Sharing love & basketball

WASHINGTON -- The husband coaches the men's team at Catholic University, the defending NCAA Division III champions. The wife is in her first year as coach of the women's team, which has its first winning record in 13 years.

The 2-year-old son and the 1-year-old daughter play on the sidelines in the gym during the back-to-back practices, which can run as late as 11 p.m. The son has become the Michael Jordan of the portable plastic basketball hoop.

Cute to watch. Not so easy to live through.

"It's been the most difficult year of my life, just trying to balance everything," Maggie Lonergan said. "But it's also been the best year of my life."

Mike and Maggie Lonergan, along with little Jack and Margaret, have spent a season overdosed on basketball and child-care stress, but it was probably meant to be that way. Mom and Dad met at one basketball camp and got married at another. They are so competitive they can't even play a game of Monopoly at home because neither takes losing very well.

Imagine, then, how it feels on nights when Mike's team wins and Maggie's doesn't. Or vice versa.

Mixed feelings

"We won our 20th game in a row last Wednesday, and Maggie's team lost pretty badly," Mike Lonergan said. "I want to be happy that night at home, and it's tough. I try to watch the kids and let her sulk a little.

"It's been tough. It's fun when you're both winning. It's fun when you have the kids around because I am a poor loser and a competitive guy. When you lose, it's nice to have your kids to put everything in perspective."

Mike Lonergan is the most successful basketball coach in Catholic's history, with a 199-76 overall record in his 10th season, highlighted by the Cardinals' first national title last year. Despite losing three seniors, this year's team was 22-2 entering the first round of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament Tuesday night.

Maggie Lonergan, a former assistant at Mount St. Mary's, was her husband's unofficial assistant for the last two years while the children were born. She was hired to coach the women a year ago in what the university considers a part-time job, but it's been anything but a part-time existence. She's led the team to a 14-11 regular season record.

"The job's part-time, but she treats it full-time," Mike Lonergan said. "I come in at 10:30 or 11 and try to get all my work done because Maggie's going to show up with the kids."

Mike Lonergan has been approached by Division I schools over the years, but it would take just the right offer to lure him away. Besides, the all-in-the-family theme suits Catholic's image, especially when the kids are taken on recruiting trips.

"I can honestly say he's the only one that brought any kind of family with him," freshman point guard Bobby Henning said. "I thought that was interesting, having that good family environment."

Common talk:Hoops

Mike and Maggie swap advice frequently -- much of it unsolicited. After putting the children to bed, they'll fight over which tape -- men's or women's -- to put in the VCR to prepare for an upcoming opponent.

"People ask us what we talk about when we get home," Maggie Lonergan said. "And I'd be a liar if I said we didn't talk about basketball. I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how we did something wrong or how we need a new out-of-bounds play, and I'll turn over to Mike and ask him."

On a recent Sunday, when both had a rare day off, Maggie suggested to Mike, "Let's do something as the family." She was thinking about Chuck E Cheese's. His reply? "Oh, good, there's a recruit that I want to go see."

Sure enough, children in tow, they went off to see the recruit.

Mike Lonergan has found two other Division III schools in the country -- Grove City, Pa., and Greensboro, N.C. -- that have a husband-wife tandem coaching the men's and women's basketball teams. Sounds like the makings of a focus group for basketball-saturated families.

"If I can find one more, we can have a tournament," Mike Lonergan said.