Longtime St. Francis Prep Tennis Coach John Brennan Passes Away
The New York tennis community lost one of its own last month as longtime St. Francis Prep tennis coach John Brennan has passed away.
For more than 33 years, Brennan led both the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams at the Queens high school, turning the program into a powerhouse, which at one point included 12 straight Mayor’s Cup titles and a 203 match winning streak. Just this past fall, his girls’ team captured the NYC Catholic School title.
Brennan battled two bouts with oral cancer, separated between 28 years, but could always be found on the tennis court doing what he loved to do which was teach, something he wrote about here in New York Tennis Magazine:
“Unfortunately, very few tennis professionals coach high school tennis,” Brennan wrote in an article. “If they committed to coaching at the high school level and recognize the privilege it truly is, I believe they would become better tennis instructors. When you coach a team, you have a variety of levels to develop, a limited amount of time to do it in, and a test on just how you are doing every couple of days.”
In addition to his time at St. Francis Prep, Brennan was a teaching pro at North Side Tennis Club.
According to the New York Post, Brennan suffered a stroke while at Madison Square Garden watching St. John’s host the University of Connecticut, cheering on his alma mater Red Storm. He was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital where he passed at the age of 73.
