Joseph Anthony “Jay” Pacelli is in his eighth season as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at East Central Community College.

For the third year in a row, the Warrior men's tennis team traveled to the NJCAA DI National Tournament in 2022 where the team finished 20th overall. 

His men's and women's teams both advanced to the NJCAA DI National Tournaments in 2021, the second consecutive trip for the men, who went in 2019 while 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19, and the first trip for the women's team in program history. The men finished in 18th place, while the women finished in 21st. In the final Oracle/ITA rankings, ECCC's men's team ranked 19th, and the women ranked 21. 

Both the men's and women's teams also finished the spring 2019 season ranked in the top 25. The Warriors received an at-large bid to the NJCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship in Tucson, Ariz., where they finished 19th.

During the spring 2018 season, Pacelli coached the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges/National Junior College Athletic Association Region 23 Tournament champion at No. 5 Women's Singles. He also had a player reach the finals at No. 6 Women's Singles. The college's No. 2 Men’s Doubles and Women's Doubles teams reached the finals in spring 2017.

He previously was the head tennis professional at the YMCA-Reservoir and at Castlewwoods Country Club in Brandon since 2011.

Pacelli is a native of New Jersey, where he was a regionally ranked junior player. He received a bachelor’s degree in the social sciences from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., and a master’s degree in sport psychology from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

While a student at Moravian, he lettered four seasons as a tennis player, splitting time at No. 1-3 singles, and served as team captain his senior year.

Pacelli’s first coaching experience came as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Northern Iowa in 1996-97 while working on his master’s degree. In 2000, after working toward a Ph.D. in sport psychology, Pacelli decided to return to coaching, taking the women’s head coaching position part-time at Olivet College, an NCAA Division III program, in Olivet, Mich.

After a brief stint with Olivet, Pacelli became the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kan., where he guided the men’s program to a No. 26 national ranking among community colleges and coached two players to Top 20 national rankings.

Pacelli also has served as head women’s tennis coach at former Gulf South Conference member and NCAA Division II Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, where his team improved by six victories from his first to second season; head women’s tennis coach at NCAA Division I Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, where his 2006 team had the best single-season winning percentage since 1997 and most single-season victories since 1993; and head men’s and women’s tennis coach at NCAA Division III Millsaps College in Jackson, where he led the 2010 men’s team to 12 victories, the most overall at the time in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference history.

He also has served as the tennis director and head tennis professional for the Courthouse Racquet and Fitness Center in Byram.

Pacelli and his wife, Katy, are the parents of one son, James. Katy Pacelli is the executive director of the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Charitable Foundation in Jackson.