T-Burg’s Brennan to play two college sports

Trumansburg senior Hannah Brennan recently wrapped up her final soccer season for the Blue Raiders and will be continuing her athletic career in college. Brennan has committed to SUNY Morrisville to play for both the soccer and ice hockey teams, taking on the challenging endeavor of being a two-sport student-athlete at the collegiate level.

As for where she was going to play in college, it was a process of elimination for Brennan with both academic and athletic considerations. Morrisville satisfied both needs, and Brennan is set to become a Mustang next year.

“I knew I wanted to play hockey in college and I knew I wanted to study animal sciences,” Brennan said. “There are not too many schools that have that option for both of those. I’ve visited and talked with their coach, and it just felt really good. It felt like home.”

Trumansburg is one of many schools in Section IV that does not have a hockey team, so Brennan had to go elsewhere to play. In addition to being a goalie for Ithaca High School in her freshman and sophomore years, Brennan has played for the Syracuse Valley Eagles club team for four years, traveling to different states and tournaments to stay active. Hockey has been a passion of Brennan since she was a kid.

“I think I started playing in first grade,” Brennan said. “I really, really enjoyed it. It’s always been a dream of mine to play hockey in college and, more recently, soccer. I realized how important soccer really is to me. So, it’s really amazing and exciting that I get to do both.”

Playing at a high enough level in two sports in high school to be considered for both in college is not easy. It’s a massive time commitment and one that Brennan has worked on managing ahead of graduation.

“It’s been a little bit challenging,” Brennan said. “Really, there’s a lot of homework being done in the car and a lot of travel. All of the coaches that I’ve had have been really helpful and accommodating to needing maybe a practice off every once in a while to really catch up on homework or stay after school to get some extra help. Coaches have been really helpful.”

That time management was a topic of discussion in her recruitment process with SUNY Morrisville and her future coaches are behind her in her endeavors.

“There’s a common theme — they’re really supportive of it,” Brennan said. “They were both very happy to have me on both of their teams, which [I] was a little worried about. I didn’t want one team to think I wasn’t committed enough, but they were both very happy and excited. They both have team study halls built in. While I was talking to them, they really emphasized the importance of school.”

Everyone’s athletic progress suffered due to COVID-19. For Brennan, the development in one sport was impacted more than the other. But Brennan and her family had a unique solution.

“COVID has definitely been a setback,” Brennan said. “It’s been pretty difficult, especially with hockey. Soccer, I can really play it anywhere and work on my skills anywhere. But hockey, I’ve had to get pretty creative with it. My family put in some synthetic ice in our basement. All of my siblings play hockey, and we all go down there and practice with each other in the basement.”

Through her athletic experiences at school, camps, tournaments and the like, Brennan has learned and come to believe that she has what it takes to play at the next level.

“I have gone to a lot of clinics, especially for hockey,” Brennan said. “I’ve been told by coaches that I have the skill set to play at a college level. If I continue developing the way I have been [for] a couple years, I may be able to go DI as well.”

Before she heads to Morrisville next year, Brennan gave some wise advice to high-level high school athletes looking to reach new heights.

“Get as much exposure as possible and don’t just focus on athletics,” Brennan said. “I did find myself in the beginning, really only focusing on the athletic part of college. I quickly realized I wasn’t going to be very happy if they didn’t have what I wanted to major in.”

Brennan recently helped the Trumansburg girls soccer team reach the Section IV quarterfinals. She’ll be transitioning into her final year of hockey at the high school level as we head into the winter athletic season. The future Morrisville Mustang will continue balancing the two sports, as she has done successfully to get to this point.

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