St. Vincent-St. Mary honors Dru Joyce, the basketball coach and the man

“It started with a rec league team and me just being a dad trying to help my son”

AKRON, Ohio – Coach Dru Joyce Court.

Those four words are now inscribed on the basketball court at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.

What started out as a way to help his seven-year-old young son turned into a lifelong journey for Joyce. And that journey led him to a podium at STVM's LeBron James Arena on Sunday afternoon, where STVM was honoring the coach by renaming the basketball court in his honor.

After 21 years as the head coach at STVM, Joyce has racked up a career record of 441-119, with seven state championships and the 2003 national championship. Add that to the two state titles as an assistant coach under Keith Dambrot in 2000 and 2001 and Joyce has been a part of nine state championship teams with the Fighting Irish.

STVM assistant athletic director and girls basketball coach Carley Whitney bestowed the highest honor one could offer when introducing Joyce, putting him in the category of the greatest coaches of all-time, calling him a “unicorn.”

“The hardest thing about being a coach is not to win, it is to keep winning,” Whitney said. “The good ones do it more than once, the legendary ones keep it going, and the GOATs, they monopolize it. They solidify it and they create an entire brand of what good really is.

“A lot of teams win, but they aren’t winning programs. The gold standard that we like to call it around here is what it means to be not good, but STVM good. Are they good or are they St. V. good? Is that boy good or is he St. V. good? That’s the expectation.”

But Sunday wasn’t just about wins and losses, or trophies and banners. No, Sunday was more important than that. It was about the impact Joyce has had on the lives of everyone he has touched as the head coach at STVM.

And it was apparent from the crowd on Sunday that the number of people who have been impacted by Joyce is immeasurable.

Among the attendees were over 100 former players, including that first group of players who played for Joyce, known as STVM’s “Fab Five” – LeBron James, Romeo Travis, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee and Dru Joyce III.

“Moments like this, you understand how special life is,” coach Joyce said. “Something my pastor always says is relationships are everything and that is what you are seeing here. To see all of these guys come together and want to support and honor me, it is special. Words really can’t describe it.”

While the words were hard to come by for Joyce, everyone in attendance had nothing but praise for the head coach.

“He is a blessing in my life, really, he is one of a kind," Whitney said. “The coach Dru I know, a lot of people don’t get to see. I probably spend half of my day in his office and it’s not just basketball. The friendship and the mentorship and I like to call it “familyship” that him and I share is something you can’t replace.”

McGee, who has been the athletic director at STVM since 2015, has had the chance to not only work with Joyce as a player, but also now as a colleague. While McGee will be leaving STVM in the next couple of weeks for a new position within the LeBron James Family Foundation, it was important for him to be at STVM on this day to pay his respects to Joyce.

The school also announced during the ceremony that starting with the upcoming season, the boys basketball locker room would be named in honor of Illya McGee, who was the lead assistant coach for Joyce for 15 seasons and also Willie’s older brother. The elder McGee passed away at the end of June.

“For this to be the last event for me to work as athletic director, it was surreal that it would be a moment that would be honoring coach Dru, let alone my brother in naming the locker room after him,” Willie McGee said. “It was a humbling honor to be here to represent the Fab Five and have an opportunity to speak from where we started with Coach Dru and let him know how proud we are of him.”

McGee, who was married this past Friday, also spoke about what Joyce has meant to him in that aspect, as he has had an up-close look at how Joyce and his wife Carolyn live their lives through the many years of basketball trips and long seasons.

“It really speaks to how he inspired us as men, not just basketball players,” McGee said. “Me, getting married two days ago, he had a big influence on that. Outside of my brother Illya McGee, he is the next most influential man in my life in showing me how to be a husband, a father, all of those things. All of those years of the AAU traveling and him bringing his family and treating us like family. It is a combination that only special people have the ability to do, and he is one of those men. I try to model myself after him.”

Another member of the Fab Five, Romeo Travis, is now an assistant coach on Joyce’s staff. After playing one season at Central-Hower High School, Travis became the fifth member of the group when he transferred to STVM as a sophomore. It took him a while to understand what Joyce was doing and that the coach was looking out for his best interests, but now the former player completely gets where Joyce was coming from.

“From getting yelled at to getting to yell at people it has been quite a journey,” Travis said. “I am thankful for coach Dru more than I could realize as a kid. When I was a kid, I didn’t know what he was trying to do for me. I always thought he was trying to do something to me and not something for me. He was really trying to hold me accountable and make me a responsible young man. I am forever grateful to coach Dru.”

It is one thing to talk about how great a coach has been in a player's life, but actions speak louder than words. And for Sian Cotton, those actions equate to sending his son to play for Joyce as an incoming freshman this coming season at STVM. It is something his son, Leigh, has always wanted from the time he was a kid.

“We are keeping it in the family,” Sian Cotton said. “My son will be playing for Coach Dru. We are excited about that. When he was young, he was always saying (to Joyce) ‘do you think you are going to last until I get there,’ and coach just said, ‘we’ll see.’ Evidently, he lasted, so it’s pretty cool.”

The day felt surreal for the older Cotton. While he was thrilled about the day beforehand, the magnitude of the moment really hit him once he walked through the doors Sunday afternoon.

“For me personally, when I heard about it, I was excited,” Cotton said. “But to come in here and see his signature on the court and see all of the players, the community and how he affected everyone and see it in front of me, I can’t really put it into words.”

STVM athletic trainer Brian Knight has been on the bench with Joyce since Joyce’s second season as an assistant and has watched the ups-and-downs, twists-and-turns that have taken place over the past 20 seasons that have helped lead Joyce to this moment. Knight was instrumental in helping in this day because he wanted everyone to understand what Joyce means to so many people.

“This was super important for me to make sure that people understand we don’t just put players on the court and win,” Knight said. “There is a lot more involved and there are a lot of people who are touched by what he does. I get to see that on the inside day in and day out.”

Hearing all of his former players speak glowingly about him made Joyce realize that he was right when he said that the best thing he does is not coach basketball, rather getting a group of players together with a common goal and helping them achieve that goal, whether it is on the court or off. He may be tough on his players at times, but he always has an end game in mind with his process.

“I just believe that what I do best is to get guys to buy into a vision,” Joyce said. “We work hard at it and it is very honest and truthful the way we go about it but it is hard too. I make sure to tell guys that coming in that we are part of a legacy that is ongoing, and we are not going to lower the standard. What I mean by that is we are going to strive to win, but you have to be good on and off the court.”

One thing Joyce made sure to do multiple times on Sunday was to credit those who have helped him get to where he is today. In his speech, he said he hasn’t made a basket or grabbed a rebound or taken a charge. For Joyce, it is about those who have helped him on this journey as a coach.

“This has been about a lot of people,” Joyce said. “I am a firm believer that life is about all of the people who help you along the journey. I just had a lot of guys who have helped me.”

Chief among those who have helped Joyce on the journey are the members of his family. In the front two rows on the court were the Joyce family, with his wife Carolyn – whom he refers to as “my Queen” - seated in the chair right beside coach Joyce. Gathered with them were their four children and their grandchildren. Joyce apologized to his two daughters during his speech for making them spend their vacations with a basketball team when they were younger but thanked them for their sacrifices. His two sons have followed in his footsteps, as Cam in the head basketball coach at St. Ignatius High School and Dru Joyce III is now on Dambrot’s staff at Duquesne University after spending the last three seasons at Cleveland State. For the Joyce family, Sunday was affirmation that making those sacrifices was the right decision.

“It is the proudest moment I think we have had,” Carolyn Joyce said. “It is such an honor to have recognized all of the things he has done over the last 20 years and all of the lives he has touched and has had an impact on. It brings joy to my heart. All of the sacrifices that have been made over the last 20 years, this makes it all worth it.”

When all was said and done on Sunday, Whitney wrapped it up with one thought.

“You can say whatever you want about St. Vincent-St. Mary boys basketball, but one thing we have that no one else has isn’t talent,” Whitney said. “We have coach Dru.”

And to think this all started when Joyce walked into the Ed Davis gym with a seven-year-old Dru Joyce III and tried to get the league to let his son to play a year earlier than the age limit allowed. The rec center relented, but only under one condition – that Dru Joyce coach the team.

“It started with a rec league team and me just being a dad trying to help my son,” Joyce said in his speech.

Over the next 30-plus years, Joyce has helped many of his ‘sons’ become better basketball players, but more importantly, better men.

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