Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9501060046
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: HSS-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWIGHT FOXX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
During his team's Cinderella-like run to a 10-0 regular season, Joyce has done for his team what Jay Barker does for Alabama. He just wins.
He's not going to be listed among the passing or rushing statistical leaders in Timesland. But what he has done better than any quarterback in the area, with the possible exception of Giles' Raypheal Milton, is lead his team to victory. Roanoke Catholic and Giles are the only two unbeaten teams in Timesland.
Catholic which started the season with 23 players was down to 20 because of injuries and low grades going into its state private school playoff matchup with Atlantic Shores last Saturday. Joyce is the one player the Celtics cannot lose.
"He's a winner," Celtics coach John Cooke said. "If you said give you one sentence regarding Tony Joyce, he's a winner."
Unlike Barker, this winner doesn't leave the field. He's the quarterback on offense, the free safety on defense, the holder on kicks and the return specialists on kick and punt returns.
Joyce led the Virginia Independent Conference with eight interceptions this year and led the area in return yardage with 27 yards per return.
Cooke knew he had a gem last year when Joyce came in for injured starter Mike Kolnok late in the first half of the opening game against Kenston Forest.
"Tony Joyce went in the rest of the game and we didn't notice any difference," the coach said. "He did the job and we won the game."
That game was the first time that Joyce had played quarterback at any level. As a matter of fact, he hadn't played football since he was an eighth-grader.
Joyce went to William Fleming his freshman and sophomore years but did not play football. He was hardly being a leader; he was more like a menace to society.
"I was too influenced by my peers," he said. "I wasn't excelling in the classroom like my parents and coaches thought I should. Not going to class, not turning in homework assignments - misdemeanor stuff," he said.
Roanoke Catholic's future quarterback knew he had to make a change. He wasn't thinking about football the day he, his mother Rita Joyce and Paul Moyer, the father of the Celtics' star tailback P.J. Moyer, sat down in the spring of 1992 and discussed changing his ways. His thoughts were that maybe a fresh start would be good for him.
The senior quarterback said Moyer, who had coached him in youth leagues with the Inner-City Falcons from age 7-13, knew of his football abilities and wanted him to apply himself.
"I thought I was too small to play [Group] AAA football even though I had a little quickness," Joyce said. "And I really wasn't going to play over here but coach Moyer made sure I played over here. He used to call me in my sandlot years 'a little head-hunter' because I would hit you. I gave up on football when I was at Fleming."
On the basketball court, he's a leader as well. He was an All-Conference performer at Catholic as a junior point guard and looks for more success on the hardwood in 1994-95.
It wasn't until three years ago, that he met a man who was a better basketball player than he was in high school, former Bassett High School and Wake Forest University standout Mike Helms. Helms, who scored 1165 career points at the collegiate level from 1979-82, teamed with Danny Young at Wake Forest in 1980-81 and 1981-82 to give the Demon Deacons arguably their best backcourt.
Helms is Joyce's father.
"Two or three years ago, my mom invited him down my aunt's - Jackie Joyce - house," he said. "It was just an ordinary day. My mom called me downstairs; she said somebody wanted to meet me.
He told me he knew he had missed half of my life and he'd heard about me doing so well in sports. He said he would get in touch with me and we would try to rebuild from all those years and get back together."
The first memory he says he has of his father is a public service announcement encouraging kids not to do drugs. After finishing his career at Wake Forest, Helms served time in prison because of drugs.
But Tony Joyce hasn't seen his father, who lives in Gastonia, NC, since their first person-to-person meeting.
"I hope you're not going to mention much about him," Rita Joyce told a reporter. "He hasn't been a part of Tony's life."
One reason Tony Joyce has been able to turn his life around and become student body president at the private school is that he realized as the oldest child in the family he had to set a good example for his younger siblings, Joey and Erica.
"I'm the one my little brother and little sister look up to in the house," he said. "I can't be doing wrong in the house. I've got to be the man around the house with no father figure around."
First of all, I want to go to college. If I can get a scholarship, football, or basketball, I'll take either one. If not, I'll try to go academically and pursue my dream of being an accountant."
Yale, James Madison, George Mason and Hampton have acquired about him.
People associated with Roanoke Catholic talk about what a leader Tony Joyce is on the football field. Whether if it's on the playing field or off, the Celtics' catalyst is also a winner.
by CNB