Joyce Johnson
Jay Clayton Wilson
Joyce and her husband Clarence moved to SaddleBrooke in 1996 at a time when Joyce was a total novice tennis player. But, as you are about to learn, she is a high-energy woman whose enthusiasm far exceeds life’s mere obstacles.
First she joined Bob Lewis’ beginner’s tennis group known as Tennis 123 and took multiple lessons. She played at night with a drop-in group because she also worked for the Amphitheater School District as a media specialist. As tends to happen when one practices and hits against the ball machine; her game improved. No longer was she a mere novice tennis player. She had gotten into the game.
In 2000 she joined STC where she began to play in organized groups of women and in occasional mixed doubles matches. STC is where her game came alive. She was a ball of fire. In 2004 she and her partner, Carl Trevor, won the 2.0 STC mixed doubles championship and she was a finalist with Betsy Harrigan in the ladies doubles event.
Joyce continued to play with members or non-members, daytime or nighttime, played STC Team Tennis and regularly attended STC Pro Clinics to hone her developing skill. Her ability increased in direct ratio to time on the court. In 2015 and again in 2016 she and Mike Hodel won the 3.0 club mixed doubles championship. At the same time she and her partner, Eleanor Geiger, won the gender doubles event. Yep. Joyce is a fireball.
When Joyce is not burning up the tennis court, she is involved in STC social activities as a volunteer. Those are the people who make the club the special place that it is in the SaddleBrooke community. She constantly encourages her friends and neighbors to take up a game that offers health and enjoyment in the overall context of blooming friendships and life-long relationships.
In addition to tennis Joyce is a storyteller of exceptional qualification. Classrooms and special care homes often host her as she tells stories of African American history that include historic tales of African American cowboys in the old West. While telling those stories to classroom youngsters she excited their attention by appearing in a cowboy hat and riding a stick horse!
Joyce does all this while making time available to play easy listening music on the piano at special care facilities and in our own SaddleBrooke clubhouse.
Are you getting the idea that Joyce is a fireball? She also is a member of the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club, a walker, a half marathon competitor and a biker with the SaddleBrooke CycleMasters club.
She and her daughter Sharon also travel regularly to Jamaica to deliver gifts, books, school supplies and soccer equipment to children at the BASIC school and other local organizations through Links Incorporated. Joyce and her daughter carry the torch for loving, active people around the world.
Joyce Johnson is a fireball, a full blown ball of energy and a good tennis buddy.