Erskine College's Mark and Maggie Peeler think they have it made.

The only known husband and wife to coach the men's and women's basketball teams, respectively, at an NCAA institution, the Peelers and their three small children move at a frenetic pace during hoops season, but they wouldn't have it any other way.

"The best part about it is our kids are part of what we do," Mark Peeler said of Hope, 5 1/ 2; Jenkins, 3; and Max, 1. "They think (the gym) is their second home. I guess we're lucky in that we get a chance to see our kids probably a lot more than other people do."

In addition to being the head men's basketball coach, Mark Peeler also is the athletics director at Erskine, an institution in the Division II Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference. The obligations of that job keep him away from home more often than his wife, who still considers motherhood to be her primary job. Mark Peeler said the challenges of a full-time job are "harder on her than on me."

Though he didn't hire his wife to be the head women's basketball coach five years ago, he always knew she would make an excellent coach. A few years earlier, as the athletics director at St. Andrews College, he had an opening there for a women's basketball coach. He immediately thought of his wife, a former basketball student-athlete for Davidson College.

"I said, 'Do you want the job?' and she said, 'I would never work for you,' " he said. "She was a little hesitant. (At Erskine) it was a little bit different in that I wasn't her boss. Now I am, but as my children say, I'm never the boss."

Balancing motherhood and a full-time job coaching the Erskine Flying Fleet means that during basketball season Maggie Peeler can be found outlining game plans in the elementary school carpool lane or reviewing game tape while her youngest son takes his mid-morning nap. And working for her husband "isn't so bad," she said, because she can often ask him to take care of things at the office while she tends to the kids at home.

Game days are actually easier for the pair than practice days, she said, because she just needs to find a babysitter for the kids during her game. At Erskine, the men's and women's teams traditionally play their games as doubleheaders, with the women taking the court first. Because of Mark Peeler's duties as athletics director, the family finds someone -- often a student or sports information director Tiffany Mast -- to watch the kids during the first game, with Maggie Peeler taking over once her coaching responsibilities are fulfilled for the night.

With both teams playing on the same night, the emotions can sometimes be a roller coaster, Maggie Peeler said, especially if one team loses and the other wins -- something that happens more often than not.

"I think there are probably four or five times a year where we would both win, and we would look at each other and go, 'We're happy tonight!' " Mark Peeler said. Ultimately, even if both teams lose, Maggie Peeler said coming home to the kids every night keeps them grounded.

"We realize there are definitely more important things in life (than winning)," she said.

Though double wins may be a rare occurrence, the duo rarely discusses the Xs and Os of coaching anymore.

"We don't spend much time talking about each other's teams because there's so little time to actually just be people when we're together," Mark Peeler said. "We try not to talk about basketball."

Maggie Peeler said her spouse is usually thinking the same thing she is anyway, so there's no point in making an issue of it. The busiest time, she said, is usually getting all three kids in bed after the last game.

"Sometimes I wish the news cameras could come watch that," she said.

Even with the chaotic days during basketball season, Maggie Peeler said she and her husband still have it made.

"It's just unbelievable that I get paid to do this. I think my husband feels the same way," she said. "I never wake up thinking I don't want to go to work today, or I don't want to go to practice. I feel very lucky. We just love the game."

Both the Peelers credit the Erskine community in Due West, South Carolina, with helping them be successful both as parents and coaches. Mark Peeler grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and his wife was raised in Louisville, Kentucky -- both significantly bigger than Due West.

"I don't think either one of us ever thought this would be where we would be. It's a different life (than what we grew up with)," Mark Peeler said. "For what we do, and when we look at what we want to be as parents, you can't get any better than this."