March Madness: Long Island's Bonaventura brothers savor experiences

He was standing up there 10 feet in the air on that ladder on the court inside Corteva Coliseum, but Danny Bonaventura might as well have been on top of the world.

He hadn’t scored a point in Robert Morris’ 89-78 win over Youngstown State in Indianapolis that night of March 11, when the Colonials clinched the Horizon League championship and an automatic entry pass into the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.

But Bonaventura had played an important behind-the-scenes role for this team from Pennsylvania.

So the university’s associate athletic director for student-athlete development and men’s basketball administrator and academic adviser — a 34-year-old former Robert Morris football player originally from Hauppauge — could feel the joy up there for coach Andy Toole’s team and for himself when he helped cut down a net.

“It was pretty special,” Bonaventura said. “It was almost like a culmination of all the work that we’ve been putting in since last summer. [I have a] pretty unique relationship with Coach Toole. He became the head coach at Robert Morris when I was a student here, during my sophomore year.

“They named me the sport administrator for the program last summer. I assist with recruiting and budget and operations. And so to be there to support the team and be a part of that experience was incredible.”

So he was on to Cleveland for a first-round game vs. Alabama on Friday, when 15th-seeded Robert Morris stunningly led the second-seeded Crimson Tide with seven minutes left in what became a 90-81 loss.

But he wasn’t the only Bonaventura involved in an NCAA Tournament. This has been a March to remember for this family.

His identical twin brothers, Gennaro and Anthony, also were at national championship competitions as head college wrestling coaches, Gennaro with Division II Fairmont State of West Virginia and Anthony with D-III Stevens Tech of New Jersey.

They all kept two retired teachers/coaches busy.

“We call it March Madness and March Mat-ness,” said their dad, Ben Bonaventura Sr., the former longtime Copiague baseball and football coach, who ran up more than 3,000 miles on the Acura in about 2 1⁄2 weeks, driving around to support them all with mom Michele, the former Copiague girls gymnastics coach, and their dog.

“Just to see what they’ve achieved . . . it’s really unbelievable to see,” he said. “It’s every parent’s wish that your children are doing what they want to do, what their dream is. They’ve loved sports since they were little kids. To see them living out their dreams is really a fulfillment for us as parents.”

The three brothers, all married fathers now themselves, were really happy for each other over these three experiences.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Danny said. “I would say my brothers and I were all extremely tight growing up and competitive in everything that we did. We pushed and challenged each other, and we were also each other’s biggest supporters.

“It really started with our older brother, Benny. He was a wrestler in high school and then at the college level. The twins are just over a year younger than me. So we did everything together growing up.”

The journey from Hauppauge

Danny wrestled and ran track and was an all-conference defensive back for Hauppauge. At Robert Morris, he played for a former Jets coach, the late Joe Walton.

“It was a great experience,” Danny said. “He had so many different experiences and stories he shared with us as a team. He was definitely old-school in his approach. He would always go, ‘Nothing good happens after midnight.’ ”

Danny began there wanting to become a general manager for a football or baseball team before deciding to move toward a career supporting student-athletes both academically and athletically.

After a few stops, he returned to Robert Morris in 2023 with the associate AD and academic adviser responsibilities.

The twins, meanwhile, were football and lacrosse players and wrestled at Hauppauge, then went to D-III Waynesburg in Pennsylvania.

Gennaro, the Suffolk V wrestling champ at 189 pounds as a Hauppauge senior, wrestled and played football in college, then followed his parents as a coach. He became an assistant wrestling coach and the head women’s lacrosse coach at Waynesburg.

“Our dad is a big factor in a lot of things that we’re doing in our life,” Gennaro said. “And then our mom obviously as well was a big influence.”

This is Gennaro’s third season as the head wrestling coach at Fairmont State. He was in Indianapolis on March 11 because the D-II wrestling tournament was coming later that week at the same arena where Robert Morris and Danny had that big night on the Horizon front. Gennaro couldn’t make the game, but they celebrated together afterward at a hotel.

“It was a very cool moment,” Gennaro said.

He coached two wrestlers at the national championships, a program first.

“It meant everything,” Gennaro said about the experience. “It shows that we’re doing the right things. Our program is getting better.

“It would’ve been great to get two on the podium, but we got one All-American. It’s so tough to qualify for nationals at our level. To get two, set a new benchmark for the program . . . I couldn’t have been any happier.”

D-III glee

At the same time, Anthony was in Providence, Rhode Island, for the D-III tournament in his first season as Stevens Tech’s head coach after nine there as an assistant. That run included nine conference titles and him being named Region Assistant Coach of the Year three times.

This initial season in charge came with a regional championship, six wrestlers making nationals, two earning top-eight finishes to secure All-America status and an 18th-place showing there by the team.

“As coaches, especially in college wrestling, it’s a long season; it’s a two-semester sport,” said Anthony, who claimed All-America recognition himself as a national runner-up wrestling for Waynesburg. “So to see these guys stay healthy and stick to the plan, it’s a long process but very rewarding to see it get this far and have success at the national championships.

“Any time you can finish in the top 20, top 25 in the country [as a team] in Division III wrestling, which has 130 teams in it, it’s definitely a testament to where the program’s at.”

Anthony and Gennaro talk just about every day, sometimes formally. The twins co-host an award-winning, wrestling-related podcast, “D3 Nation.”

“I love it,” Anthony said. “When we have time during our season, we like to keep growing Division III wrestling and put it in the spotlight. It’s a great way to continue to network and connect and be connected with him even though we’re a few states away from each other.”

Now they can talk about March Mat-ness and throw in their brother’s March Madness, too.