Keith Dambrot salary: Duquesne HC's contract structure, career earnings and more explored
Keith Dambrot's 11-seed Duquesne Dukes have made their first NCAA Tournament in nearly 50 years, with their last appearance being the same year the first Star Wars movie came out. Moreover, they`ve busted into the next round, beating 6-seed BYU to earn the right to take on 3-seed Illinois.
One could point their recent success to coach Dambrot, who was hired seven years ago and is making his March Madness debut with the team. On that note, let's explore how much the veteran coach (who coached LeBron James in high school at SVSM) is being paid in Pittsburgh.
Keith Dambrot`s salary at Duquesne
Keith Dambrot`s initial contract at Duquesne was slated for seven years at around $1 million per season (as per the Akron Beacon Journal via ESPN). He signed his contract in 2017, around five years after his initial 10-year contract with his former employer, the Akron Zips.
Before Duquesne, Akron kept Dambrot for a bit in 2012 when the Dukes tried to hire him away. It was a raise and a short contract extension that allowed him to stay with the Zips, who were reportedly able to pay him around $600,000 during the 2016 season.
However, with his contract with the Dukes nearing its end when their March Madness run is over, Keith Dambrot has announced his retirement. The Akron native is also said to be around "80%" sure that he would retire either way, his wife`s cancer diagnosis bumped it to 100%, tweeted Will Graves of the AP.
Keith Dambrot`s career earnings
Numerous sources differ on their estimates of Keith Dambrot`s career earnings. However, one source posits that his net worth is around $1.1 million (via DigitalOcean), with no further explanation backing it. So, take this number with a massive grain of salt.
Despite the lack of immediately verifiable data, there are some bits of info going back to his days coaching high school ball at St. Vincent-St. Mary that give perspective about how much he was earning in the day.
His salary at SVSM, where he won two state titles with a young LeBron James, was reportedly around $3,000 annually for three seasons (via Cleveland.com). Before that, Keith Dambrot had been working at a local investment company, where he earned in the range of $100,000.
When he first got to the Akron Zips coaching staff, his salary was set at $34,000. But Dambrot apparently didn`t mind the paycut, as he believed that it was his way into becoming a college basketball coach:
"The job at Akron paid $34,000. So it was a real pay cut. I had two kids and a mortgage. But I also knew if I was ever going to get back into college coaching, this was my chance."
He's the winningest HC in Zips program history, amassing a 305-139 record.