JAMES JOYCE SR.  

 James Joyce Sr. was born in Yonkers in 1944 growing up on Carroll Street. He attended St. Denis Elementary School in Yonkers and Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. After graduation, he was recruited by Westchester Community College where he became the starting point guard and team captain under basketball Hall of Fame Coach Eugene “Buzz” Keefe. After two years at WCC, James enrolled in the State University of NY at Cortland where he ran on the 4 x 400 Relay team. James graduated from Cortland with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education in 1972 and received his Masters in Education from Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx.

In 1969, Coach Joyce was hired by the City of Yonkers working at Public School 30, then transferred to the Physical Education Department for Lincoln High School, where he was the coach for the Varsity Boys Track and Field from 1970 – 1974. He became an advocate for improving Lincoln’s track surface, advancing the schools track program. Coach Joyce led Lincoln to back-to-back Yonkers City Track and Field Championships in 1972 and 1973.  He also coached the Varsity Girls Softball from 1976 – 1982, when girls softball was introduced as a high school sport in Westchester in the early 1970s. He coached the Women’s Softball at Concordia College in Bronxville from 1983 – 1992, the Varsity Boys Baseball team from 1993 – 1996 and was the coach for the Boys Varsity Basketball team from 1973 – 1994. Coach Joyce served as the Athletic Director at Lincoln from 1996 until his retirement in 2000.

Coach Joyce achieved excellence and brought recognition to Boys and Girls athletic programs for Lincoln High School and the City of Yonkers over his 31-year coaching career. He coached championship teams during a golden era of basketball in the Yonkers City League. He was an advocate of girls’ sports.  He implemented the participation of special needs children to serve as managers of his high school teams. They participated every day in practice and in games, including travel. He made sure they were accepted as part of the team.  

In 1975, Coach Joyce led the Lincoln Lancers Basketball team to a Yonkers City League co-championship, a Section 1 AA County Championship and a Section 1 plus Section 9 inter-sectional AA championship, which was the predecessor of the current New York State championship format. In his first 10 seasons, Coach Joyce’s Lincoln basketball team won over 100 games and was consistently ranked in the top 10 of large school programs in Westchester County. By the 1975 end of season, Lincoln ranked in the top five in New York State. In 1978, Lincoln was the Class AA Division II co-league champion with Scarsdale, which at the time was ranked 10^th in New York State. Over the course of 20 seasons, Coach Joyce’s Lincoln basketball teams won 190 games and made 13 post season Section 1 basketball tournament appearances.

Coach Joyce, in his first 10 years of coaching had seven Con Edison Award winners, including the first female nominee and winner in school history. He served on the Con Edison Award Nominations Committee for several years. Many of his players continued their athletic success at the college level and beyond. He had one of his baseball players drafted 40^th overall in the second round of the Major League Amateur Draft by the California Angels. One of his basketball players  became a star in football and one of the leading rushers in the history of the University of Wisconsin, who went on to play in the NFL.

In 1983, Coach Joyce’s first year at Concordia, he lead the Women’s Clippers to a 14 – 3 record and won the Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference (HVWAC) championship. In his second year, he led Concordia to the number one seed in the HVWAC. Over nine seasons at Concordia, Coach Joyce’s team won over 170 games, representing the northeast region in the NAIA Division II college World Series once; won three HVWAC tournament championships and was the runner-up twice; had at least one undefeated regular season; won an NAIA District 31 championship; won an ECAC Division II regional championship; and was also a New York Central Athletic conference regular season champion. He had three 20-plus win seasons and had one season where their ace pitcher was a 20 game winner.

James Joyce Sr. passed in June 2022 and is survived by his wife, Diane and their two children James Joyce Jr. and Annemarie along with the many grandchildren. He left his mark on the Sports and Yonkers Community, a trailblazer in his field.