High school girls basketball: Thousand Islands graduate Brennan guides Canandaigua to state final four

Canandaigua won its first section title in 14 years, then defeated Section 6’s Hamburg in overtime last weekend to make it to the state final four. For Brennan, who has been the head coach of the Braves for 11 seasons, it’s the culmination of a years-long process that began with him hardly interested in becoming the girls coach.

Brennan, a 1999 graduate of Thousand Islands and an honorable mention pick on the Times’ All-North boys basketball squad that year, played college basketball at RIT and then Nazareth College and worked with various boys school programs, including the Canandaigua boys program for four years.

But when the Canandaigua girls job opened up 11 years ago, he hesitated.

“The AD said, ‘Well, what would you think about taking this, and I’ll never forget this,” Brennan said. “I said, ‘Well ... if there’s anybody else that is interested in it, give it to them, because I’m just going to apply for the boys job whenever the head coach retires.’ ”

But Brennan took the job anyway and those first four years as Canandaigua’s head coach, the girls team won 20 games combined, he said.

“It was a ton of work,” he said. “There really wasn’t a youth program in place, so I put in a youth program, and our first year, K through 6 (grade), I think we had 35 kids. ... We just kind of kept building and the first group that ended up being really good started playing in sixth grade, which you’re really behind schedule if you’re starting in sixth grade. They didn’t win a game for like three years but they just kept at it and kept at it.”

Those players went 11-11 as juniors then 15-5 as seniors and reached the sectional final in 2018.

“That’s really when it turned around and kids in the program started to expect to win,” Brennan said. “ ... From then on that’s been part of the expectation, kids are confident going out there and I think that was the team that did 180 (degrees) in terms of the culture.”

Also during that time, Brennan said he had the opportunity to take the Canandaigua boys job multiple times.

“I surprised myself with what a good time I was having coaching the girls,” said Brennan, who added that his daughter was born the same year he took the girls job. “So I stuck with it and since that 11-11 year, I think the worst year since then has been 13-7, and I’ve had two or three opportunities to apply for the boys job, and I have so much more respect for the women’s game now, that I always should have had.”

Now the Canandaigua girls, led by seniors Mya Herman and Liv Schorr and junior Kyleigh Chapman, have been the subjects of honor in town, with fans lining the streets to greet them after they won the Section 5 title.

“It’s very exciting,” Brennan said. “I’ve been going to Glens Falls, the boys state final four for the better part of 30 years with my father, so as a fan I’ve seen all these teams enjoy that process (going to states) and you see all the small communities, like the ones I grew up in, Cape Vincent and Clayton, and they all come together to support the team whether they’ve got a kid on the team or not. That’s just one of the reasons why there’s nothing like high school basketball.”

Those Canandaigua fans, no doubt, also have been impressed with the team’s resilience. In December, an HAVC fitting failed above the Canandaigua gymnasium, causing hot water to leak into the gym floor throughout the night, ruining the home court for the entire season. Canandaigua has played nearly all of its home games at Finger Lakes Community College this season.

Perhaps Brennan’s homespun influence has helped in the squad’s perseverance, too.

“One of the things that I try to get my team to be is gritty and that’s something that I think everybody in the north country has, a little bit of grittiness,” he said. “That’s something I never lose sight of, so when people watch us I hope they see that. That’s definitely something I’ve taken from home.”