Somewhere between the dawn of time and just a few decades ago, John Feeney emerged into this world. He has never gone by John or Mr. Feeney, rather, just a single name: Feeney. A name as iconic as his signature mustache. He is someone who knows everyone, is known by everyone and with a catalog of stories that could fill a book. For those in Rochester, New York, Feeney either coached you or coached your coach. His path to college gymnastics took him around a few states before finding his way to Brockport—the long journey would ultimately be just 17 miles from where he grew up. With his hands in everything, from club gymnastics to high school varsity gymnastics to YMCA gymnastics, no part of the gymnastics world, with the exception of college, went untouched. Until 1999.
Feeney’s lifelong relationship with gymnastics started in high school. He was a three-sport athlete, but when faced with the decision for a third sport, wrestling wasn’t in the cards. Feeney picked up gymnastics, playing baseball and football in the theoretical gymnastics offseason. After being offered a baseball scholarship, Feeney took a visit to the school and decided maybe this wasn’t quite the road for him. Returning back to Rochester, he attended a local college where the coach talked him into gymnastics, and he began once again.
Between college and that first season at Brockport, Feeney was the varsity gymnastics coach for two different high schools, in addition to being the program director for the Northwest YMCA in Greece, New York. Long before he coached Carrie Santore to a Division I nationals berth, Feeney was coaching county, sectional and state championships. Around the time Maria Durham, the former Brockport head coach, chose to retire, Feeney influenced a friend and fellow gymnast, Mike Mordenga, to open the first gymnastics training center in Greece, taking with him his YMCA team, including future Golden Eagle Jordan Christiano Mihalik. This project involved the whole family, his wife Wendy coaching a few classes there as the program launched.
For Christiano Mihalik, Feeney has been in her corner since she was seven years old. She competed for him in club gymnastics, high school and eventually college. She was one of Feeney’s first recruits, although Feeney remembers it as gently telling her “she’s not going anywhere but Brockport.” It wasn’t always easy for Feeney, though. In his first year, the team wasn’t quite ready to welcome him with open arms. They were wary of a club coach coming in, ready to run a strict program that would be more tough than love.
Unfazed, Feeney proved them wrong from the start. “I made sure they laughed every day at practice, [especially] if they were having a bad day.” Former assistant coach Liz Randich Roth recalls it was the pranks and jokes as something that stands out during her time with Feeney, including his showing up to the gym in a hot dog suit on more than one occasion. Other times, he would take part in the floor routines on the sidelines during the competition.
For Feeney, humor is just part of coaching that’s closely paired with hard work. “If you’re having a bad day, you have to be able to put that behind you and move on,” he said. And not just in practice but meets as well. He recalls the first championship title for Brockport: They ended on beam after a meltdown in the bars warmups. He pulled his team aside and reminded them, “Warmup isn’t any indication of how you’ll compete. It’s what you do Monday through Friday.” The team rallied, went six for six and brought home the title. That national title was a big one, not just for Brockport but the NCGA-East, too. No one had won outside the west before, as it’s a conference that packs a fierce wallop. Although that national title is one for the history books, the first regional title stands out for Feeney most. He started with one of the worst teams in the country, he says, with his first season the team going 0-15 before rocketing to the top of the conference.
Backed by a well-crafted team, Feeney tasked Randich Roth and fellow assistant coach Chelsea Graff Majewski to build routines “to maximize scores and minimize deductions.” Graff Majewski originally enrolled in Feeney’s gymnastics classes for fun, taking notes on how to best spot and coach her USAG club team. After class one day, Feeney approached her to be a beam coach, citing a well-known Feeney trait. “He believed in me and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.” Originally, Randich Roth had wanted to watch the team and practice judging. Instead, Feeney offered her a role as an assistant coach. As time passed, Feeney wouldn’t question any decisions the pair made about routine construction. The strategy paid off, and the Golden Eagles won their first national title in 2012. Seven years later, the team would bring home a second national title. That first was extra memorable for those familiar with his mustache. Feeney had a long-standing bet with the team and staff that “if we ever won NCGA nationals, he would shave that infamous mustache.” The following Monday, the seniors shaved the ‘stache. Only the privileged have photo evidence.
Well before that first title, Feeney became the first Division III coach to have a gymnast qualify to Division I nationals. Santore thought she’d wrapped up her final season as a collegiate athlete only to hear her name called as an all-around qualifier and a gymnast she knew told her what was happening. The experience to compete in nationals was a dream, complete with a young boy asking her for an autograph—none of which would have been possible had Feeney not talked Santore into continuing her gymnastics career into college when she was on the precipice of putting it all behind her. Today, Santore’s all-around and floor scores still stand as program records. Current senior, Lexi Castellaneta remains the closest to breaking or tying Santore’s record, notching a 9.900 on floor earlier this season. Castellaneta, like Santore, feels “Feeney is a family figure for [the team] inside and out of the gym.” It’s part of why Brockport was able to reach such heights during his time.
Winning and formality aren’t something he prioritizes, though. “If you’re an athlete—whether you win or lose—if you never care, what’s the point?” To him, a winning record is something that only makes a lifelong difference on a professional scale, so when it came to recruiting, Feeney never went to practices. “How do you know if a kid is gonna be a meet person or competitive [until the time comes]?” So Feeney focused on taking in gymnasts and making them look better than they did their freshman year, which often left him a full roster and then some. But with this method, Brockport flourished. For him, Randich Roth says it was all about giving the gymnasts a chance, so he wouldn’t turn away a level 8 or 9 gymnast because those were the ones to bloom and be named an All-American.
Outside of the public eye, Feeney worked hard on his gym. Tuttle North was an extension of home for the gymnastics program. He worked hard to add a platform and a pit, working with limited funds and fundraising for any new mats through the years, but the pit is now a staple in the Brockport facility. There are no rewards in Division III gymnastics for winning titles, so when the time came for a new floor, there was no room in the budget or funds available to justify a purchase that would cost several thousand dollars. So Feeney did what Feeney does best: He rolled up his sleeves and built one himself. Bureaucracy and formality as a college coach didn’t suit him, so he never wore a dress shirt and tie to a meet. Instead, he and his team wore warm-ups and polos. Santore says he fought hard for the program, both in and out of the gym, always advocating for any resources or equipment they needed.
His commitment to the team, safety and whatever it took to support the program came at a cost. The “Bionic Man” has notched well over two dozen surgeries during these years, a result of the wear and tear. As early as the late ’90s, Randich Roth remembers Feeney in a cast or sling every postseason as parts were “repaired or replaced.” None of this a result of his own hobbies, but a result of the careful attention to spotting and looking after his team. These injuries would eventually lead him to consider retirement.
Whenever Feeney talked about retirement, Ithaca head coach Rick Suddaby recalls him saying, “next class, next class” each passing year. For Feeney, his mind still isn’t ready for retirement, he says. But his body? Well, he was worried the day would come that he wouldn’t be quick enough or respond fast enough in a spotting situation, critical or otherwise. It wasn’t a decision that came lightly or easily, but with more surgeries certainly looming or old injuries lingering on, none of it was going to get any easier. And as someone that wants his gymnasts to excel without fear of injury, he didn’t want to find himself as a head coach unable to spot. But when you’ve been coaching since you were 17 years old, that can be a weighty decision.
Behind him, Feeney leaves a legacy and list of -isms in his wake that are bigger than the gym. There’s a life outside of gymnastics—winning isn’t the end all be all—and you can’t waste time thinking poorly of yourself. School and family came first; should a gymnast have a B in a course, your new priority was studying, whatever that meant and whatever it was going to take. He scheduled make-up practices into the season so gymnasts could have a flexible schedule, and as the year was winding down to an end, a gymnast was allowed to take a meet off—no questions asked. Caitlin Elsadeck points out that Feeney held his gymnasts to high standards, holding them accountable outside the gym as well. In Feeney’s gym, the person comes before the gymnast.
Santore recalls that Feeney would never let them give up on themselves, and when success followed, he was quick to “give credit where credit was due” while always being humble “when it came to the credit he deserved.” Instead, he went out of his way to make sure everyone knew just what successes Golden Eagles accomplished in order to receive the recognition they rightly deserved. Feeney still speaks highly of each gymnast and team that passed through his gym, but he isn’t quick to speak of his own accolades. A tradition he continues today, as Graff Mejowski says he still keeps alumni and former coaches in the loop with everyone’s accomplishments in life, from “who is getting married, who is having a baby, who got promoted in their job.” Whatever is happening, Feeney’s pride for his people—”his extended family”—shines.
This season, Suddaby lead Ithaca to a third-place finish at regionals, his first season without Feeney competing on the floor. Qualifying for NCGA nationals, Suddaby will be hosting in his own gym. And while he says it’s been a strange season without Feeney around to share the struggles and successes with, Feeney won’t be far. He told Suddaby he’d stop by to help him set things up. After, Feeney plans to swing by Valley Gymnastics, a USAG club, to lend some help with coaching, too. Feeney is no stranger to Ithaca College gymnastics; one year a few gymnasts attended school in Rochester during the summer, so he welcomed them to the gym for offseason training time they’d otherwise miss. After Suddaby took Feeney under his wing, it’s no surprise Feeney returned the favor, going so far as to reach out to other programs to help however he could.
As for Feeney’s next steps? Today he still stays in close contact with the alumni, emailing and messaging updates, as well as meeting up with them wherever he finds himself. Elsadeck remarks that Feeney remains a cheerleader for all the gymnasts that have gone through his program. For Santore, Feeney’s retirement marks the end of an era for Brockport, as he took his role in everyone’s lives seriously and would go so far as to remind the team to keep their gas tanks full in the winter and to let him know when everyone got home safely. Christiano Mihalik finds he taught his gymnasts “valuable life lessons, more about life than gymnastics,” a sentiment felt by so many. Today, the program looks to continue his success and build upon the foundation he started. Above all, anyone that has coached beside or has been coached by Feeney has described him as passionate, day in and day out—followed only by dad jokes, something Feeney has admitted he’s brimming with.
With someone as charismatic with a bigger-than-life infectious ability to motivate, it can be hard to imagine Feeney taking it easy, soaking in the sun without a set practice schedule, rather than carefully watching a sea of gymnasts train. Although savoring retirement with his wife while keeping a full social schedule of those he met along the way, Feeney’s not sure if he sees himself spending his retirement away from Division III just yet. Maybe we’re not to be without that mustache and slight hint of mischief behind the eyes—only time will tell.
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Article by Allison Freeman
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