The Caring Coach
Deep down inside, Sister Mary Joan Jacobs CFSN, ‘84 knows that God doesn’t pick sides. Still, when the potentially game-winning shot goes up, she instinctively and admittedly clutches the cross that is a con- stant around her neck and says a silent prayer.
“I can’t help it,” she laughs. “I just want them to win.”
As Holy Family University’s Faculty-Athletics Represen- tative for the past four years, Sister Mary Joan has become the student-athletes’ and coaches’ biggest cheerleader, staunch-est supporter, and yes, most fervent supplicant. A professor of English, writing and literature at her alma mater for the past six years, Sister Mary Joan was hand-picked by the student-ath-
letes to become their liaison with the faculty when the position opened up.
“I was actually taken aback when (athletic director) Tim Hamill told me that the students requested me, and it’s proba-
bly a little ironic that I am the faculty-athletics rep,” she said. “I said, ‘Tim, I’m not athletic. I am a big klutz. I trip over my own feet.’ And he said, ‘No, the kids said you always support them. You always tell them what a good job they did.’ I was kind of honored and amazed that they would even notice that.”
In her capacity, Sister Mary Joan monitors the student-ath- letes’ academic progress, address- es concerns from her faculty colleagues when a student may be under-performing, and interacts with both the athletes and coach- es to ensure that they are com- peting in the classroom as well as in their respective sports. She is a fixture at games – all games.
“I find the athletics depart- ment to be very cohesive,” she said. “ I find the student-athletes to be very respectful, and I try to get them to see both sides. Your teacher shouldn’t have to come after you for an assignment you missed. You’re an adult and a student-athlete, and the student always comes first. I think we are pretty open with each other. I think they know that if they are messing around, I am going to go to their coaches. I won’t let them mess up their academics because of a practice or a game.”
Her no-nonsense approach is delivered in the most tender-hearted way. Because, above all, Sister Mary Joan cares. In fact, she cares so much that when she traveled to a volleyball tournament and questioned a call by an official, she went home and researched the rules. When she didn’t know the ins and outs of lacrosse, she called up YouTube videos to educate herself on the sport. She credits the student-athletes for teaching her perseverance and determination and not giving up when facing injuries and obstacles.
“I remember working a women’s lacrosse game in the cold windy rain at night early in the season last year,” Head Men’s Basketball Coach Ryan Haigh said. “All of the parents at the game had either left or were watching from the car because the weather got that bad. Nonetheless, there is Sister standing in the corner of the field cheering the team on until the final horn sounded. Her support is unmatched.”
“In one hundred years,” this is never the life that Sister Mary Joan would have imagined for herself. Growing up in the Frankford section of Philadel- phia as the second oldest of five children in a close-knit family, she entered the convent right after St. Hubert’s High School, choosing the order of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth because Holy Family offered her the opportunity to pursue what she hoped would be a career as a medical technician. She went on to earn a master’s in English at Villanova and an Ed.D. in higher education administration from St. Joseph’s.
She credits one fateful moment with determining the path of her life’s work. While a novice in the convent, two of the sisters were injured in a serious car accident, and Sister Mary Joan was pressed into action as a first- grade teacher.
“I said, “No! What are you, nuts? I am studying chemistry. I can’t teach first grade,” she laughed, “By recess that day, I knew I was going to be a teach- er. Later, I can remember this
little boy being able to put words together to form a sentence, ‘The cat is big.’ It was such a wonderful moment. We stopped class and partied all afternoon because he could read a sentence. That was a really defining moment for me as a teacher. I knew I could get something across.”
Much to then-Dean Sister Immaculata Kraemer’s, CSFN ‘58 chagrin, Sister Mary Joan changed her major and never looked back. Her teaching voca- tion took her to Miami, upstate Pennsylvania, Norristown and back to her neighborhood for 32 years at Nazareth Academy High School, the last 13 as principal.
From Sister Mary Joan Jacobs, the students lucky enough to be in her classes and the hundreds of Tiger student-athletes who find her in their corner - clutching her cross and silently praying for their success - have learned the core values and the true mission, the teneor votis, of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
“It is our mission to reach out to those who are right in front of us,” she said. “These kids are mostly middle-class kids who want something better, who need our support, and God Knows they get it. I want them to know that I care about them. Yes, I care about their work, their activities, their sports, but mostly I care about them as people. Do I want them to do well? Of course, I do, but I want them to know that God loves them, even if they fall apart or fail a test or miss a shot. So, pick yourself up and help the guy standing next to you. I think helping each other out is our biggest vocation. I don’t think God is going to ask us how much money we made or how many A’s we got. I think he is going to ask us what we were able to do for other people. I think that should define who we are.”