An all-country football and basketball player in high school, Joe McVein attended Cal State Hayward where he learned handball (team), as the school had a club team. McVein competed for the US at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics in handball. In 1984 McVein got to the Olympic Village and received a surprise the day before the games started when he did not feel well, and the team doctor diagnosed him with previously unrecognized diabetes. He had to compete at Los Angeles despite starting to take insulin shots. McVein later moved to Washington State and attended physical therapy school. He works in the Seattle area, for Evergreen Home Health.