Joan began her volleyball coaching career at Carnegie Mellon University where she coached from 1967-72. She had her first undefeated season there in 1970. Soon after that she received a Doctoral Teaching Fellowship at Springfield College to coach the women’s volleyball team. She coached Springfield from 1972-74 where she had a 24-0 season and competed in the AIAW national tournament in 1972, and a 26-1 season in 1973 with the only loss coming at the hands of SCSU and Louise Albrecht.
In 1976 Joan began her career at SCSU where she coached for 10 years. During that time, her teams competed against Penn St, University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland, UConn and URI.
During her first five years as coach at Southern, her teams were considered the reigning volleyball power in the east. This is astounding considering that she did not have one scholarship athlete on any of her teams. Her overall record at SCSU was 264-124 (64%).
While at Southern, Joan also started a USVBA team call the New Haven Dippers which she coached for eight years. While this team competed on the national level, no records were kept at that time.
Joan also coached at summer camps and presented clinics at high schools throughout the state.
She completed the USVBA coaching certification for Level I and Level II in California in ’77 and ’78.