The Woman, The Legend By: Taylor Reid
Joan Joyce continues to make an impact on and off the field as a renowned athlete and coach. She’s played at least 25 sports, dominating in each one, from golf to bowling. She’s been inducted into 20 different halls of fame. Ted Williams, the late professional baseball player, was no match for her fast-flying drop balls. Joan Joyce started coaching the FAU women’s softball team in 1994. She currently leads a team of 24 players. Joyce built the women’s softball program in nine months from the bottom up when she started coaching. According to the FAU Sports website, she led the first softball team to a 33-18 record in their first year while also earning coach of the year awards from the Atlantic Sun Conference and Palm Beach County. The teams under the head coach have been successful from the first year to now. The women’s softball teams throughout the years went to 12 conference championships and made 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, eight consecutive in each. “My pitching staff have been shaky,” Joyce said about her current team. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the 2020 season to a halt and adjustments to the 2021 season. Joyce brought on 12 new team members under her wings as they play top 25 teams in the NCAA despite setbacks last year. “We’ve been playing pretty good for most of the time,” Joyce said. The Owls opened up the 2021 Conference USA on March 21 with a six-inning 8-0 victory over FIU. While Joyce is known for her successes in softball and leading the team for 27 seasons, she is just as accomplished in other sports. “I moved down to Florida to play golf,” said the multi-sport athlete, referring to the move she made later in life. The first time she started putting seriously, she was 35 years old and golfed in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). In 1982, Joyce broke the LPGA and PGA record for the least amount of putts (-17) in a single round. This was a Guinness World Record.
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Joan Joyce looks around from the dugout. Photo courtesy of FAU Athletics. When the record-breaking athlete moved to Florida, she would give golfing lessons on the greens of Deer Creek Country Club in Deerfield Beach, Fla., a 10-minute car ride from FAU. That is where she was recruited to coach a sports team at the university. Her reputation preceded her, she recalled. The name she made for herself from being an accomplished basketball, softball player, and golfer from the northeast and from her travels around the country caught up to her in Florida. Back in 1994, when Dr. Anthony J. Catanese was president of the university, he and an athletic director were golfing at Deer Creek when they met Joyce. She said Dr. Catanese pulled her to the side and recruited her to coach. That is how she ended up coaching the softball team.
