Staff photo / John Vargo Youngstown State University men’s basketball director of player personnel Danny Reese, a Cardinal Mooney graduate, talks to his family after the team’s flight was canceled Monday.

YOUNGSTOWN — Danny Reese looked around the confines of the Beeghly Center. He didn’t see his wife, Michelle, or his two children, Danny and Eloise.

Reese, a Cardinal Mooney High School graduate, made a quick call to Michelle, making sure his family members were on the way to the Youngstown State University men’s basketball game. He’s the team’s director of player personnel.

The Penguins were on the floor, taking shots, stretching on the Dom Rosselli surface and running some last-minute drills.

Part of Reese’s responsibility is making sure the video equipment is ready to record and monitor the movements of YSU’s players during the upcoming game.

“Being able to see them in the stands and stuff, just makes it that much better,” Reese said.

There are plenty of greetings among the YSU players, staff, personnel and his family, making it nice for the Reese family to see Danny and the Penguins work.

The team has to go on the road, just as it did during a recent swing through Indianapolis to play IUPUI and Chicago to visit UIC as Horizon League play got started.

Eloise is 8 months old, so she doesn’t comprehend the full spectrum of her father leaving for a couple of days with the Penguin team as the bus rolls along the Ohio interstates toward its destination.

Danny, who is 3 years old, is beginning to comprehend his father will not be home. The young Reese child monitors the YSU game on TV, looking for a glimpse of his father.

“He’ll say, ‘Look, it’s Daddy, and stuff like that,” the older Reese said. “It’s pretty cool.”

The younger Reese comes with his father to the team meal, and gets to visit with the guys on the team when he tags along.

“He’s able to play with them, run around at team dinner,” the older Reese said. “We actually had film and he was on my phone on YouTube. It got kind of loud and I got really nervous.

“That’s a huge compliment to coach to allow me to do that.”

It’s about family, always has been with YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun, who excused himself from shaking hands before leaving on the recent road trip through the Midwest.

His daughters, all younger than 6 years old, were struggling with sickness when he was preparing to leave Friday morning for Indianapolis.

No normal handshake on this day. He extends an elbow instead, saying that he didn’t want to spread the illness that had been going around in his home.

His wife, Sarah, to whom he’s been married for the past eight years, has been the bedrock of his coaching existence.

Calhoun knows the sacrifice his wife makes and the important roles she plays, especially this time of the year with Christmas shopping, bills and taking care of the children’s needs.

“It’s important to have a good support system at home,” Calhoun said. “Definitely sickness has been going around so you feel kind of bad when you’re going on a trip and you have 9-month-old and a 3-year-old and 5-year-old who has been sick. My wife has been great.”

Kennedy, Kendall and Quinn are at home with Sarah, who coach Calhoun met while he was the director of basketball operations at West Virginia University.

Calhoun was able to take his two oldest daughters, Kendall and Kennedy, to school in the mornings. Since practices were in the mornings at the Beeghly Center, Jerrod could come on to spend time with his family.

He spent Thursday taking the family to Disney on Ice at the Covelli Centre before leaving Friday for Indianapolis.

“When you start to travel and those sorts of things, that’s when it gets difficult,” Calhoun said. “Little kids don’t understand why daddy has to go away. They’ve gotten better with it.

“I try to get them certain things, whether it’s a shirt or explain to them where I’m at. Sometimes they don’t know where Indianapolis is, those sorts of things.”

YSU first-year assistant coach Chinedu Nwachukwu was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, but his parents are originally from Nigeria. He returned to their homeland for the first time in more than a decade, even if it was only a two-day visit.

He had one layover and 22 hours on an airplane to reach his final destination. It was 90 degrees and it wasn’t the commercialized Christmas we experience here in the United States.

“You really don’t see Santa Claus at all,” Nwachukwu said. “You see Santa hats. It’s a lot more religious over there, a lot more church-oriented.”

And family-oriented as well.

Mother, father, sisters, cousins, grandparents were there, all gathered as one, coming from all parts of the African country to celebrate.

His family does come over the Atlantic Ocean to visit, but it’s usually during basketball season. Nwachukwu has a hard time getting away to spend time with them.

They stay in touch through various social media and video-calling outlets.

“This year we had a celebration,” Nwachukwu said. “My father turned 70. We had a huge celebration at our house. It’s cool because I’ve only been to our house twice — my dad’s hometown.”

Home. That’s where Calhoun likes to be, especially after the team arrived home Tuesday morning following a long bus ride, the result of the cancellation of the team’s flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh after Monday’s game at UIC.

“As soon as you get back, if it was a late-night trip, the first thing you want to do is see your kids and your wife,” Calhoun said. “That’s the greatest thing about these new phones. You can FaceTime them and feel you’re somewhat there. I make sure I do that every trip.”