GYMNASTICS COACHES

Head Coach: John Feeney

Entering his 11th year as head coach in 2009-10, John Feeney is in the midst of an unprecedented run of success in gymnastics at The College at Brockport. Feeney, who has coached competitive gymnastics in the Rochester area for more than 30 years, led the 2008-2009 squad to a 12-4 record and finished as the national runners-up for the second consecutive season, equaling the College’s best finish, at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) National Championship meet. The team won the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship for the third time in the last four years as they scored a 189.15, which is its second-highest team score in school history.
The 2007-08 team posted an 18-7 record, finished second at the National Championships and took second at the ECAC Championships.

Under Feeney, the Golden Eagles have rewritten the school record books. To give an indication of the impact that Feeney has had on the program, consider that 49 of the top 50 team scores and 24 of the top 25 individual all-around scores have been posted since the 1999-2000 season, Feeney’s first year. On vault alone, the school record has been broken an astounding 45 times by Feeney-coached gymnasts.

The Golden Eagles have also made their presence at the national level in recent years, as highly-decorated gymnasts such as Jordan Christiano, Carrie Santore, Sarah Bulka and Lauren Gildemeyer have been filling the Brockport trophy cases with NCGA All-America hardware. One of the four brought an individual national title of some kind back to Brockport every year from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2008. Christiano started the title onslaught by becoming the program’s first national champion when she won the all-around competition in 2003. Santore then took it one step further the next year when she was named the Outstanding Senior Gymnast of the Year after winning three events and setting three meet records in the process. Bulka took over the reins winning back-to-back championships in the all-around in 2005 and 2006. In 2007 she also took home the Outstanding Senior Gymnast award after earning three more All-America honors, bringing her gaudy career total to 13.

In 2008, Lauren Gildemeyer continued the long run of top all-around gymnast in the program. She won an individual National Championship on the floor routine, as she collected three All-American awards herself, while the Golden Eagle gymnasts won seven total individual All-American awards this past season. In 2009, she achieved All-American status for her finish in the vault at the National Championship meet and also won the ECAC floor exercise and vaulting titles at the Regional Championship meet. Teammate Christina Baggetta won her first and second All-America awards with her performances on the uneven bars and the floor exercise.

Meanwhile, the gymnasts themselves weren’t the only ones collecting the accolades. Feeney was named the 2003-04 NCGA National Coach of the Year, and he earned ECAC Division III Coach of the Year honors in 2002-03, the year before his team brought home the first of two ECAC team titles. All in all, Feeney has coached 17 All-Americans and 16 Academic All-Americans during his tenure at Brockport.

Feeney took over the Golden Eagles gymnastics program when former head coach Marie Durham stepped down in the summer of 1999. Durham had built the program from the ground up and laid the foundation for future success when, in her last year, the team finished third at nationals. Freshman Nicole Allen grabbed the spotlight that season when she won the uneven bars at the NCGA meet and also claimed All-America honors in the floor and the all-around. Allen was Brockport’s first individual national title winner and first three-time All-American.

A 1976 Brockport graduate, Feeney has a vast background coaching gymnastics at the club and high school levels. From 1983 to 1990, he was the girls’ coach for the Greece Central School District. He also spent three years as has head gymnastics coach at Hilton High School. Among his many achievements were coaching the Monroe County Gymnast of the Year and Section V all-around champion in 1998, and several Monroe County Tournament individual champions through the years. He also coached three Monroe County Tournament team champions while at Greece (1987, 1988) and Hilton (1997) and five Monroe County League champions (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1997). While the head coach and program coordinator for Northwest YMCA gymnastics (1988-99), he coached gymnasts in the Levels 4-6 and Optional Levels 7-10 and had several local, state, regional, and national champions.

From 1988 to 1993, and then again from 1998 to 1999, Feeney served as the Chair of the Monroe County High School Gymnastics League and, from 1990 through 1998, was the Section V Gymnastics Team Coach for the NYS Public High School Athletic League State Meet.

A former technician in the World Wide Engineering Division at the Eastman Kodak Company, Feeney has won several awards for his gymnastics coaching, including Monroe County "Coach of the Year" (1998 & 1999). He was the highest rated Monroe County High School soccer official for 10 years running, has officiated in the state high school girls’ soccer championships, and has been the coach of the Cobra Soccer Club (travel team) in Rochester since 1987.