2022 Marv Scott Coaches Award Recipient continued

Joyce Wolf

Joyce (Jones) Wolf started coaching slowpitch softball in 1972, and for the next 10 years her Tacoma/Pierce County teams thrived in elite-level competition in both the Northwest and on the national stage.

That is why Wolf, who died Aug. 14, 2020, at age 90, is receiving the Marv Scott Coaches Award this year.

In one five-year stretch, Wolf’s teams won 235 games and lost only 29. In her first three years as coach, when Wolf was recruiting top players and her City League sponsors changed three times, her team won 151 games and lost 19.

Not bad for a player who graduated in 1949 from Stadium High School, where she was a competitive swimmer and diver, and almost immediately joined the Pacific Mutual Fuelerettes, a fastpitch team full of young women who “lived and breathed softball,” in Wolf’s words. Telli Pagni, then Frank Cey, the father of former Los Angeles Dodgers great Ron Cey, was their coach.

In her seasons with the Fuelerettes, who annually provided some of the top individual and team talent the in local circuit, Joyce got used to winning. The 1949 squad placed third in the state tournament. In 1950, Wolf and many of the same players were on the Tacoma Orphans, so named because they couldn’t find a sponsor. A year later, Wolf was back with the Fuelerettes as the team built a 15–1 record and won the county softball championship.

Joyce went on to play two seasons with Tacoma’s PVT Rustlers and three seasons with Hollywood Boat & Motor, the latter of which played in a travel league with teams from Vancouver, B.C., Portland, Utah, California and Arizona.

When she switched to slow- pitch in the 1960s, her first team was The Cage Tavern (1965–66). It became the first Tacoma team to play in the slowpitch nationals. Then she joined Spud’s Pizza (1967–71), before she started coaching.

In Wolf’s two years sponsored by the B&E Tavern, one year with Creekwater Dispensary and an eightyear run with BJ’s All-Stars (1974–81), she established her coaching credentials with her teams’ glossy records and by winning 19 out of 22 tournaments.

The Creekwater team qualified for the National Championships in Elk Grove, Calif., and two more of her teams qualified for nationals in the next six years. Those teams produced many stars. Catcher Phyllis Textor was MVP of Creekwater for regionals, one of five players on the regional all-star squad. Pitcher Pat Kearny had a microscopic ERA of 0.20.

Wolf recounted some of her teams’ exploits in writing.

“In 1975 we won four tournaments,” she wrote. “In a tournament in Aberdeen we won without a run being scored against us. I’m not sure, but I think that is some kind of record for slowpitch.”

Recounting 1975, she wrote, “We successfully defended our Northwest Regionals (title) played in Seattle. We placed four players on the All-Star team: Sue Vincent, Textor, Trena Page and Vicki Panzari.”

After the BJ’s team disbanded in the early 1980s, she coached one more year with B&I. Page and Vincent followed her there as players, and Page stayed on to play and coach B&I.

In her spare time, Wolf was a nationally rated basketball referee. She worked for the Park Board and also called games for UPS, PLU and Olympic College. She spent 37 years in Civil Service and two years in the Army at Fort Lewis. After retiring from the Civil