Father-daughter coaching matchup might be D-I first
NEW YORK – Dave Magarity has coached over 1,000 games in his 40plus years in men’s and women’s basketball. None have been like the two games he has this weekend when Army faces Holy Cross.
Standing on the other sideline coaching the Crusaders will be his daughter, Maureen, who took over that program this year after spending the last decade at New Hampshire.
It’s believed to be the first coaching matchup of a father and daughter in Division I history.
“It’s going to be surreal,” said Dave Magarity who turns 71 this month. “What’s unique about it – it goes without saying that not only is it possibly the first time it’s happened, but we’re in the same league. It’s one thing if we were playing in a tournament or it would have been nice to play in the NCAA Tournament or NIT. We’re in the same league, in this crazy season, we play each other four times.”
The Magaritys were quick to point out that they’ve squared off before in a few preseason closed scrimmages, but Maureen knows this weekend will be different.. The schools will first play at Army on Saturday before heading to Holy Cross on Sunday.
“I think this year does put a lot of things in perspective. playing against my dad, he’s done such a great job throughout his coaching career,” she said. “To survive coaching this long speaks volumes about my dad and what he’s taught me. I’ll try not to be emotional walking into that game”.
Maureen grew up on the court at Marist watching her dad coach the men’s team there. He spent 18 years there before stepping away from coaching for a couple years before coming back as an assistant on the women’s team at Army.
Maureen got her coaching start at Army, where she was an assistant for her father for a few years after he took over the program in 2006.