MARINE CITY — A family affair.
That pretty much sums up basketball at Cardinal Mooney High School.
“More like a dynasty,” jokes Mike McAndrews, heading into his 27th season this winter as boys basketball coach.
Combined, Mike (since 1998), his brother Jim (eight years, 1990-97) and sister Sue Everhart (26 years, 1991-2015) have coached Mooney basketball for 61 years.
All of this came about when their parents, Jim Sr. and Kathleen, and family — Jim Jr., Kathi, Susan and Mike — moved to Michigan from Philadelphia, where Jim Sr. was a celebrated basketball player in the city and at Temple University. They settled in Mount Clemens.
Their children all attended Catholic schools. Cardinal Mooney High School, founded in 1977, was located at St. Mary’s School at St. Peter’s Parish. Six years later, it moved to nearby St. Louis School and then in 1990, to its present location, the vacated former Holy Cross High School.
Jim Jr. graduated in 1984 and from Central Michigan University in 1988. At Cardinal Mooney, he coached the Cardinals to three appearances in the Catholic High School League playoffs: a finalist in 1991 and champs in 1993 and 1995. He coached his brother Mike on the 1993 squad.
Kathi graduated in 1985 and continued on the University of Michigan. She married Michael Torey. Their daughters, Rachel (2012) and Julia (2014) played for their aunt Susan. Rachel was a freshman starter on the 2009 Class D finalist. Their son Drew (2010) was a starting guard on Uncle Mike’s 2010 state Class D finalist team.
Susan (1987) started coaching the girls varsity four years after attending Eastern Michigan University. She is married to Jason Everhart, who stays abreast of all the on-court activity keeping the scorebook. Their sons — Daniel (2018), Kevin (2021) and Brian, this spring — all played for their Uncle Mike. Daniel is in graduate school at Michigan. Kevin is a senior at U of M and is in his fourth year as the basketball team’s student manager.
Mike (1993), after graduating from Concordia University in Chicago in 1997, was only 22 when he succeeded his brother Jim as varsity boys coach in 1998. His teams were 2005 and 2020 CHSL finalists and state Class D 2010 finalist and 2023 D4 semi-finalist.
“Brian,” his mother Sue says, “is the end of the line.” It’ll be four or five years before another nephew or niece makes it to Mooney High.
And what an ending.
Two minutes into the first game of the season his junior year, Brian had the ball at the top of the key: “I ripped right to make a spin move, and I finished the layup. I kinda slipped. I got up and I just felt a pop. Then I just felt my leg give out. In my head, I thought, ‘This could be it.’ I went to get an MRI and see a specialist about a week later and he tells me that I was moments away from a complete tear.”
Brian had partially torn all three knee ligaments: a grade-2 PCL, a grade-1 ACL and a grade-2 LCL. “It was really close to being catastrophic,” Mike said. “He’d never be able to play again.”
But he did eight weeks later in time for the state tournament wearing a bulky full leg brace. “Very uncomfortable, but very helpful. But we went on to the playoffs. The guys didn’t want it to end. We kept on winning,” Brian said, until the fateful semifinal against Munising.
He wore the brace on and mostly off through the summer, the football season (quarterback and punter) and his senior year basketball.
“To this day,” Brian said, “it can feel a little sore. I can remember I was kneeling in church. When I got up it felt like a shock in my knee. Felt like it did before. I wore the brace again for a couple games and my knee felt fine.”
“At a summer camp at U-M,” Mike said, “he was playing at such a high level, quicker, stronger, it was a testament to all the work he put in. He was a different player. Sitting out for eight weeks he realized quickly it could be taken away. He had an appreciation for a new opportunity.”
Susan said, “He put in a crazy amount of time practicing basketball. After football practice, after school, weekends. I could not keep him away from the gym.”
Brian added: “I still want to try college basketball. (Having not played the junior year) I didn’t really have the offers. People don’t see me going every day. Everybody I’ve talked to tell me you have to be determined, you have to be in shape. That’s what’s driving me.”
He’ll be attending Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn on a full-ride scholarship. “I spent a week this summer at a junior college camp in Georgia,” Brian said. “It was some of the best basketball I’ve ever seen.” The long range plan is to play in college Division 2.
The kids in the McAndrews and Everhart households play other sports, too. “But my father’s passion for the sport was something we all fell in love with.” His father passed away in 2022.
His mother Kathleen calls Mike on the morning of every game: “She tells me good luck and stay calm.”
“For me,” Susan said, “it’s just basically the program. My first team meeting was at a McDonald’s because we had no gym. It just seemed to grow from there but, of course, when you’re winning that helps.”
“What the Everharts have done,” Mike said, “has taken us to new heights. It’s a testament to their commitment to the school and the program. It’ll be eerie not have an Everhart to yell at.”
“As for me,” he added, “the community, the kids, the families I’ve gotten to know, it’s the only place I’ve ever really wanted to coach. For me, it’s home. I’ve have had other opportunities to go to other schools, bigger, but never really entertained the idea.”
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
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