Brooke Joncas Looks Back on Championship Filled Volleyball Career

Any time that your team wins a championship, it’s a successful season. For Corry native and soon to be Penn State Behend alumni, Brooke Joncas, winning is something she’s done a lot of over the years. From a state championship in volleyball in 2016 with the Corry Area Lady Beavers to two Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) titles with the Penn State Behrend Lions, there was a lot of gold to hoist at the end of various seasons.

(College photos courtesy of Emilio DiValerio and Harrison Lilley. High school photos courtesy of the late Jeff Parkin)

And now just under six months retired as a competitive athlete, it’s started to feel real with graduation looming and not participating in this spring volleyball season with the Lions. Joncas forewent her final year of eligibility and has elected instead to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a minor in psychology.

The Erie County native exits the program having won three letters, being named a two-time All-AMCC selection, an Academic All-AMCC selection, an AMCC Athlete of the Week, and Leadership Award winner. Her career statistics across three seasons include 527 career kills, 245 digs, and 81 service aces in 73 career matches.

“I’m a homebody, I wanted my parents at my games, and I wanted to play for a winning program,” said Joncas on why she picked Behrend. “They have a great program and a super nice campus. For a Division III school, it was a fairly large campus and had enough to do in addition to playing volleyball.”

To have a solid foundation heading to Behrend, she credits her high school head coach, Kelly Goodsell, for teaching her and her teammates both sound strategy and skills in the sport. “He’s had such a great impact on my life,” Joncas noted. “He is such a great coach and puts so much time into things like scouting reports and strategy. There were games where the odds seemed to be stacked against us with big time players on the other teams, but he always knows how to find teams weaknesses and how to get us to capitalize on that.”

Joncas was also complimentary of her college coach, Phil Pisano, for building a consistent winner not just on the women’s side, but also for the men’s team at Penn State Behrend as well. While there’s no question it can be a challenge coaching two teams, Pisano continues to prove his dedication to winning and bringing high quality student athletes into each of his programs.

In addition to these coaches, she’s also incredibly grateful for the sacrifices her parents Anna and Tim made for her over the years. “I love my parents so much. Growing up, I played travel softball every weekend. I don’t know how they did it. I’m just thankful for all of their support over the years”

Despite being an outstanding volleyball player, it was not her number one sport growing up as she spent many hours on the softball diamond In fact, she picked up volleyball for the first time in the eighth grade and put in extra work early in high school to try to get caught up to speed. The work proved to be worth it as she earned three varsity letters, was named First-Team All-Region and All-District 10, became a team captain, a team MVP, and earned All-State honors. She also earned an additional four letters in softball and became an All-Region and All-District catcher, a two-time captain, and a team MVP. In addition to her standout play in softball and volleyball, she also earned two letters in basketball for the Lady Beavers.

When looking back on all she’s accomplished through her entire athletic career, the undefeated 22-0 state championship season, the come from behind 3-2 win against fellow District 10 foe North East in the state semifinals, winning another District 10 title in her junior season, winning two AMCC titles, playing in two NCAA Tournaments, and playing in front of a packed house on so many occasions at Corry High are some of the top memories from her time as an athlete.

While Joncas is a standout athlete, she is not the only member of her family in the AMCC. Her younger brother, Logan, is currently a guard for the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford basketball team and her longtime boyfriend, Branden Elchynski, is a La Roche University basketball alum and multiple time AMCC champion. With Branden also graduating in May, it leaves Logan as the lone representative in college athletics now. “I can’t wait to see what he (Logan) accomplishes in his remaining three years at Pitt-Bradford!”

In the coming months, the Corry product looks forward to hopefully earning a role in digital marketing, social media, or sports marketing. She gained experience at Viking Plastics in the summer of 2022 and helped to enhance the company’s online presence during the stint.

No matter what her next chapter holds, she’s grateful for the last eight years she’s had as a high school and college athlete. Every day was not always easy, but it was the price she was willing to pay to hoist gold in the end. This competitive spirit will suit her well as she embarks on the next chapter of her life.