RICHMOND, Va. — Having spent their entire lives in and around basketball, both University of Richmond Spiders men's basketball coach Chris Mooney and VCU Rams coach Phil Martelli know talent when they see it. Recruiting has become just as important as Xs and Os in maintaining the health of their respective programs.
We asked each of them for their scouting reports on a pair of high school guards that caught our attention. The players in question are both sophomores at Collegiate School, and just happen to share a home address and surname with the head coaches.
"He's a good player. He's probably about 5-foot-10, has played point guard his entire life. Very good ball handler, very good passer, good shooter. He's very hard working and competitive — you know, he loves basketball," Coach Mooney said about his son Danny.
"Very high IQ. He's not the swiftest one out there. He's grown into his body. He has shot up quite a few inches in the last year, year and a half. But you know, his game is developing," Coach Martelli said of his son Phillip.
Phillip Martelli and Danny Mooney are both guards for the Cougars. Danny actually showed Phillip around the Collegiate campus during his first days in town.
They each have a much different perspective of the game, one that both they and their fathers try to keep in check away from the court.
"I never take for granted how blessed I am that I'm able to have the connections with my dad's players and staff and managers," Phillip Martelli said. "I'm able to have a spot where I can go, and it's almost like a second home."
"My dad's been in Richmond my whole life," Danny Mooney said. "I just have more of a unique perspective. I've seen a lot more basketball than the average person."
Both boys say they have interests outside of basketball, and there's a good balance of basketball and non-basketball talk in their homes.
"I like to leave my dad's stuff at work," the younger Martelli said. "The least he wants to do is go home and have me ask him all these questions about all the stuff going on in today's college basketball world."
"I've been able to lay that strict line down with all the kids — I can just go and be a parent and just be a dad and kind of enjoy it from that perspective," Coach Martelli said.
"I know that coaches can be tough, and so my job is to be their dad and provide love and support," Coach Mooney said. "Then maybe a word or two about their ball handling."
Setting all that aside leads to the coaches at rival schools sitting with each other at Collegiate games, where their shared fatherly interests override any rivalry from their day jobs.
"We're just people sitting at a Collegiate game together," Coach Martelli said. "We're just two dads that happen to have the same job, right? Just the same way there might be two dads sitting up there that are both lawyers."
"We've always gotten along great," Coach Mooney said. "His dad and I always got along great. Jimmy and I always got along great. So, yeah, I don't think that'll change as the boys progress through high school."
The coaches' kids agree.
"They're just cheering on their kids at a high school game," Danny Mooney said. "I think that's a really cool thing that they're able to do."
"It's never like, 'That's the coach of Richmond.' It's that it's one of my good friend's dads," Phillip Martelli said.
That ability to be fathers first and coaches a distant second is worth more to the boys than any dribbling or defense tips.
"He's the world to me," Danny Mooney said. "Everything he says, I take really to heart, and I really do look up to him as a role model in my life."
"I've been very blessed to have a lot of great role models — people like my grandparents, my parents, extended family, especially my dad," Phillip Martelli said. "His humbleness and selflessness is something I try to strive for every day. I'm grateful for the amount of support."
While their fathers will continue to sit together at future Cougar games, we asked Danny and Phillip if they would return the favor and sit together when VCU plays Richmond.
They couldn't say "no" fast enough.
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