Joanne Persico

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joanne Persico

Joanne Persico is an American collegiate volleyball coach and former collegiate volleyball player. In 1987, she was named Big East Player of the Year. Since 1994, she has been the women's volleyball head coach at St. John's University in New York City, now an NCAA Division 1 team. In 2006 and 2018, she was named the Big East Coach of the Year. Persico has tallied 514 career victories and six BIG EAST titles throughout her 27 seasons as head coach.

Biography[]

Early life and education[]

A native of Bellerose, New York, Persico played volleyball at her elementary school, St. Gregory the Great Catholic Academy. She later played volleyball for St. Francis Preparatory School.[1][2] and for the Big Apple Volleyball 18-and-under club team.[1]

Persico attended Syracuse University. In 1987, she was named Big East Player of the Year during her senior year.[1][3] After starting a career in sales at Cablevision on Long Island and Liberty Mutual in Manhattan, she was hired in 1994 to coach the newly formed St. John’s volleyball team.[1][3]

Coaching career[]

Persico was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2006[3] and 2018.[4] She has led St. John's to six Big East Conference Championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances.[5] Persico has racked up 514 all-time victories at the helm of the Red Storm volleyball program. [6]

Persico helped St. John's capture its sixth conference title after securing first place in the BIG EAST's East Division during the spring 2021 season. [7] She also helped coach the program's third-ever BIG EAST Player of the year in Efrosini Alexakou. Alexakou was named the spring 2021 BIG EAST Player of the Year after leading the league in conference play with 4.31 kills per set. Alexakou joins Hui Ping Huang and Wioleta Leszczynska as the only Johnnies to ever earn the conference's top honor. [8]

Persico and the Red Storm earned an automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA Tournament,[9] marking the program's third-ever appearance. In 2019, Persico helped St. John's capture the BIG EAST Tournament Championship[10] after entering the tournament as the fourth overall seed. The Red Storm swept then-No. 10 Creighton in the opening round, before defeating then-No. 12 Marquette to become the first fourth seed to win the title since the conference's reconfiguration in 2013.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Butler, Dylan (2001-08-22). "SJU's Persico-Smith on unlikely career path". QNS. Retrieved 2020-05-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Staple, Arthur (1999-07-22). "Volleyball Coach Is Quite a Player". Newsday. Retrieved 2020-05-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c Braziller, Zachary (2007-12-07). "A Volleyball Vision 14 Years in the Making at St. John's". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
  4. ^ "BIG EAST Volleyball Annual Awards Released". Big East Conference.
  5. ^ "Joanne Persico". redstormsports.com.
  6. ^ "NCAA Statistics".
  7. ^ "#BIGEASTvb Championship Begins Friday".
  8. ^ "#BIGEASTvb Regular Season Awards Announced".
  9. ^ "NCAA DI women's volleyball bracket announced for 2019 championship | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com.
  10. ^ "St. John's Captures BIG EAST Volleyball Championship Title". Big East Conference.
  11. ^ Anderson. "St. John's Stuns No. 12 Marquette, Captures 2019 BIG EAST Championship". redstormsports.com.
Retrieved from ""