CHARLOTTE – One of the advantages of getting to Brayboy Gym early on Monday night was a chance to talk with Steve Joyner Sr. and his son Steve Jr., who were getting ready for their respective games.
Joyner Sr., a near-legendary figure and coach of the Johnson C. Smith men, is one of my favorites around the CIAA. He’s a Winston-Salem native and former star of the old Atkins High School who grew up just down the street from where Big House Gaines and his wife, Clara, lived.
And Steve Jr., who is the women’s coach at Winston-Salem State, is fast becoming a rising star in the coaching world around the CIAA. Steve Jr., in just a year and half on the job at WSSU, has turned the Rams into a real contender for the CIAA title in March.
The Rams women wound up losing to the more athletic Golden Bulls but they more than held their own. I suspect the game in Winston-Salem next month will be a good one because both the Rams and Golden Bulls are talented.
I was able to ask Steve Sr. about how far his son has come in such a short amount of time. The Rams had their 10-game win streak snapped by the Golden Bulls but that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of where the Rams are heading.
“I’m extremely proud,” Joyner Sr. said about Steve Jr.’s development. “But I can’t take the credit for what has happened for Steve. There have been so many people in his life that have helped him along the way. Certainly as a father I’m very proud of him.”
When Bill Hayes, the WSSU athletics director, hired Steve Jr. away from Florida A&M where he was an assistant it wasn’t an accident. Hayes, who was also at Florida A&M before coming to WSSU, had seen what kind of an assistant Joyner was and he knew his background.
Now the Rams and Joyner, who is just 32-years-old, are one of the power teams in the CIAA heading into the final month of the season.
Joyner is 30-17 in his two seasons and this season they are 13-6 overall and 2-1 in the CIAA’s Southern Division.
The proud father was more than happy to talk about his son’s rise in the profession.
“I think what he has that’s needed to be a successful coach,” Joyner Sr. said. “A lot of times he’s impatient but that’s just the generation he grew up in. He doesn’t want to wait for things to happen he wants it to happen now but for the most part I think he has the background, the knowledge and the maturity to be a successful coach. I think he’s in the right profession.”
“Little Stevie” has a ways to go to catch his father in terms of victories. Joyner Sr. has 447 career wins as a men's coach and 82 more as a women's coach. The court at Brayboy Gym is named after him and he's the longest tenured coach in the CIAA.
“Anything is possible,” Joyner Sr. said. “I think he’s going to be more successful than me.”
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