Gillespie’s Joyce wonders why he’s out as coach

Steve Joyce considers himself an old-school coach, though not a dinosaur. There's a difference because there's always a place for hard-nosed, dedicated mentors to toil.

There hasn't been a market for dinosaurs in ages.

Yet Joyce, 58, is on the endangered species list now. He is approaching extinction at Gillespie High.
The Miners decided not to retain Joyce as their girls basketball coach, replacing him after 31 seasons.

Principal Joe Tieman had the final say and the school board approved it.

Joyce, 58, and a retired teacher/librarian at Gillespie High, said the firing hit him like a left hook. It floored him.

"It caught me by surprise," Joyce said. "I'm disappointed, but not bitter. I just think I deserved better."

Sherman declined to comment on the dismissal, approved 6-0 by the school board late last month. He did say that the Miners are taking applications for a new coach.

What irked Joyce the most about the decision is that he figured he gave more than three decades of blood, sweat and tears to the school district. Then he was unceremoniously dumped.

"Since I retired three years ago, there have been a small number of people who said I need to move on," Joyce said. "I knew after talking to the principal that he wasn't going to recommend me to return."

Joyce's record might have had something to do with it. The Miners were 351-427 since he started their program 31 years ago. They were 195-68 during a nine-year stretch from 1993-2002, including 30 wins and a fourth-place Class A state finishing 1994-95.

Hard times have engulfed the Miners in recent years. They fell to 16-138 the past six seasons, including a 4-22 mark last year.

Joyce, however, doesn't think the sinking record was the main reason for Gillespie severing its ties with him. "Wins and losses might have been an underlying reason, but not the main one," he said.

He suspects it's a difference in philosophy. Joyce said he's above begging to lure potential basketball players into the program. That's not his way of doing business.

"It's an unfortunate situation because I'm not going to change my coaching style to get more kids out," Joyce said. "Mr. Tieman believes my style is the reason more kids don't come out. I require certain things and you have to do them the right way.

"I'm being blamed for low numbers of players out for basketball, but the numbers are down because of other reasons, not me," he said. "Getting rid of me is not going to solve the problem.

"There are dozens of reasons why kids are not coming out and it's not only at Gillespie," Joyce said.

Perhaps that's one reason why the Miners are pulling up stakes in the South Central Conference and making a pilgrimage to the revamped Prairie State for the start of the 2009-10 school year.

Joyce wishes them well and also wishes he could be coaching them. "I'm still the right person for the job," he said. "Even though we weren't winning, I never gave up on the kids."

Since there appears to be no recourse, Joyce plans to examine his options. This spring, he's umpiring softball games. After that, he may yearn to coach again, somewhere close to home in Macoupin County

"I really haven't thought about that now," Joyce said.

He's too busy wondering where he went wrong and how it all unraveled to put him on the shelf - next to those miniature dinosaurs.