Re-Joyce at his accomplishments

Rick Devereux

Sage Hill School has only been in existence since the 2000-01 year,

but the Lightning already have a well-known alum.

Kevin Joyce, who is in New Zealand before beginning classes at USC

in the fall, helped the basketball and volleyball teams reach the CIF

playoffs for the first time and has been named the school’s Male

Athlete of the Year.

Some might say Sage Hill doesn’t face the stiffest of competition,

but Joyce’s basketball coach, Steve Keith, still considers him a

special talent.

“Kevin’s just a great athlete,” Keith said. “There’s a great

athlete for the Academy League and then there’s a great athlete.

Kevin’s a cut above. He could play anywhere.”

Joyce started for the varsity basketball team as a sophomore and

put his name in the record books by breaking the single-game scoring

record on consecutive nights during the Tarbut V’Torah High

tournament en route to being named to the all-tournament team.

Joyce missed four games due to a hairline wrist fracture, but

scored a game-high 23 points in his first action back on the court

after the injury. He finished the year averaging 14.8 points.

In his second year on the squad, Joyce averaged 15.5 points per

game and landed Sage Hill into third place in league. Unlike in his

sophomore year, when the team also finished third in league, the

Lightning qualified for the CIF Southern Section Division IV-A

playoffs for the first time when Joyce was a junior.

His 30 points in the 76-72, four-overtime loss to Yeshiva in the

second round of the playoffs reestablished Joyce as the school’s top

single-game point scorer. Joyce dropped in a team-high 48

three-pointers that season to earn all-league honors.

As a senior, Joyce dominated the competition and either tied of

finished with a game-high in points in 19 of 23 games.

Sage Hill missed the playoffs last year, but it wasn’t for lack of

trying.

He averaged more than 17 points a contest and was rewarded with

his second all-league selection and was named to the Daily Pilot

basketball Dream Team. Joyce scored more than 20 points 16 times

during his career, almost 30% of the games he played in, and his 943

points in three years is a school record.

But basketball isn’t even the sport Joyce plays the best or the

one he will play at USC. The 6-foot-3 Joyce will be a walk-on for the

Trojans in volleyball next season after guiding Sage Hill to the

brink of a championship this spring.

An all-league selection every year since he was a sophomore, Joyce

was the Lightning’s top passer, server, blocker and attacker from the

time he set foot in the gym.

“He is such a natural athlete,” Coach Merja Connolly-Freund said.

“He’s one of the most natural athletes I have ever coached. No one

stops him, whether he hits from the front or the back row.”

Joyce not only has the talent but the patience to be dominating

performer.

“I think what sets Kevin apart, not only is that he’s a great

athlete, but he’s very coachable,” Connolly-Freund said.

Sage Hill not only improved its record all three years with Joyce

on the team, it had a near-perfect season when Joyce was a senior,

finishing 18-2 and making a run all the way to the CIF Southern

Section Division V semifinals in its first playoff appearance.

Joyce is known for being modest about his abilities, even though

he racked up multiple accolades as a senior, including All-CIF,

league MVP, and North all-star for the 27th annual Dave Mohs Memorial

Orange County senior volleyball match. He was also named to his

second straight volleyball Dream Team.

“He is a very humble and respectful gentleman,” Connelly-Freund

said. “He always competes with class.”