Stephanie Joannon has been teaching and coaching in the Port Washington School District all of her career. In her first year out of college, Stephanie coached three varsity sports: girls soccer, basketball and softball. She was the first coach of the girls soccer and softball teams at Port Washington, winning more than 10 conference championships. She coached softball for 20 years and continued to coach soccer and basketball until she moved into administration eight years ago.
Coach “Jo” will enter the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame, ranked among the top 15 coaches in all-time victories on Long Island, with 326. She was the first female coach in Nassau County to reach the 300-win milestone. Coach Jo has led the Port Washington team to the playoffs in 23 of her 26 years as coach. Her teams have reached the county finals twice.
Outside of Port, she coached in the first Newsday Classic Game at the Nassau Coliseum and was an Empire State Games scholastic and open division head coach (with both teams winning medals). She is a five-time Coach of the Year in Nassau County and was a noted clinician at various camps, speaking on pressure defenses.
Additionally, she is in her eighth year as the Section VIII Basketball coordinator responsible for the direction and implementation of basketball in Nassau County. Joannon is also a past president of the Section VIII Athletic Council.
With all the accolades and successes, she has always held PYA Night as the highlight of her coaching in Port Washington. Back in 1992, Coach Joannon and Ronnie Henderson, the PYA director, met to discuss PYA Night. The vision was to share and have the team “give back” to the youth in town. The team would hold a basketball clinic for all PYA girls that would be taught by the varsity team on the Wednesday night before the Friday game. The PYA girls would learn skills and something about each varsity player, so they could cheer them on during the game on Friday. The first night game ever for girls basketball was played on PYA Night, Jan. 24, 1992. The rest is history.
Coach Joannon takes the most pride in the way the Lady Vikings represented Port so well for a very long time.
Joannon said, “You have to work at the relationships with your teammates and coaches
to truly appreciate and enjoy the whole experience. With hard work, passion and a commitment to wanting to be great, sports will open you to experiences you can only find as a member of a team.” As a high school coach, Joannon was grateful to be that champion of all that is good in high school sports.
