By Landry Brewer
Elk City, OK – Joni (Jordan) McConnell is the most successful Elk City High School tennis player of all time.
McConnell’s parents, both teachers, played tennis and put her on the courts with them as a child. One year, they enrolled her in a summer tennis camp run by ECHS tennis coach and eventual Oklahoma Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee Danny Laufer.
Because of that summer camp, she was hooked.
Laufer had coached some state champs, and he already “had Elk City on the map for a successful tennis program,” McConnell said. She liked being on the team and part of that tradition.
Laufer taught her the basics. And he was left-handed like she was, and he taught her how to use it to her advantage.
She finished fifth in state as a freshman, third as a sophomore.
Then she took it to the next level.
McConnell won her first state championship as a junior in May 1995. She beat her Heritage Hall opponent in the finals, 6-0, 6-0.
Winning state was exciting and a goal she’d had since she was a freshman.
All the sacrifice and dedication paid off—in more ways than one.
As a joke, she got her dad to agree to buy her a Jeep if she won state. She did, so he did.
The next year, she won the state title again.
Unfortunately, her father didn’t agree to another large purchase.
In addition to winning her second of two straight state titles, McConnell was also voted the Oklahoma Tennis Coaches’ Association Player of the Year.
She turned down offers to play tennis for OU, UCO, and the University of Nebraska and signed with the University of Missouri where she started for four years. The coach was an Okie, McConnell fell in love with the campus, and Columbia felt a lot like Elk City.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Mizzou in Mass Communication with an emphasis on visual arts.
McConnell returned to Elk City in 2004 and went to work as manager of a local jewelry store as her husband opened an animal hospital, and later she had children.
Then, four years ago, she took a job with Elk City Schools as Intermediate Librarian, which she loves.
“I get to bring the joy of reading to students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades,” McConnell said. “I try to find unique ways to get them excited about reading.”
She also coaches the junior high tennis teams, which she also loves.
“Tennis is not the easiest sport to just pick up in seventh grade,” McConnell said. “I get to teach them the basics and watch them grow in their skills and love for the game.”
Two-time state champion. Oklahoma Player of the Year. All Star. All State. Four-year starter at the University of Missouri.
Now Joni McConnell gets to teach kids the game she loves, which is another layer of success for Elk City High School’s most successful tennis player.
