Longtime Mercer Island High tennis coach dies at age 66

Joyce Hedlund, the longtime tennis coach at Mercer Island, died Wednesday morning after suffering a stroke earlier in the week.

Mercer Island associate principal and athletic director Craig Olson said Hedlund, who would have turned 67 next week, was having lunch with friends on Monday when she began slurring her words. She was rushed to Overlake Medical Center where doctors discovered a blocked carotid artery.

She died at 10:05 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

"She is a legend," Olson said. "She has been in this community for years. She was an elementary school teacher, an alternative school teacher and her longtime involvement with the tennis community, obviously.

"It's quite a loss."

The Islanders won the KingCo boys championship last week. It was the seventh title for the boys under Hedlund. The girls team won 10 league titles and nine state titles, while the boys won a total of four state titles during her 15 years as head coach.

"Joyce had a very tender heart, and knew how to reach teenagers in ways that many coaches can't," said Steve Bunin, a 1992 Mercer Island graduate, who is an ESPN anchor. "She also demanded punctuality and attention to detail. Often coaches can do one or the other — be nice or be tough. She was one of the few in my life who was both."

Max Franklin, a captain for the Islanders, said Hedlund took the team to Dick's Drive In after winning the title. Everything seemed fine, and news of the stroke came as a shock.

"It was just so surprising," Franklin said. "When they called us all in, I had no idea what was going to happen."

The senior went right over to the hospital and joined a steady stream of former players, parents and members of the community who wanted to say goodbye.

"It was pretty powerful," Franklin said.

"She was the gravity, the center of everything on our team," added Valerie Gage, a senior captain on the girls team. "Next year it's going to be really hard to pick it back up where she left off, because no one can really fill her shoes."

Her players will never forget the woman who made tennis fun and spent more time molding them into people than tennis players.

"She wasn't just a coach," said Julia Schubach, another senior captain. "She was a friend and someone who was always there for us."

Mason Kelley: 206-464-8277 or mkelley@seattletimes.com