Notre Dame Coach's Roots Run Deep From Rockville

It would seem like a slam dunk to have your son attend and play for basketball coach Morgan Wootten, a future Hall of Famer.

But that was not the case for Mike Brey, who grew up in Rockville and attended Tilden Middle School.

“My parents were so great. Now, my parents taught in the Montgomery County school system. It was a little tough to let go of that and let your son go,” said Brey, now the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Notre Dame.

Wootten spotted Brey when he was a teenager.

“I was at Coach Wootten’s camp in the summer at St. John’s [in Northwest Washington, D.C.]. Coach Wootten kind of recruited a little bit out of that camp,” Brey recalled with a smile.

Brey and his family decided he would attend DeMatha, in Hyattsville, beginning in his sophomore year of high school. But getting to school in Prince George’s County was not easy.

“I made the trek from Rockville, which was a long trek back in 1975. I used to take the Metro, but it only went as far as Silver Spring back then,” Brey said.

Brey would go to a grocery store at Wildwood Manor in Silver Spring and get a ride to DeMatha from a family friend. After graduating from DeMatha he headed to George Washington University.

Brey’s wife, the former Tish Schlapo, attended in Kensington and then played volleyball at George Washington. “That is where I met her,” said Brey, who played basketball at GW and graduated in 1982.

His wife grew up in the Flower Valley section of Montgomery County and still has family in the area. Brey’s parents and sister now live in Florida. His wife is a former assistant volleyball coach at the University of Delaware, where Brey was the former head men's basketball coach before taking the Notre Dame job in 2000.

Brey was back in the area Oct. 6 to promote the BB&T Classic, which will be played Dec. 4 at the Verizon Center. The Irish face and GW meets Virginia Commonwealth, which advanced to the Final Four last season. Notre Dame will also play at the Verizon Center in February against .

The head coaches of Maryland () and GW (Mike Lonergan), joined Brey at a downtown office of BB&T on the same day tickets were released to the public.

"It costs me a lot of tickets for my family when I come back here," said Brey, 52. "I grew up in Rockville, and as a Maryland fan, [the school] has a place in my heart."

Notre Dame's preseason roster this season includes Eric Atkins of Columbia and Jerian Grant, who is from Bowie and played at DeMatha.

Brey joked to several media members that he made the trek from Indiana to get some Maryland crabs. “That is the last shot as I head back to South Bend for the winter,” said Brey, who picks crabs during his summers at the beach in Delaware.

Brey has known Lonergan for nearly 30 years. Lonergan grew up in Bowie, went to Archbishop Carroll High in Washington, D.C., played at Catholic University and was an assistant coach at DeMatha and the University of Maryland.

"He is kind of like a little brother. I am excited he is at my alma mater," Brey said of Lonergan, who was the head coach at Vermont for six years before he was named the GW head coach in May.

"Mike Brey and [GW assistant] Pete Strickland were like big brothers," Lonergan said. "Mike encouraged me to go to Vermont and I am sure behind the scenes he probably helped me get the job at GW."