James Mooney ’06, who is the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,793 points, was named the fifth head coach in UMSV men’s basketball history in May 2017 and in his very first season with the Dolphins was awarded the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year (2018). He is also the department's Senior Associate Athletic Director with a focus on fundraising efforts.
Mooney will coach in his ninth season in the 2025-26 academic year. The Dolphins went 9-17 overall and 6-10 against the Skyline Conference in 2024-25.
Under Coach Mooney, the Dolphins have seen significant improvements and growth in all areas of the program. Mooney’s Dolphins have been to the Skyline Conference semi-finals two times in seven seasons and have qualified for the playoffs five times. Since 2002, the Dolphins have only been to the semi-finals five times with Mooney being a part of all of them (two as a player, one as an assistant, and two as head coach).
Mooney has coached two First Team All-Skyline Conference Players, two Second Team All-Skyline Conference players, a Third Team All-Met player, two All-Skyline Sportsmanship players, and the sixteenth 1,000 point scorer in school history. Under Coach Mooney’s tutelage, six players have also continued their playing and academic careers in Europe with one signing a professional contract in Italy. The team is also no stranger to having academic success as well and has been recognized three times for the NABC Academic Excellence Award for having a cumulative GPA average of 3.0 or higher, with eleven juniors and seniors being named to the NABC Honors Court for having a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher for the academic year. The Dolphins have maintained an impressive team GPA of over 2.90 in Mooney’s tenure.
Mooney’s Dolphins love to compete and have faced six different Division I opponents since 2018, which included 3 games that aired on ESPN+. On top of that, the Dolphins have traveled quite extensively and have competed in California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, and soon-to-be Florida, to name a few.
Prior to UMSV, Mooney has had many different coaching and professional experiences that has ultimately led to the program’s turnaround. Mooney was the head men’s varsity basketball coach at Rye Neck High School and the East Coast Regional Manager for Ultimate Hoops at Life Time Fitness. He has also worked at House of Sports in Ardsley, New York as a player developer and was the assistant men’s varsity basketball coach at his alma mater, Iona Prep. There, he helped lead the team to two CHSAA City and State titles, coached six different Division I players and two current NBA players.
As a player, Mooney had an extremely successful and accomplished career. He won a CHSAA City Title with Iona Prep in 2002, is still top 20 in NCAA DIII history for most three-point field goals made per game in a career, and played professionally in Europe for 2 full seasons. On top of being the all-time leading scorer for UMSV, Mooney also has the school’s highest scoring average in a season (26.2), most three-point field goals made in a season (101), most three-point field goals made in one game (9 – twice), and scored more than 40 points in a game twice, just to name a few.
Mooney, a Bronx native, now resides in Yonkers, New York with his wife and UMSV alum, Danielle (’05), and has three beautiful children Kara, Quinn and Jameson Jordan (J.J.).
