to be successful right from a young age. They were provided with positive role models from their parents Rick and Anne, both successful business and community members in the Niagara Region for the past 35 years.
In addition, Rick’s brother Darrell played college baseball at Niagara University and played in the Anaheim Angels minor league system. He has also been a role model growing up and has been part of the family business for 25 years.
“My role model and mentor both growing up and in life today are both my mom and dad,” said Jessica. “They have been successful people and business professionals whom I have always looked up to.”
“In my personal and business life today my role models are my mom and dad,” said Mike. “Growing up playing baseball it was my uncle who I looked up to. It was just the way he went about the game that I admired and how hard he worked to make it to the level he made it to as a professional player.”
Jessica and Mike both were standout high school and university athletes taking different paths to their athletic success. Today they are both successful business professionals with Kemp Financial Group, a company owned by their family.
“We didn’t know any different growing up in an athletic family,” said Jessica. “Everything was shaped around sporting events, competition, team comradery and always trying to get better. We were very fortunate to have that background because we wouldn’t be where we are today without that.”
Jessica is currently the President and Financial Advisor at Kemp Financial Group and Mike is a Financial Advisor.
“We always wanted to get involved in the family business,” said Jessica.
“What we have set up here for us and the great opportunity that we have is something special,” said Mike. “Coming out of school, we needed to find our own way first before we started realizing this is something we should be getting involved with sooner than later.”
Jessica, one of the top women’s basketball players to come out of the Niagara Region, enjoyed a stellar basketball career right from high school through the professional ranks.
She attended A.N. Myer High School, being named Female Athlete of the Year in 2000, before going on to play four seasons with NCAA Division I Niagara University Purple Eagles from 2000-2004. With Niagara University she played in 113 career games, finishing with 1157 points (10.2 ppg) and 628 rebounds (5.6 rpg) which ranks sixth all-time.
She was also named the Purple Eagles Rookie of the Year in 2000, and received both the Coaches Award and Defensive Player of the Year Award as a senior in 2004.
Following her senior year she went on to play professionally in Holland for the Katwijk Grasshoppers Division I basketball team.
In 2007, Jessica was inducted into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame.
Much like his older sister, Mike excelled in high school sports at A.N Myer before being offered a full baseball scholarship at George Mason University in Virginia, which he attended from 2003 to 2005.
After he experienced some arm problems, he returned home and became a two-sport athlete at Brock University. He played baseball for one season and basketball for three.
In his one season with the Brock baseball team in 2005, Mike batted .295 (26-for-88) with six doubles, six homeruns, 15 RBI, 10 stolen bases and 23 runs scored.
As a member of the Brock basketball team Mike’s athleticism made an immediate impact. In three seasons from 2005 to 2008, Mike recorded 1480 career points (14.1 ppg) and 437 career rebounds (4.2 rpg). He also collected 224 assists and 149 steals in 105 career games. In the Brock career record books, he ranks fifth all-time in career steals with 149 and sixth all-time in career three-pointers made with 227.
Mike closed out his university career on a high note, capturing a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Basketball National Championship in Ottawa in 2008. The victory was made more memorable as he was able to raise the trophy with life-long friends Brad Rootes, Dusty Bianchin, Scott Murray and Rohan Steen, all of who played minor basketball together.
This was a special moment in these five players careers, an opportunity that many athletes don’t get to experience. In the championship game, Kemp was unstoppable. He finished with a game high 23 points including a career best six three-pointers.
A year later (2009), Kemp joined his sister as a member of the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame alongside teammates Rootes and Bianchin.
“It was great growing up in an athletic family because I always looked to get to the same level or beyond of what my sister and my uncle did,” said Mike.
Success can come in many different ways, but these two young business professionals believe sport is the most important thing in life to be involved in, right from an early age.
“If it wasn’t for basketball I wouldn’t be as successful as I am today in the business that I am in,” said Jessica. “I tell the girls that I coach how important it is to be part of a team, to be active, to be competitive and to have the drive to win. If you don’t have that when you are young, you won’t have it growing up.”
“Sports in general are a huge benefit to anything that you are going to do in life,” explained Mike. “Whether you are good enough and played at the levels we played at or you didn’t, you should be involved in sports in a team atmosphere at every stage of your life. It keeps you away from things you shouldn’t be doing.”
“Without our sports, we wouldn’t be where we are today 100% because it has kept us out of trouble, showed us the right way and keeps us competitive in anything that we do.”
Both Jessica and Mike have worked hard for what they have accomplished in both sport and business. With high future goals in mind, both will continue to build the family business.
