Brianna Brennan promoted to head coach after two seasons with the Chargers. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletics
Brianna Brennan became the ninth head coach of the women’s basketball team in April after two seasons as the lead assistant coach for the Chargers.
“It was super nice to hear that someone familiar was going to be taking over the program,” senior forward Sydney Mills said. “All of us for the past two years loved coach Brie, and she has been a super positive light for everyone. I think she’s going to do a great job keeping a positive atmosphere and pushing us.”
Brennan graduated in 2017 from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she played three years of NCAA Division II basketball and two years of volleyball.
After teaching first and then second grade, Brennan returned to basketball in 2019 to coach as a graduate assistant and earn her Master of Sports Administration at Eastern Illinois University.
“I love being in a position to mentor our athletes and help them become well rounded human beings,” Brennan said. “That’s probably my favorite part, seeing the growth in our athletes as they navigate college and figure out what the rest of their life looks like.”
Hillsdale College Athletic Director John Tharp said Brennan’s character, as well as her experience with the team, made her the perfect candidate for the position.
“I witnessed firsthand her daily interactions that she had with her student athletes over the last two or three years,” Tharp said. “She is one of the best human beings that I’ve been around. That for me is the most important thing when you’re talking about coaching is you’re here to develop the minds and hearts, as we say, of student athletes.”
Since she began coaching for Hillsdale in fall 2021, Brennan has helped lead the Chargers to a total of 30 wins in two seasons. Last season, the team advanced to the first round of the G-MAC Women’s Basketball Championship for the first time since 2018-2019.
Though four head coaches have led the Hillsdale women’s basketball program in the past 10 years, Tharp said he knows Brennan will bring continuity to the program and build upon its recent success.
“She knows basketball at a high level,” Tharp said. “I think she’s going to have the best interest in kids and try to give them the best experience here. I know she’ll build a program that we can all be proud of and that will inspire everyone that watches their team.”
Brennan said much of her passion for coaching stems from her own negative experiences with coaches while playing basketball in college.
“I didn’t have a great coaching experience, which led me to walk away from it,” Brennan said. “I love to be able to coach girls to give them the experience that I didn’t quite get to have as a player.”
While she wants the team to compete at a high level every day and see more postseason basketball this year, Brennan said her first goal is for the players to build firm relationships with one another off the court so that they can push one another on the court.
“I want our girls prepared, ready to show up, ready to battle and get better every single day,” Brennan said. “The season is always going to be a journey and so how we go through this year is going to be huge, attacking it with a mindset where we know how to handle adversity and we rely on each other.”